Italian football has moved from outrage to collapse at the top. Gabriele Gravina has resigned as president of the Italian Football Federation after Italy failed to qualify for a third straight World Cup, with the latest blow coming in a playoff defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina. FIGC will choose his successor at an extraordinary assembly on June 22.
The resignation is the consequence, not the whole story
Gravina’s exit matters because it turns a football failure into a full governance crisis. Italy are not dealing with one bad campaign. They have now missed the 2018, 2022, and 2026 World Cups, which means the federation’s top office could no longer stand apart from the damage on the pitch. Reports have it that Gravina had been under growing pressure from government officials and the media before stepping down.
Euro 2020 no longer protected the project
There was a time when Gravina’s tenure still had a shield. Italy won Euro 2020 under his watch, and that gave the federation a recent success to point to. But the repeated World Cup failures proved heavier than that triumph. Gravina had led the FIGC since 2018, which means the latest collapse sealed the judgment on his presidency more than one tournament ever could.
Pressure had already moved beyond football circles
This was not only fan anger. Italy’s Sports Minister Andrea Abodi had already said Italian football needed to be rebuilt and that the process had to start with renewed FIGC leadership. That matters because it shows the pressure around the federation had moved into the public and political space before Gravina resigned. Once that happens, a presidency usually stops looking stable.
What comes next for the FIGC
The next question is not just who replaces Gravina. It is whether the next leadership can make the role feel credible again. Reuters reported that former CONI president Giovanni Malagò and former FIGC president Giancarlo Abete are among the names being discussed, while uncertainty also hangs over head coach Gennaro Gattuso, whose contract ends in June. Reuters also reported that Gianluigi Buffon resigned from his delegation role, which adds to the sense of a wider reset rather than a single resignation.
Why this is now a rebuild story
The reason here is simple: Italy’s football system has lost the protection of continuity. Missing one World Cup can be treated as a shock. Missing three straight turns it into a pattern. Gravina’s resignation does not solve that pattern. It only confirms how deep it has become.
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