Ceferin defends Gravina and blames politicians: ‘Absolutely not his responsibility’
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has offered his full support to the recently-resigned FIGC chief Gabriele Gravina, and says that politicians are the ones who should take most of the responsibility for Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup three times in a row.
Gravina has officially resigned from his position as President of the FIGC following Tuesday night’s penalty shoot-out defeat against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which cost Italy a place at the World Cup for the third tournament cycle in a row.
Ceferin was in the stands alongside Gravina in Zenica for the play-off final against Bosnia and Herzegovina. The pair have worked closely alongside each other as part of UEFA’s executive committee, of which Ceferin is the President and Gravina the first vice-President.
Ceferin gave his thoughts on the current situation surrounding Italian football and the calls for Gravina’s head in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, which was published on Thursday morning, a few hours before Gravina’s resignation was announced.
UEFA President defends Gravina and slams Italian politics
Ceferin found it difficult to decide whether or not it was a ‘surprise’ that Italy failed to get past Bosnia and Herzegovina in Tuesday night’s World Cup play-off final.
“In one way yes, but on the other hand, Bosnia have a young and strong team that played at home,” he said. “There was much more pressure on Italy. Bosnia deserved to go to the World Cup, Italy lost after having a man sent off.”
Ceferin admits that it is no surprise that fans had called for Gravina to step down in light of Italy’s third consecutive World Cup failure.
“When I was the President of the Slovenian federation, I always said to the coach: ‘If you win, you and the players will be the heroes. If you lose, the blame will fall on the two of us’.
“It is absolutely not Gabriele’s responsibility and I wouldn’t allow myself to attack either the players or the coach. Perhaps it is the Italian politicians who should ask themselves why Italy has one of the worst footballing infrastructures in Europe.”
Ceferin hinted that he thinks members of the Italy national team set-up were effectively hoping for Gravina’s downfall.
“It makes me angry and sad that there are people who stay ‘hidden’ and wait for something to go wrong and then jump out and start criticising. They don’t support Italy, they just support themselves.
“Tell me one Italian player who wasn’t called up that should have been? It’s football, and even with the best players on the pitch, anyone can lose a game.
“Gabriele is my first vice-President and he’s very important to me. But the biggest loss would be for the FIGC. It won’t be easy to find a gentleman who loves football and Italy as much as he does. But I’m not so naive as to believe that some of these self-centred people, who were just waiting for something to go wrong, will be thinking about it. They don’t care.”
Ceferin has previously accused Italy of having insufficient infrastructure in place, which is a concern ahead of EURO 2032, which will be co-hosted by Italy and Turkiye.
“Euro 3023 is scheduled and will take place. I hope the infrastructure will be ready, otherwise the tournament will not be played in Italy.”
And giving his final comment, Ceferin said: “Italy is one of the biggest footballing nations and will return to the top. The biggest problem in Italian football is the relationship between football politics and ‘normal’ politics. If everyone fell into line, they’d soon become European and world champions again. And if the negativity continues, then things in football will go terribly wrong.”