ROME (AP) — The first time seemed like a fluke. The second time was treated as a crisis. Now, Italy fails to qualify for third consecutive World Cuphas become almost expected. Once a proud soccer powerhouse.
4 time champion The Azzurri lost in a penalty shootout to 66th-placed Bosnia and Herzegovina in the qualifying playoffs and were eliminated at the same stage. Sweden Ahead of and leading up to the 2018 World Cup north macedonia In 2022.
A front-page editorial in Wednesday’s Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper dubbed the dismissal the “third apocalypse” and said: “There is no longer a feeling of shock or unexpected catastrophe. It is becoming the norm.”
The problems in Italian soccer are not limited to the national team.
The last Italian club to win the Champions League was Inter Milan in 2010. Meanwhile, all four Italian clubs were eliminated before the quarter-finals in this season’s continental competition.
“It’s like not being ready for a big game. You’re not ready when the pressure is on, when you have to put in the extra effort,” Salvatore Corso, a 34-year-old Italian who works at a technology startup, said after watching Italy’s defeat in a Rome pub on Tuesday.
Ignoring the national team
In between every four years of failure, the national team becomes ignored.
Successive Italian coaches have unsuccessfully lobbied for more training camps to be held outside of the pre-arranged FIFA international holidays.
Under pressure from TV rights holders, Serie A has consistently refused to move matches forward to give national team players more rest before the Italy match – as evidenced by the multi-Azurri match between Fiorentina and Inter Milan being held on Monday night, before training camp for the play-offs began hours later on Monday.
Coaches don’t want Italy’s job
As failures pile up, Italy’s respected leaders appear to no longer want the national team job.
Roberto Mancini will step down as Azzurri coach ahead of the 2024 European Championship to take charge of the Saudi national team.
Gian Piero Ventura, who managed the Italian national team when they lost to Sweden in 2017, has never coached at a major club.
When Luciano Spalletti was sacked last year after Italy lost to Norway in their opening qualifier, manager Claudio Ranieri turned down an offer to replace him and was replaced by the far more experienced Gennaro Gattuso.
Italian Football Federation president Gabriele Gravina also remains in his job after surviving a 2022 World Cup qualifying defeat.
“Next week we will reflect more deeply on the situation,” Gravina said, hinting at the possibility of holding new elections for the country’s top football position. “There are a lot of evaluations to consider.”
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Associated Press writer David Biller contributed to this report.
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