By Antonio Ricotta
PALERMO (ITALPRESS) – “There is no 2 without 3” so much feared, ahinoi, there was. The 3 arrived and hurts more than 1 and 2 because now the pain has tripled. “It would be an unimaginable disaster not to be able to hit the World Cup for the third time. Not for the result, but for not being able to find the solution to a project.” Words by Gabriele Gravina pronounced during another black day of the National. It was June 30, 2024 and while Iserlohn disassembled “Casa Azzurri”, in the budget of a European sadly closed to the eighth against Switzerland, the number 1 of Italian football confirmed Luciano Spalletti and fixed, indeed reiterated, the objective Mondiali2026. We failed him. Again, once again and again.
Not with Spalletti who, not even a year after that Iserlohn conference, had already been exonerated. In his place, after Claudio Ranieri’s “no thanks” garbate, the world champion Rino Gattuso, a blue heart forced to pursue the goal when the path, if not compromised (Spalletti lost 3-0 in Norway and won the second only 2-0 with Moldova) had become a mountain to climb. He reached the play-offs, minimum goal, exceeded the northern Irish rock, then he too, like Ventura before and (2018) and Mancini (2022) then failed falling to Zenica, Bosnia, to the rigori.
Beware, however, Ringhio has the minimum percentage of the faults that must be distributed to a whole system because, as Gravina told Iserlohn, not having centered the qualification to the World Championship means “not having managed to find the solution to a project”. For the third time. It means that the 16-year-olds, but also the new-aged (in 2014 too small to remember the disastrous Brazilian expedition), Italy four times world champion in the World Cup have never seen it. And it’s embarrassing, it hurts.
In football there are cycles as Galliani says, but failing three times the World Championship is from the third world of football. It is the third consecutive Apocalypse of our ball, the fourth in total, the second because of a nation that, with all respect, kicks no one shakes. From Belfast to Bosnia, passing through Sweden and Macedonia, for the fourth time in 68 years, especially for the third consecutive edition, will play a World Championship without Italy: in 1958 it was Northern Ireland to deny the blues the visa for Stockholm, in 2017 were the grandchildren of Liedholmcini and Nordhal to force Buffon and companions to do as spectators in Russia, in 2022 it was touched to modesty. The most striking failure of all, the most painful just because you stayed at home from continental title holders, just a year after the magical nights of Rome and Wembley.
Perhaps here we could also talk about bankruptcy announced, since after the disappointing German European with Spalletti on the bench, he departed with the same ct driving and with the three sberles taken in Norway in the first qualifying race. There President Gravina decided that it was necessary to reset and restart. Juventus’ current coach revealed a surprise before the home race against Moldova won 2-0. From there onwards, after the no of Claudio Ranieri, space in Gennaro Gattuso, a monument of blue football, champion of the world in 2006 with Italy Lippi, that is the ct that in “Ringhio” sees his possible heir, what, among the many champions of then today coaches, considers the resembles more.
He worked with his heart as always, took away from the mind of his exasperated tactical players, parables and speeches. He chose pragmatism, dialogue, exaltation of the sense of belonging. That wasn’t enough. He also failed that he felt the “weight of a country on his shoulders”. He’s less guilty of all, he took them only against Norway, he’s out of the worlds and who knows what else. But here the speech slips on federal leadership, from number 1 Gabriele Gravina (convoked for tomorrow the meeting of technical components, for the next week the Federal Council) to the head delegation of the National, Gigi Buffon (“I will stay until June, then we will evaluate everything”).
It is all in question and politics, as always ago when we talk about football failures, began to ask for excellent heads already after the last rigour of Bosnians. And yet Figc has moved to try to change things, obviously with a little delay, but the new technical project on youth football, entrusted to Viscidi, Prandelli, Perrotta and Zambrotta, hopes well. To want to look for the positive side, when you touch the bottom you can only go up.
The triumph of Berlin is a more faded memory than the past 20 years. Since then Italian football has experienced highs (the final of Euro2012, the triumph of Euro2020) and lows (outside the group stage in the last two World Championships played, absent in the next three) and in some way it will have to start again. Perhaps with a new ct (Gattuso deserves another chance but he is also reflecting), who knows if with a new governance. Abodi has clear ideas: “Italian football must be refounded and this process must start from a renewal of the summits of Figc“. And again: “I objectively misguided attempt to deny its responsibilities on the third consecutive failure to qualify for the World Cup. We need responsibility, humility and respect on the part of all”, says Minister Abodi.
Surely you will no longer be able to cradle between golden albs and memories far away. Staying out of a big tournament is dramatic but you can be reborn as our own story teaches: ten years after being a spectator at the 1958 Swedish World Championship, Italy won its first European, even less in 2021 with the second continental title won after leaving the pass for Russia2018. France itself, out of Usa ’94, four years later triumphed in front of its audience, taking Euro2000 at our own expense.
Spain, for years, has taken itself behind the image of beautiful but loser, then found the key to cultivating a golden generation behind the other, dominating in Europe and the world. Once you put aside bitterness, disappointment, anger and the controversies that will not miss, you will have to reflect and act, immediately: Italian football must leave a tunnel that has nothing to do with blue.
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(ITALPRESS).
