{"id":5366,"date":"2026-04-09T13:18:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/5366\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T13:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:18:18","slug":"president-gravina-reveals-reason-behind-italian-football-crisis-after-world-cup-heartbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/5366\/","title":{"rendered":"President Gravina reveals reason behind Italian football crisis after World Cup heartbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Outgoing Italian Football Federation (FIGC) president Gabriele Gravina has published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.figc.it\/it\/federazione\/news\/pubblicata-la-relazione-sullo-stato-di-salute-del-calcio-italiano-odktqxdv\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:a detailed report;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;a detailed report&quot;}\" class=\"link \">a detailed report<\/a> on the state of Italian football, along with several proposals on how to address the crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Gravina stepped down following Italy\u2019s gut-wrenching failure to qualify for the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Gli Azzurri were eliminated in the World Cup play-off final following a <a href=\"https:\/\/footballtoday.com\/2026\/03\/31\/heartbreak-for-italy-as-bosnia-triumph-4-1-on-penalties-to-qualify-for-world-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:penalty shoot-out defeat against Bosnia &amp; Herzegovina;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;penalty shoot-out defeat against Bosnia &amp;amp&quot;}\" class=\"link \">penalty shoot-out defeat against Bosnia &amp; Herzegovina<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Both sides played out a 1-1 draw after extra time, with Bosnia going on to win 4-1 on penalties.<\/p>\n<p>Italy have now failed to qualify for the World Cup since crashing out in the group stage of the 2014 edition.<\/p>\n<p>Gravina was president when Italy won the 2020 European Championship, but they also failed to qualify for the World Cup twice during his tenure.<\/p>\n<p>Despite stepping down as FIGC president, the 72-year-old will remain in a temporary role until a new president is elected on June 22.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Gravina has now published a report he was scheduled to present at the Italian parliament last week. But his hearing was cancelled following his resignation.<\/p>\n<p>He published the report \u2018with the hope that it may stimulate reflection and deeper analysis\u2019 of how Italian football has deteriorated over the past few years.<\/p>\n<p>He outlined some well-documented issues affecting Italian football, including the number of players eligible for selection to the national team, the average age of Serie A players and the high percentage of foreign players in Italy\u2019s top flight.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most alarming concerns is the decline in opportunities for young Italian players.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Youth development appears to have taken a back seat in Serie A. Italy ranks 49th out of 50 leagues for the playing time given to eligible under-21 players (1.9 percent).<\/p>\n<p>Gravina also highlighted a few proposals for resolving some of the issues listed in his report.<\/p>\n<p>Among his proposed solutions are allocating a share of gambling revenues to football, improving tax policies to attract talent, and lifting restrictions on sponsorship deals with betting companies.<\/p>\n<p>Gravina also insisted on lifting the ban on advertising and sponsorships by betting operators and on taking supportive measures to build new stadiums or renovate existing ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Outgoing Italian Football Federation (FIGC) president Gabriele Gravina has published a detailed report on the state of Italian&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1637,1013,1788,2808,5,2579,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-5366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-italy","8":"tag-gabriele-gravina","9":"tag-italian-football","10":"tag-italian-football-federation","11":"tag-italian-players","12":"tag-italy","13":"tag-president-gravina","14":"tag-world-cup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}