Italy hope for Players and Coaches Associations after Gravina resignation
The representatives of the Players’ Association (AIC) and Coaches’ Association (AIAC) express hope Gabriele Gravina’s resignation can finally spark reforms to revive the Italy squad.
Gravina handed in his resignation this afternoon during the emergency meeting, which was organised in the wake of Italy’s failure to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup.
Coach Gennaro Gattuso and team manager Gigi Buffon are widely expected to follow suit, prompting a radical overhaul of the way Italian football is run, with elections for a new President of the Federation (FIGC) on June 22.
Meanwhile, Gravina will be heard in the Commission for Culture, Science and Instruction to give the Government an update on the health of Italian football.
Italy reforms expected after new election
“Finally there is talk about something we’ve been pushing for a long time, which is that Italians don’t get much playing time,” President of the Italian Players’ Association Umberto Calcagno told reporters outside the meeting.
“The Federation does not have the legal groundwork to impose a number of Italians on the field, so we hope politicians can study suitable norms to relaunch Italian football.”
Not everyone was entirely happy about Gravina’s resignation, even if it seemed inevitable after these failures.
“Gravina still has the trust and respect of the federal components, but we are aware of the difficult moment and that we must all roll our sleeves up. We’ve got to transform disappointment into positivity,” insisted Calcagno.
“Football is the biggest sport in Italy, but we are not able to get sufficient value out of all that we do. This is not a war against foreign players, as other countries with the same rules like Spain still manage to get homegrown players making up 60 per cent of the team.
“We must also teach football in a different way to kids, but ultimately the refinement of talent is not the job of the Federation, but of the clubs.”
Renzo Ulivieri, former Bologna coach and President of the Italian Coaches’ Association (AIAC) also commented that he was sad to see Gravina go.
“It was his personal decision, we expressed our solidarity, now we will try to start fresh with the elections on June 22. It is too early to say who will take over, the same goes for Gattuso and the Italy coach. If asked, we’ll give our opinion.
“It was a very sad meeting, because it’s the end of an era, but also the results were disappointing. We’ve been struggling since 2006, it’s not a new problem, so we’ll see what can be done.”