JAKARTA - Italian national team coach Gennaro Gattuso immediately resigned following the failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. Previously, the FIGC or Italian PSSI General Secretary Gabriele Gravina had resigned.
Gattuso did not immediately resign after Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third time in a row. In the playoff final, Italy had to admit Bosnia-Herzegovina's advantage and lost 4-2 on penalties. Ironically, Italy had a 1-0 lead.
But the real Bosnia was underestimated and was able to equalize the score to 1-1 after Italy played with 10 men because Alessandro Bastoni got a red card.
Italy was finally eliminated after goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma could not stop four penalty kicks. The fifth kicker did not execute because Bosnia was already ahead 4-2.
Italy also failed to qualify for the third time. Previously, Gli Azzurri failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and the 2022 World Cup. Ironically, Italy is the European Cup 2021 champion but they can't get a ticket to the 2022 World Cup.
The bad results are a grief for Italian football. Former players, coaches, and many others gave analysis to the failure. Not stopping there, Gravina as FIGC chairman was also urged to resign. When he served as the head of the football federation since 2018, Italy had failed twice in the World Cup even though they could still be European champions.
Despite having held on to his position, Gravina eventually resigned after a sudden FIGC meeting attended by the heads of Serie A Italy, Serie B, Serie C and amateur leagues.
The meeting was also attended by the chairman of the players' and coaches' association, which resulted in the decision to confirm Gravina's resignation.
After Gravina resigned, Gattuso will follow. Gattuso is still waiting until June. However, the 48-year-old coach who replaced Luciano Spalletti will speed up the decision to resign.
The news of Gattuso's resignation has been reported by a number of media outlets in Italy, including Sky Sports and La Gazzetta dello Sport. Football transfer expert Fabrizio Romano has also claimed that Gattuso will soon resign. Not only Gattuso but Gianluigi Buffon who holds the position as team coordinator also resigned.
Gattuso himself, when replacing Spalletti, is very confident of meeting the target of bringing Italy to the World Cup held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Even though at that time in the qualifying Italy competed with Norway, he believed that the four-time world champion would qualify. In fact, Gattuso even promised to leave Italy if he failed to qualify for the World Cup.
"I am sure of reaching the target (qualifying for the 2026 World Cup). If not, I will leave Italy," said Gattuso.
"I'm used to living abroad, but this time I'm going to go further. I'm ready to go further," he said.
However, Italy eventually took second place in the group so they had to play a playoff. They did manage to pass the Northern Ireland hurdle in the semi-final of the playoff after winning 2-0. However, Italy's move was then blocked by Bosnia in the final of the playoff through a penalty shootout.
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