The Italian soccer federation will have a new leadership team after missing out on another World Cup.
President Gabriele Gravina announced during a meeting on Thursday at the FIGC headquarters in Rome that he has resigned from his role. He also called for an elective assembly to vote for a new president on June 22.
Gravina will also appear before the VII Committee on Culture, Science, and Education of the Chamber of Deputies to report on the state of Italian soccer.
This comes after Italy lost in a penalty shootout with 10 men at 66th-ranked Bosnia and Herzegovina in the European playoffs on Tuesday.
Italy has missed qualifying for a third straight World Cup and will go at least 16 years without playing the tournament. Italy is also the first former winners to miss out on three consecutive World Cups.
Former World Cup champion goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon also announced that he will not return as the delegation chief for Italy.
“Submitting my resignation a minute after the end of the match against Bosnia was an urgent act, one that came from deep within me,” Buffon wrote in the statement. It was as spontaneous as the tears and the ache in my heart that I know I share with all of you. I was asked to take time to allow everyone to reflect properly.
“Now that President Gravina has chosen to step back, I feel free to do what I feel is a responsible act, because, despite my sincere belief that I have built so much in terms of team spirit and team spirit with Rino Gattuso and all my collaborators, in the very short time available to the national team, the main objective was to bring Italy back to the World Cup. And we didn’t succeed.”
The future of coach Gennaro Gattuso has not been decided despite Gravina saying right after the match that he would like the former Azzurri player to stay on.
Gravina replaced Carlo Tavecchio as the head of the Italian soccer federation in 2018 after failing to qualify for the World Cup that year.
Italy won the Euro Cup in 2021 but was unable to secure a spot in the tournament for 2022.
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