Italian football chief quits after World Cup humiliation

{"text":[[{"start":11,"text":"The head of the Italian football federation has bowed to political pressure and resigned after the four-time world champions failed to reach the men’s World Cup for the third consecutive time. "}],[{"start":24.4,"text":"The Azzurri suffered a humiliating defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina in a penalty shootout on Tuesday night after a 1-1 draw in their World Cup play-off. The Italians, ranked 12th in the world by governing body Fifa, had failed to qualify automatically for this summer’s tournament after finishing behind Norway in their group. "}],[{"start":48.48,"text":"They also missed the last two World Cups in Qatar in 2022 and Russia in 2018. But their struggles stretch back further — they have not made it to the tournament’s knockout phase since 2006."}],[{"start":63.269999999999996,"text":"The loss unleashed widespread anger in football-obsessed Italy, with the sports minister and other members of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s governing coalition calling for football federation chief Gabriele Gravina to resign."}],[{"start":79.6,"text":"Gravina had initially dismissed calls to stand down. But on Thursday afternoon, the federation said in a statement that he had resigned during a meeting with member associations, and had called a vote to appoint a replacement in June. Gravina said he had also agreed to testify to a parliamentary committee next week on the state of football in Italy. "}],[{"start":102.85,"text":"The recriminations following Tuesday’s loss have also rung through parliament, with some on the hard right calling for new rules to limit the number of foreign players in the Italian league. "}],[{"start":115.38999999999999,"text":"Salvatore Caiata, a lawmaker from Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, who had also called for Gravina’s exit, lamented that a generation of young Italians had never watched Italy compete in the World Cup."}],[{"start":129.07999999999998,"text":"“We’re not just talking about a sporting event, we’re talking about a moment of great togetherness — a dreamlike moment,” said Caiata. "}],[{"start":138.38,"text":"The far-right League party, a coalition member, called Italy’s failure to qualify an “unacceptable shame”."}],[{"start":146.71,"text":"“Italian football needs to be rebuilt from scratch,” it said in a statement."}],[{"start":152.4,"text":"Head coach Gennaro Gattuso said the defeat was “a blow that’s difficult to digest”. “It hurts, because we needed it for us, for all of Italy,” he said after the game. “I would have given up years of my life, money, for us to achieve our goal.”"}],[{"start":171.23000000000002,"text":"Italy’s newspapers carried news of the defeat across their front pages, many accompanied by a photo of player Pio Esposito lying horizontal on the turf, his face buried in his hands."}],[{"start":184.66000000000003,"text":"“All go home,” declared La Gazzetta dello Sport. La Stampa proclaimed the result a “World Disaster”, while many others spoke of the team’s “curse”."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":196.60000000000002,"text":"Some sports fans demanded the resurrection of a plan to overhaul the country’s football drafted by Italian legend Roberto Baggio — also known as the Divine Ponytail, due to the hairstyle of his playing years.  "}],[{"start":212.14000000000001,"text":"In 2011, Baggio — then president of the technical section of the Italian Football Federation — wrote a 900-page plan to rebuild and modernise Italy’s football system from the ground up."}],[{"start":226.43,"text":"It was formally approved but funding never came. Baggio angrily resigned two years later, calling his overhaul scheme a “dead letter”."}],[{"start":237.22,"text":"Once the richest and most popular football league in the world, Italy’s Serie A has been in decline for years due to a lack of investment both on and off the pitch. "}],[{"start":248.35,"text":"Its media rights sell for much less — both domestically and internationally — than those of the English Premier League and Spain’s La Liga, while no Italian club features in the world’s 10 wealthiest by revenue, according to Deloitte. "}],[{"start":265.04,"text":"However, the competition has attracted international capital. Three of the biggest teams — Inter Milan, AC Milan and AS Roma — are owned by US investors, along with some smaller clubs including Atalanta and Fiorentina. "}],[{"start":282.83000000000004,"text":"But efforts to upgrade and invest in Italy’s creaking football infrastructure often run into fierce local resistance. "}],[{"start":290.98,"text":"This week, Italy’s finance police raided Milan’s City Hall as part of a criminal investigation into last year’s €200mn sale of the 100-year-old San Siro stadium to Inter Milan and AC Milan, who share the venue and plan to demolish and replace it with a new arena better suited to the needs of modern sport.  "}],[{"start":312.92,"text":"Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi in Rome"}],[{"start":326.71999999999997,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1775176916_4876.mp3"}