Italian Football Needs Reform, Which It Won't Get
So is there a way to fix the Azzurri?
Ever since Italy’s fourth World Cup triumph in 2006, the World Cup has been jinxed for them. A group stage exit in 2010 in a group containing New Zealand, Slovakia, and Paraguay seemed rock bottom, but that was just the beginning. Another group stage exit followed in 2014, and yet even back to back group stage exists for country as important for football as Italy wasn’t half as bad as what was to come. Surely failure to qualify to the 2018 World Cup must have been rock bottom, one might have thought at the time. Wrong. Fast forward to the next World Cup, and once more, Italy are not there.
So where did it go wrong? The reasons for that are plenty, not to mention well known by now. Old, unsafe stadiums that are always half empty. The bureaucracy that flat out destroys any hopes of new stadiums getting built, in order for the clubs to keep ‘renting’ their stadiums from the municipality. Unless, of course, the club’s name is Juventus. Jim Pallotta bought Roma, spent 10 years trying to get a stadium built, and left banging his head through a wall after he decided to sell the club due to the impossible task of getting a new stadium built, a necessary step to compete with Europe’s elite. Milan and Inter have been trying to build a new stadium as far back as 2005 when Galliani, Milan’s general manager at the time, said (amongst many important quotes): “The way forward is to build new stadiums because the majority of the current ones are neither savable nor able to be restructured”. The year is 2022 and still discussions about new stadium plans are going on. An endless loop.
The bad Italian economy is another factor that is reflected in football. Back in calcio’s heydey in the late 80s, 90s, and early noughties, Italian football was famous for very wealthy owners who splashed the cash left and right to get the world’s best players and coaches. It was football heaven. But it was not to last. Only the Agnelli family, one of Italy’s richest and most influential, remain in charge. The rest cannot afford to spend as they once did, simply because of the financial landscape in Italy. And it’s not like Italian football is a good place for investment either, due to all of the reasons mentioned above. Even more reasons: the league’s bad marketability due to numerous racist incidents, stadium violence incidents, and all round PR gaffes. In short, calcio is nowhere near the pinnacle of European football.
So with all those obstacles, the solution seems, or at least seemed, pretty straightforward. Get a copy of Raphael Honigstein’s Das Reboot, apply everything in there, and watch the magic happen. Or to adapt it more to the Italian landscape: allow, even encourage, clubs to build and own their stadiums. Increase stadium safety and protection to make it a more family friendly place. Deal better with racism incidents and fan violence. Market the league better. Distribute the TV rights money more fairly. And soon enough, the overall quality in the league will start improving. Better players will be imported, hence raising the level of the existing Italian ones too. Which, in turn, would benefit the national team.
Except, that is not what they want to do. Italian football has been mostly regressing ever since Calciopoli, and no one has done anything about it. If the embarassing record for Italian clubs in Europe in the last 15 years, or Italy’s disastrous World Cup fortunes did not force any kind of reform, then nothing will. On the contrary, those failures have become normalized.
So should this be the end of gli Azzurri’s glory? Ever since Prandelli took over, La Nazionale has followed a pretty clear path. Re-build, exceed expectations at the next Euro, then fail at the World Cup. Prandelli reached the Euro final, then crashed out at the World Cup 2014 group stage. In came Conte, had a spirit-lifting Euro, then left to coach Chelsea. Gian Piero Ventura arrived in his place, found Spain in the same World Cup qualifying group, and immediatly submitted to the idea that Italy would need to win the playoffs to make the World Cup. Then the inevitable happened. They crashed out to Sweden. Ventura was kicked out in disgrace, to be replaced by the Azzurri’s latest savior, Roberto Mancini. Another revolution, another upturn in fortunes, and a marvelous Euro win. Then? Again, failure to even make the World Cup.
The pattern is pretty clear. Italy plan in two year cycles. They create a team, peak at the Euro, then by the time the next World Cup is looming, that team has already passed its best and is ready to collapse. The solution? If no full reform is going to be taken to fix calcio any time soon, then at least plan the national team in four year cycles instead. Focus on the next World Cup. Build towards that. Mancini’s recent call ups include Bonucci (39 the next World Cup), Acerbi (38), Tolói (35), what’s the point? Even some unestablished ‘older’ players like Grifo and Gabbiadini theoretically serve little purpose going forward (no disrespect intended). I have no doubt in Mancini’s abilities or his capability to build a strong side, but surely the target must be for this team to peak at the next World Cup, in four years’ time.
Another talking point is - Italy seems confused about its identity. Catenaccio is no longer in fashion, and so Italy, for most of the last decade -- apart from Conte’s era -- seemed inclined to follow a possession based model. Especially since their best talent has mostly been in midfield. But, every time Italy met Spain (Italy’s inspiration behind the possession based football) since Prandelli’s days, Spain were inevitably stronger, even when they lost on penalties at Euro 2020. The only time Italy outclassed Spain was, in Euro 2016, with Conte’s purely Italian imprint all over that team - tactical, determined, flexible, and cunning. The real Italian football identity.
The Azzurri may no longer be producing defenders in the mould of Nesta and Cannavaro, or trequartisti in the mould of Totti, Del Piero, and Baggio, or even goalscorers like Pippo Inzaghi, Bobbo Vieri, and Luca Toni. But that shouldn’t mean that they settle for not even qualifying to the World Cup or crashing out of the group stage. Italian football needs full reform, which it won’t get. But they should at least strive to keep the Italian football tradition alive, update it with a modern twist, and compete at the biggest stage. Italians are nothing if not adaptable and flexible. Just when you think they’re done for, just when they shouldn’t be in the contest, they pop up and win. They, and the football world, might need reminding of that.