Former Juventus director Luciano Moggi believes the Azzurri’s failure to qualify for the World Cup began in 2006. The former Juve man was speaking with Adnkronos and offered his views on the 1-0 defeat to Macedonia and where he feels the problems lie with the current state of Italian football.
The Italian football crisis began with Calciopoli in 2006. Juventus, who had always been the bedrock of Italian football and the national team in particular, had been destroyed and the results are there for all to see. We went from winning a World Cup in 2006, to being eliminated in the first round of the next two Worls Cups and then two where we didn’t even qualify. Until 2006, Italian football and the national team was a winning model with many Bianconeri players on the pitch, as evidenced by the 2006 World Cup final in Berlin in which 5 Azzurri players and 4 from ‘Les Bleus’ were from Juventus. In Italy, unfortunately, we are like this: when something works we want to destroy it and now we pay the consequences.
The causes of Thursday’s defeat are due to the tiredness of the players and to having underestimated the opponent with too much presumption. After winning the European championship, the players no longer took the field with the competitive fury they had put on the pitch last summer, thinking they were strong, but the presumption of football is dangerous and we saw it on Thursday.
Mancini? He has done an excellent job with the tools he has available, he has had the courage to launch players who have never taken to the pitch in Serie A. He has won a European Championship and in my opinion, has no fault in not qualifying for the World Cup. Mancini’s problem is that he was left alone, the only mistake is FIGC President Gravina did not defend him. I hope that Mancini remains at the helm of the national team because he is the most suitable person.”
