After Italy, the 2006 World Cup champions, crashed out in the group stage four years later, Roberto Baggio, the then technical director of the Italian football federation (FIGC), had produced a detailed 900-page report on how to improve the country’s footballing standard.
The report, made after studying the models followed by France, Spain and Germany, harped on ways to stem the rot. The report was largely ignored, and despite a reluctant approval by the Italian football federation, it was never fully implemented.
Baggio wanted reforms in the youth system, coach training, scouting and talent development, infrastructure and innovation, giving importance to human qualities. Had Baggio’s report been embraced, Italy might have been in a different league now. Instead, they failed to qualify for the Fifa World Cup for the third consecutive time.
On Tuesday, the four-time champion’s penalty shootout loss to 66th-ranked Bosnia and Herzegovina in the qualifying playoffs comes after the Azzurris were eliminated at the same stage by Sweden in 2018 and by North Macedonia in 2022.
The failure to qualify for the 2022 edition was shocking because they had won the European Championships defeating England just eight months earlier. Italy, not being able to qualify even for the 48-team Cup is, however, not shocking anymore. It’s more the norm.
Years of lackadaisical planning, a stubborn refusal to blood young players in the Serie A, and an ultra-defensive strategy by most clubs have made the once-popular and widely-followed Serie A and the national team prisoners of their own devices.
There was a time in mid-80s when Serie A was at its peak. Talents like Diego Maradona, Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Lothar Matthäus were plying their trade in Italy. Clubs like Napoli, AC Milan, Juventus and Inter Milan were followed widely. Add to that home-grown talents like Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini, Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Del Piero and Fabio Cannavaro, and you had a fantastic league.
However, it’s a free fall for the Azzurris, 2006 onwards — something akin to the West Indies in cricket, Pakistan in hockey or Bengali cinema. All three are living in the past, grappling with a tense present and staring at a bleak future.
Now Serie A hardly grabs eyeballs as fiercely competitive Premier League and highly technical La Liga march ahead. As celebrated Italian coach Fabio Capello recently said: “A Lamine Yamal (Barcelona superstar who is just 18) would not have got a chance to start so early — Yamal made his first-team Barca debut when he was not even 16 — if he was playing in Italy.”
Everything seemed to be rotten in the state of Italy and it was manifested once again at Zenica by Bosnia, who were not intimidated by the legacy of the former champions. Alessandro Bastoni, the Inter Milan defender presently courted by Barca, had no business in going for a late last-man tackle on Amir Memic.
He was shown a red card. With 10 men even before the half-time whistle was blown, Gennaro Gattuso’s men were walking on thin ice in front of a hostile Bosnian crowd. Bastoni’s ejection had come when the score was Italy 1 Bosnia 0. Moise Kean had given the visitors the lead. Bosnia’s equaliser came 11 minutes from time through Haris Tabakovic and in the tie-breakers Italians, Pio Esposito and Bryan Cristante, missed their penalties. The hosts made no mistake from the spot.
Italy’s faith in a three-man defence is also not paying off.
Germany after their disappointing 1994 World Cup exit, started investing more in the youth system and were blessed with a platoon of highly talented youngsters like Thomas Mueller, Sami Khedira, Mesut Özil, Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Result? The 2014 World Cup triumph.
Italy on the other hand are caught in a time-warp. There are no new talents on the horizon, and the country which produced attackers like Paolo Rossi, Baggio, Francesco Totti and Del Piero is now bereft of flair and flamboyance.
No out-of-the box thinking and that mirrors the plight of the national team. Heads will roll after the latest setback but will that bring back the glory days? Very unlikely. The rut is too deep.