Rome (AP) – After Italy’s embarrassing defeat in the World Cup qualifiers, former national coach Arrigo Sacchi called for a general rethinking of Italian football.
This is “culturally backward, there are no new ideas. The other nations are developing, we have remained at the level of 60 years ago,” said the 75-year-old “Gazzetta dello Sport”. The evening before, the European champions failed in the qualifying playoffs with a 0-1 draw against the blatant outsiders North Macedonia and, like in 2018, missed the World Cup.
“The players and the coach are least to blame for this situation. The problem lies in the system,” emphasized the former selection coach, who reached the 1994 World Cup final with the Squadra Azzurra. “Our youth departments are full of foreign players who are bought like fruit and vegetables, the clubs are heavily in debt, teams aren’t winning outside of Italy anymore and nobody is saying anything?” asked Sacchi. No club trophy has gone to Italy since 2010, when Inter Milan won the Champions League. “We are backward, and not only in football.”
Sacchi hopes that the reaction will not simply be to fire coach Roberto Mancini. One must follow the example of nations such as Spain, whose success is based on fundamental reforms. “We mustn’t stick to old patterns, we mustn’t think that we can solve the problems by exchanging people. The approach, the idea must be changed.”