The football insiders have had their turn.
The last time Italy missed a World Cup, it felt like an aberration. The time after that, a crisis. Now, after a third consecutive elimination in the qualifying play-offs — this time at the hands of Bosnia and Herzegovina — it has become something harder to dismiss: a structural failure, a reckoning, a question about what Italian football actually is anymore.
The fallout has been swift and total. Gabriele Gravina, who had led the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio through the humiliation, resigned earlier this month. So did Gennaro Gattuso, the coach who could not find a way through. And so did Gianluigi Buffon, the legendary goalkeeper who had taken on the role of team general manager and now walks away from it. Three men, three exits, and a federation left to figure out what comes next.
On Monday, Serie A's clubs offered their answer. Meeting in Milan, 18 of the league's 20 clubs threw their support behind Giovanni Malago, the 67-year-old who spent more than a decade as head of the Italian Olympic Committee and most recently oversaw the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics organizing effort. Ezio Simonelli, the Serie A president, delivered the verdict plainly to reporters: the clubs want Malago, and now it is up to Malago to decide whether he wants the job.
"The ball is now in Malago's court," Simonelli said. "He has to carry out his research, formalise his candidacy and present his programme for the presidency." Meetings between Malago and top-flight club representatives are expected in the coming days, with the formal FIGC presidential election scheduled for June 22.
Malago brings a certain kind of credibility to the moment. His tenure at CONI, Italy's apex sporting body, ran from 2013 to 2025 — long enough to span multiple Olympic cycles and to develop a reputation as a capable institutional operator. But the FIGC presidency is a different animal, and the endorsement of Serie A's clubs, while meaningful, is not nearly enough to win the vote on its own. The top-flight clubs carry just 18 percent of the electoral weight. Italy's amateur football authorities hold 34 percent, making their support the real prize — and one that Malago has not yet secured.
The job itself is daunting beyond the simple task of appointing a new national team coach, though that alone would be a significant undertaking. Whoever takes the FIGC chair will inherit years of accumulated pressure for structural reform within Italian football — reform that Gravina's tenure promised but did not fully deliver. And looming over all of it is Euro 2032, which Italy is co-hosting with Turkey, and which may not be as secure as it sounds.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin recently told the Gazzetta Dello Sport that Italy's football stadiums — many of them aging, crumbling, and long overdue for replacement — are among the worst on the continent, and that the country risks losing its co-hosting rights if the situation does not improve. It was a blunt warning from the governing body, and it lands at exactly the wrong moment: a federation in transition, a national team in disarray, and a tournament that requires billions in infrastructure investment.
Malago, if he runs and wins, would be stepping into all of that at once. The Serie A clubs believe he has the stature and the institutional experience to manage it. Whether the broader football community — the amateur clubs, the regional associations, the lower leagues — shares that view will determine whether Monday's endorsement becomes a presidency or simply a footnote.
June 22 is the date to watch. Between now and then, Malago must build a coalition, present a program, and convince a fractured federation that he is the person to stop the bleeding.
Notable Quotes
The ball is now in Malago's court: he has to carry out his research, formalise his candidacy and present his programme for the presidency.— Ezio Simonelli, Serie A president
Italy's football stadiums are some of the worst in Europe, and the country risks losing its Euro 2032 co-hosting rights.— Aleksander Ceferin, UEFA president, paraphrased from Gazzetta Dello Sport interview
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Three straight World Cup play-off exits — at what point does that stop being bad luck and start being something systemic?
Probably around the second time. By the third, you're not talking about a bad draw or an off night. You're talking about a pipeline problem, a structural one.
And yet the response seems to be reaching for an Olympic administrator rather than a football insider. Why Malago?
Because the football insiders have had their turn. Gravina was a football man. Gattuso was a football man. Buffon is as football as it gets. None of it worked. Sometimes an institution in crisis needs someone who knows how to run institutions, not just the sport.
But Serie A's endorsement only carries 18 percent of the vote. Doesn't that make Monday's announcement mostly symbolic?
It's a signal, not a mandate. It tells Malago the top clubs are behind him, which matters for legitimacy. But the amateur bodies hold nearly twice the voting weight, and they have different interests entirely.
What do the amateur bodies want that Serie A might not?
Redistribution, mostly. Resources flowing down the pyramid. A federation that doesn't treat the lower levels as an afterthought. Malago will have to speak to that directly if he wants their votes.
And then there's Euro 2032 hanging over all of this. Ceferin's comments about the stadiums were pretty stark.
Calling them some of the worst in Europe is not a diplomatic nudge. That's a warning shot. Italy has been promising stadium reform for decades and delivering very little. The new FIGC chief will have to actually move that needle, not just talk about it.
So the job is: rebuild the national team, reform the federation, and renovate the stadiums — all before 2032?
More or less. It's a lot to ask of anyone. But that's the inheritance. Whoever takes the chair in June gets all of it at once.