UEFA President Supports Gravina and Comments on Italy's Failure

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin has shared his insights regarding the Italian national football team's recent inability to qualify for the World Cup for the third consecutive time. This commentary serves as a response to the growing calls for the resignation of Gabriele Gravina, the President of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), who has faced intense scrutiny following yet another disappointing showing from the team.

Čeferin, who boasts extensive experience in football management, emphasized that during his presidency of the Slovenian Football Federation, he always believed that the responsibility for the team's results lies with everyone involved: the coach, the players, and the leadership. "When I was the president of the Slovenian federation, I always told the coach: 'If you win, you and the players will be the heroes. If you lose, the responsibility will fall on both of us.' This is certainly not Gravina's responsibility, and I would not criticize either the players or the coach," he asserted.

Furthermore, Čeferin expressed his outrage at the calls for Gravina's resignation, stating that such actions only serve to irritate and dishearten. "There are people who sit 'in ambush' waiting for something to go wrong so they can immediately start criticizing. They do not support Italy—they support themselves. Tell me, which Italian player was not called up when they should have been? This is football—even with the best players, you can lose a single match," he added.

Speaking about Gravina, Čeferin remarked: "Gabriele is my first vice president [at UEFA] and a very important person to me. But the biggest loss would be for the Italian federation. It is not easy to find a gentleman who loves football and Italy as much as he does. But I am not so naive as to think that self-centered people who have been waiting for failure will understand this. They do not care."

The UEFA President also expressed confidence that Italy, as one of the largest football nations, will inevitably return to the pinnacle of world football. "The biggest problem is the interaction between football politics and 'ordinary' politics. If everyone acts together, you will quickly become champions of Europe and the world again. But if negativity continues, things in football will go very badly," he concluded, citing La Gazzetta dello Sport.

It is worth noting that the last time the Italian national team played in the World Cup was in 2014 when the team, under the management of head coach Cesare Prandelli, failed to advance from the group stage. Since then, Italy has not participated in the World Cup playoffs, which has been a significant blow to the footballing nation.

Additionally, former player Gennaro Gattuso previously commented on the sensational failure of the Italians in their match against Bosnia, further highlighting the challenging situation in Italian football.