Italian club crisis hits national team

FE Team | Published: June 27, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

MANGARATIBA, Brazil, June 26 (AFP): No coach, no president, no forwards and no place in the World Cup knock-out rounds, the question is, where do Italy go from here?
Right now, the common feeling is that Italian football is in crisis.
This had long been the case in the club game but at least the national team could on occasions relieve the gloom, such as when they reached the Euro 2012 final, albeit only to be dismantled 4-0 by Spain.
That is no longer the case after a second successive World Cup group stage elimination.
Italy may have breezed unbeaten through their qualification group to reach Brazil, securing their place with two games to spare, but such small mercies will do little to appease fans of a country used to success -- they are after all four-time world champions, a record bettered only by Brazil.
Apart from Inter Milan's Jose Mourinho-inspired Champions League triumph in 2010, Italian teams have struggled in Europe.
Since AC Milan won the competition in 2007, Inter's victory is the only occasion an Italian side has gone beyond the quarter-finals. Several times, they haven't even made it there.
Last season, Milan were the only ones to make it out of their group, although they were subsequently crushed 5-1 on aggregate by Atletico Madrid.
In 2012 Italy also lost their fourth place in the Champions League as Germany overtook them in the UEFA rankings.
As for the national team, they came into this tournament ranked ninth in the world but their abject exit will likely see them drop several places.
Following their failure at the last World Cup, they dropped six places and later that year, in October, dropped to their joint lowest ever ranking of 16 in the FIFA list.
Depending on their results later in the year, they risk breaking that record.
It is hardly the time to be left with no coach and no federation president following the resignations of Cesare Prandelli and Giancarlo Abete after their 1-0 defeat to Uruguay on Tuesday.