Resign Now: Italy sports minister demands football chief’s exit after World Cup omission

Italy, the 2006 FIFA World Cup winners, failed to qualify for the 2026 edition of the grandest showpiece event in North America, with the country’s Sports Minister Andrea Abodi urging the Italy Football Federation chief to step down from his position. Italy has failed to seal its FIFA World Cup berth for a third consecutive time, after losing to Bosnia and Herzegovina in a penalty shoot-out on Tuesday (Mar 31). Although the head of the federation (FIGC), Gabriele Gravina, said he would not step aside from his position, a board meeting next week would likely decide his fate.

"It's clear that Italian football needs to be rebuilt from the ground up and that starts with changes at the top of the FIGC," Abodi said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Abodi's comments come amid hostilities between the Italian government and Gravina, who, when speaking to the media after Italy's defeat, lashed out at a perceived lack of support or football from the state. Gravina also referred to other sports as "amateur" and "state sports" compared to football due to the large number of athletes, particularly Olympians, who are nominally employed by different arms of Italy's armed forces and police.

Italy claimed a record 30 medals at the recent Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, including 10 gold medals, and left the 2024 Summer Games in Paris with 40 medals. The Mediterranean nation also has top performers in a wide variety of other sports, with tennis star Jannik Sinner, a four-time Grand Slam winner, the most obvious example.

"I believe it is a mistake to deny responsibility for the third missed World Cup qualification and accuse the institutions of a presumed failure while downplaying the importance and professionalism of other sports," added Abodi, who has been sport minister in Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government since 2022.

(With inputs from AFP)