Italian Minister for Sport Andrea Abodi has countered the assertions of the departing FIGC President Gabriele Gravina, who implied that the football association lacked sufficient governmental backing. Abodi stated that “when things go wrong, it’s always because of politics.”
Gravina announced his departure as FIGC President following Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup for the third consecutive tournament, after losing the play-off final. Head coach Gennaro Gattuso and delegation chief Gianluigi Buffon have also stepped down.
Gravina will continue to handle administrative duties until a new President is elected on June 22. Since his resignation announcement, Gravina has released a report outlining persistent challenges within Italian football and the national team setup. His report identified issues such as the low proportion of Italian players starting regularly in Serie A, inadequate investment in football infrastructure, and an imbalance in the tactical versus technical ability discussion. He cited a lack of government financial support as one of several reasons for Italy’s international underperformance.
In a separate interview, Gravina mentioned his attempts to implement incentives for Italian youth academies to boost the number of homegrown talents in Serie A, but claimed the government was uncooperative.
Minister for Sport Abodi responded to Gravina’s recent statements at the Luiss Sport Forum in Rome. “I’ve learned that politics is always brought up in certain situations. When something isn’t working, it’s always politics,” Abodi remarked somewhat ironically.
He continued, “I’ve never blamed anyone else. To find a solution for the collective good, all relevant parties must come together and make decisions that haven’t been made in recent years, despite broad agreement.”
“To me, it seems we don’t need to ‘invent’ anything. We have potential solutions available; we just need to assess their compatibility collectively.”
Abodi also commented, “I am intrigued by the tasks that need to be accomplished. Unfortunately, due to the often-discordant nature of football, many of these tasks have not been realized.
The 98.7% of votes Gravina received in his last election shows that the success of initiatives is determined not by the quantity of consensus, but by the quality of collaboration among all stakeholders.”
