The FIGC has chosen the Italian champion coach and Gravina is not going back, but the clause question fuels Luciano’s doubts: the alternative is Conte
The choice was made and as far as the FIGC intends, there is no going back: Luciano Spalletti, according to the president Gabriele Gravina, is the new coach of the national team, and he told him clearly. Spalletti also wants the national team, let’s say he would like it badly. But in the last few hours he has been plagued by doubts that go beyond, or in any case are additional to, the legal and economic question linked to the “famous” clause that the president of Napoli, Aurelio De Laurentiis, claims is paid to release him and allow him to accept the assignment coach of Italy. But these are doubts that are fueled precisely by this story: because from that tug of war a climate was born that Spalletti does not like. He also took positions of political exponents, rumors creeping that feed suspicions on the fact that Napoli could risk revenge from the FIGC. Or that Spalletti may find himself in difficulty managing the Napoli squad. Spalletti is very attached to the city to which he gave the Scudetto after 33 years, he has Napoli tattooed on his skin: he would never want to find himself against a square that he loves. But above all he considers it legitimate for a technician who accepts a career as coach to be able to face it with wide approval, accompanied by acclaim and not by off-field problems.
The “Count Plan”
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Doubts and torments that Spalletti is experiencing with annoyance: absolutely legitimate, but Gravina needs to be able to give for sure the name of the new coach, who will take Roberto Mancini’s place, as quickly as possible. By today or at the latest tomorrow, Spalletti will have to reflect and dissolve his reservations: this is what the president and the coach promised each other. The formal announcement, then, would be at the beginning of next week, and the FIGC still counts on being able to formalize the agreement with the Tuscan coach. Which would start from 1 September and last until 2026: the “natural” deadline of the agreement, coinciding with the next World Cup. Otherwise, Gravina will have to decisively take the alternative path: the one that leads to Antonio Conte, which obviously would be anything but a second choice, but at the same time it is a more complex hypothesis at the outset. The former coach has already given, and renewed, his willingness to evaluate a possible new assignment: he has already led Italy, unlike Spalletti, and the experience has remained with him like his love for the national team . However, reconnecting certain threads will not necessarily be automatic. Gravina has already talked to Spalletti about practically everything and agrees on everything, even if the issue of the role of supervisor of the three main national teams that had been agreed with Mancini has not been addressed. With Conte, on the other hand, there would still be various issues to be addressed. And time is running out, very much.
The obstacle clause
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Apart from Spalletti’s looming doubts, the obstacle clause in the contract that the coach had with Napoli remains in the background (which, being “declining”, on 1 September would amount to 2.5 million euros) and the rigid position taken – and reaffirmed with a statement on August 15th – by Aurelio De Laurentiis. And this too is the subject of reflections these days. Of the technician, first of all. Who, as soon as we contacted him, proved to be super motivated in the face of the federal president’s proposal – he was very favorably impressed by this determination – and immediately began to evaluate whether, and then above all how, to take on the burden of any dispute with De Laurentiis , to be supported when already sitting on the blue bench.
The legal opinions
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An issue which, even before being economic, is above all legal: because it concerns the chances of winning a possible dispute, or even of not even having to deal with it. If it were inevitable that controversy would arise, Spalletti would obviously be supported by the Federation and his lawyers, as far as necessary. But the coach is already being assisted by his son Samuele, who is keeping track of relations with the lawyers involved in the matter and with Napoli football. Young but already established lawyer, he is linked to the very important Milanese law firm Gattai and Minoli Partners, which is preparing an opinion. Basically, we need to support the thesis according to which the clause in Spalletti’s contract is “non-competition”, and therefore has no active value in the event of a commitment signed with the national team. Appointment obviously different from the one taken with a club. But above all the assumption on the basis of which a clause which in practice forbids cannot be legitimate in full of working.
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