Unlike other Italian teams, Italian men’s football has struggled recently.
Published on 2 April 2026
The head of Italy’s football federation (FIGC) has resigned after the men’s national team failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third consecutive time.
Gabriele Gravina revealed he will step down as the country’s top football official following a meeting at the FIGC headquarters in Rome on Thursday.
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His announcement came a day after Sports Minister Andrea Abodi asked him to resign.
Four-time World Cup winners Italy lost again in the playoffs on Tuesday, this time after a penalty shootout against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and will miss this year’s finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The shock waves of the latest humiliation for one of the world’s most successful football nations forced the 72-year-old Gravina to walk back his initial plans to wait until next week’s FIGC board meeting to announce a decision on his future.
The vote for a new president will take place on June 22, the FIGC said in a statement.
Giovanni Malago, the former longtime head of the Italian National Olympic Committee who was president of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Organization Committee, is reportedly one of the names in the hat.
Earlier, head coach Gennaro Gattuso is also expected to step down, while general manager Gianluigi Buffon, a former Italy goalkeeper, announced his resignation on Thursday.
Italy’s failure to reach the 48-team World Cup for the first time – which would have included teams such as Cape Verde and Curaçao – led Abodi to issue a statement saying: “It is clear that Italian football needs to be rebuilt from the ground up and that starts with change at the top of the FIGC.”
It came a day after Gravina hit out at politicians who “have only put pressure on him to resign”, while also admitting that Italian football is “in deep crisis”.
Gravina was elected president of the FIGC in October 2018, becoming the permanent replacement for Carlo Tavecchio, who stepped down the previous year following Italy’s first World Cup playoff defeat to Sweden.
The highlight of his reign was Italy’s thrilling victory at Euro 2020, when a Roberto Mancini-led Azzurri team, unbeaten for 37 matches, defeated England at Wembley to be crowned kings of the continent for the second time.
But two World Cup qualification failures and a disappointing defense of the European title left Gravina with no choice but to resign as Italy’s football crisis deepened.
And it’s not just the underperformance of the national team and Serie A clubs – none of whom have won the Champions League since 2010.
Italy is to jointly host Euro 2032 with Turkey. But on Thursday UEFA president Aleksandar Ceferin hit out at the condition of Italy’s stadiums, warning that the country could be stripped of hosting rights.
“I just hope that the infrastructure (in Italy) will be ready. If it is not there, the tournament will not be held in Italy,” Ceferin said in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Italy’s poor state of football stands in stark contrast to its success in other sports.
Italy recently won a record 30 medals, including 10 gold, at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, and left the 2024 Summer Games in Paris with 40 medals.
The Mediterranean nation also has top performers in several other sports, such as tennis star Jannik Sinner, a four-time Grand Slam winner.
Gravina sparked anger on Tuesday by referring to other sports as “amateur” and “state sports” compared to football, because of the large number of athletes, particularly Olympians, who are nominally employed in various branches of Italy’s armed forces and police.
