Identity crisis for Italian football after early elimination on European stage
- By Reuters -
- Apr 17, 2026
Italian football is at its lowest ebb in nearly 40 years after a wholesale European exodus at club level followed the nation’s failure for the third successive time to qualify for the World Cup and compounded a leadership and structural crisis.
The exits suffered by Bologna and Fiorentina on Thursday in the Europa League and Conference League respectively meant no Italian teams are left in European competition this season.
Italy’s last remaining Champions League contenders Atalanta went out in the round of 16 last month.
It is the first time since the 1986-87 campaign that Italian clubs have been shut out of the European semi-finals across the board in a season with three major continental competitions.
The club-level wipeout has compounded a mounting emergency in a country where football is a national passion.
Inter Milan made the 2025 Champions League final, where they were thrashed by Paris St-Germain, and Atalanta won the Europa League in 2024 but Italy have now stalled on several fronts.
Coupled with the national team’s continued World Cup exile, Italian football has been plunged into an identity crisis as the country wraps up its ‘annus horribilis’ season.
SYSTEMIC RESET
Italy suffered a collective shock in March after a 4-1 penalty shootout defeat by Bosnia and Herzegovina in their World Cup qualifying playoff final following a 1-1 draw after extra time led to the departure of coach Gennaro Gattuso.
The resignation of Italian Football Federation President Gabriele Gravina followed in the fallout and he admitted that the foundations of the domestic game had crumbled.
“The crisis is deep, Italian football needs to be redesigned,” said Gravina – a warning now being amplified by several Italian coaches.
Fabio Capello noted this week that “it is practically impossible to get worse than this; we have hit rock bottom.”
Carlo Ancelotti, who is in charge of five-times world champions Brazil, told Italian media on Friday that the nation has lost its way both on the pitch and financially.
“We already lack talent in other areas of the pitch, but the excessive focus on tactics has distorted our characteristics, the ones on which we have always built our history,” he said.
He noted that the financial chasm between Serie A and its rivals has stripped the league of its former allure.
“The great foreign players no longer come to Italy. Abroad, with substantial TV rights and powerful investors, a more attractive market is formed.”
The crisis seems to pervade every level of the game, with crumbling infrastructure now dominating the headlines as Italy prepares to co-host the 2032 Euros alongside Turkey.
Italian media have warned that stadium projects are significantly behind schedule, with construction yet to begin on several key venues.
“I hope the infrastructure will be ready,” UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said earlier this month. “Otherwise, the tournament will not be played in Italy.”
LOOKING AHEAD
With the season wrapping up, Italy face a period of restructuring. A new coach and FIGC President are yet to be announced following the resignations of Gattuso and Gravina.
Media reports suggest Napoli manager Antonio Conte and AC Milan boss Max Allegri are the frontrunners to succeed Gattuso.
A decision on the next coach is unlikely before the FIGC elections on June 22. Until then, Italian football is in a state of suspended animation, waiting to see if the new leadership will opt for a total reset or more pragmatic rebuilding phase.
In the wake of a season of systemic failure, the pressure for structural reform suggests that the status quo is no longer an option for the Italian game that once dominated the sport.