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Italy, the four-time World Cup champion, has now missed three consecutive tournaments. The country that gave the world catenaccio, Paolo Maldini, and one of the most iconic football cultures on earth hasn’t played in a World Cup since 2014.
Giovanni Malago was elected president of the Italian Football Federation, known as FIGC, on June 22, 2026, with 68.58% of the vote. His mandate is simple on paper and monumental in practice: fix Italian football.
From the Olympics to the pitch
Malago served as president of the Italian Olympic Committee, CONI, from 2013 to 2025. During that tenure, he oversaw Italy’s successful bid for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
His predecessor, Gabriele Gravina, resigned in early April 2026 after the national team’s failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. That failure wasn’t an isolated stumble. It was the third straight time Italy watched the tournament from home, having also missed the 2018 edition in Russia and the 2022 edition in Qatar.
Eighteen of 20 Serie A clubs endorsed Malago back in April, securing roughly 48% of the electoral votes. Support also came from Serie B clubs, the players’ association, and the coaches’ association.
The scale of the problem
The 2018 miss came after Italy lost a playoff to Sweden. Then came 2022, when North Macedonia, a nation of roughly two million people, knocked Italy out of qualifying. The Azzurri had won Euro 2020 just months earlier, which made the failure even more disorienting.
What this means going forward
Italy’s next major target is qualifying for the 2028 European Championship, and the qualification process won’t wait for a multi-year rebuilding plan.
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