ROME (AP) — Giovanni Malago, who led the Milan-Cortina Olympic organizing committee, has been elected president. Italian Football Federation in crisis.
Malago received 68.58% of the vote in Monday’s election, easily defeating former federation president Giancarlo Abete, who was the only candidate with 29.17%.
Malago’s first big task will be hiring a new coach for the Italian national team. Gennaro Gattuso I quit my job after that The Azzurri missed out on the World Cup for the third year in a row..
The two most likely candidates are believed to be former Italy national team coach Roberto Mancini and Antonio Conte.
Mancini led Italy to the European Championship title in 2021 and then took charge of the Saudi national team after failing to get the Azzurri to qualify for next year’s World Cup. He left Saudi Arabia in 2024 and more recently Al Sadd in Qatar.
Conte coached Italy at the 2016 European Championship and recently retired at Napoli.
Before leading this year’s Winter Olympics, Malago served as president of the Italian Olympic Committee and remains a member of the IOC. He replaces Gabriele Gravina, who resigned following Italy’s loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the World Cup qualifying playoffs.
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