It is not without reason that Italy, for the third time in a row, failed to qualify for the World Cup. The chaos is continuous at all levels even if politicians interfered to secure the voters’ favor. – This time, actually, for a good reason.
A couple of days ago, after missing out on Pep Guardiola as national team manager, Andrea Pirlo was hired.
Read: Agree with Andrea Pirlo after no thanks from Pep Guardiola
Now nothing will happen – after political pressure. In the worst case, newly appointed sporting director Paolo Maldini, who was brought in to save them, may now resign in protest.
But over the weekend, the case took an abrupt turn.
Pirlo is an ambassador for the Russian gaming company Fonbet, one of the country’s largest. In this role, he has, among other things, participated in football events in Russia as recently as May this year. In addition, Forbes magazine has reported that the gaming company received financial support from the Russian state during the pandemic, when Fonbet was considered a “socially critical” enterprise. (unbelievable, really, that a gaming company is seen as important to a nation)
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This has caused Italian politicians to react strongly.
“I really hope that the first thing Pirlo does is remove this embarrassment by relinquishing his role,” said Mauro Berruto, sports policy spokesperson for the Democratic Party.
“It doesn’t matter if Pirlo is pro-Russian or not. The crucial thing is that he has voluntarily and repeatedly lent his reputation to normalizing Putin’s regime, by participating in initiatives that have been exploited by the Kremlin’s propaganda at the same time as Ukraine was being bombed, said EU parliamentarian Pina Picierno.
The pressure from what is referred to as the “Russia scandal” has now prompted Italy’s football federation president, Giovanni Malagò, to put the brakes on the appointment.
According to Italian Sky Sports, everything was clear between the federation and Pirlo, and on Monday meetings were to be held to complete the recruitment process. But Malagò has cancelled these, and Pirlo will thus not be the Italian national team manager, according to Sky – which could have serious consequences.
Sky also reports that both sporting director Paolo Maldini and his advisor Leonardo may now leave their positions. If they are not allowed to hire a national team manager in line with their vision, they do not want to continue, and will probably resign. The duo joined as late as the beginning of July.
In the past, the Italian federation has received “thank you, but no thanks” from both Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti in the search for a new national team manager.
