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A football powerhouse kissed by God. That’s how Italy is perceived, the country of four-time world champions and dedicated supporters called tifosi. However, she will not prove how strong she is on the field and in the audience this year at the world championship in Qatar – she did not compete there at all.
The country’s seventh economy
The losses from not participating in the World Cup in Qatar will be huge. “From the point of view of the country’s economy, it is the seventh most powerful field,” describes renowned journalist Massimo Franchi, head of the football section of the Turin newspaper Tutto Sport. “It will be a noticeable hit for the whole of Italy,” he warns.
Fans will not go to Qatar and all sorts of industries will be affected. “Travel agencies, airlines, car rental companies and their dealers, sporting goods stores and also manufacturers,” Franchi calculates, how the private and public sectors are already suffering. The fans of the Italian team follow their favorite in the world tournaments by the tens of thousands all over the planet and never looked at the lira (now euros) spent, they did not waver in their passion.
However, providers of various services directly on the Apennine Peninsula will also experience significant decreases in sales. “Cafes, pubs, wine cellars will be almost deserted during the championship,” predicts Luboš Kubík, former midfielder of FC Fiorentina.
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He knows well what he is talking about, he caught something similar four years ago, when the squadra azzurra did not make it to the championship in Russia. “They discuss last night’s match in the morning with a cappuccino and a scone, prepare for the next one with a glass of wine and then watch it with constant consumption,” he knows how Italian fans experience their favorite’s matches. And they have to share their insights with other neighborhood experts. “And suddenly it will be empty,” predicts Kubík.
Restaurateurs and wine bar operators report huge losses already in advance. It’s not even worth it for them to open for a few foreigners. “The Italians are only focused on their team,” Kubík emphasizes that foreign tourists will certainly not fill the turnover holes.
Poor performance
When the Italians triumphed at the European Championship 2020 last year, defeating the home team England on penalties in the final, everything was bathed in the Sicilian sun. Coach Roberto Mancini, who took over from Luigi Di Biagio in May 2018 after the embarrassment of being eliminated from the World Cup in Russia, was almost an ancient god, almost displacing the legendary Roman general Scipio in the Fratelli d’Italia national anthem.
The excitement was huge, no one wanted to hear the warning voices. Everyone admired how the Italian team plays offensive football, different from the other participants of the EURO, the shortcomings were not mentioned. “They played good football only in the basic group,” pointed out the Czech coach Zdeněk Zeman, who in Italian clubs (AS Rome, Lazio, Parma, Napoli, Palermo, Pescara, Lecce, Brescia, Foggia) was famous for his offensive approach.
Italy at the World Cup
1930 – she did not apply, 1934 a 1938 – world champion, 1950 a 1954 –basic group, 1958 – did not qualify 1962 a 1966 – core group, 1970 – final, 1974 – core group, 1978 – fourth place, 1982 – world champion, 1986 – round of 16,1990 – third place, 1994 – finals, 1998 – quarter finals,2002 – round of 16, 2006 – world champion, 2010 – core group, 2014 – core group, 2018 a 2022 – she didn’t qualify.
Medal: gold 4x (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), silver 2x (1970, 1994), bronze 1x (1990)
Then, according to him, it only got worse. “It was already balanced with Austria, as well as with Belgium, in the semi-final against Spain they were worse in terms of play. They didn’t even dominate in the final against England,” he confirmed. “They weren’t trained that well, their performances were already declining,” he claimed. “You have to look at how they achieved success. I say they were lucky. And they are not as high as they are judged to be,” added another Czech expert on Italian football, Tomáš Skuhravý, a shooting legend of FC Janov.
The qualification did not go well for the Italians. Just the fact that they were pushed away from direct promotion by the Swiss in the basic European group C (they drew with them twice) was seen as a national injury. But the fans believed that in the play-off the players in azure blue jerseys would catch up and fix everything.
They were supposed to go to Portugal in the play-off, but the murderous duel did not take place, they had already lost a round before that at home to North Macedonia. The name of the Macedonian striker Alaksandar Trakovski, who hit a set-piece in Palermo, will forever haunt the annals. “What kind of club is it if it doesn’t make it to the World Cup for the second time in a row! And he won’t fall with strong Portugal, but at home with Macedonia, that speaks for itself,” Skuhravý, who lives in the Liguria region, does not spare his current compatriots. “This proves that some players are mentally unstable. Success will come and then fall,” he says bluntly.
Italian football is going through rough times.
The former champion and the European champion are missing
Not participating in the Qatar championship is a shame anyway. Especially when the other crowned selections will not be missing. The title of world football ruler is intended only for a narrow group of chosen ones, only eight countries have sat on the throne in history.
Three from South America (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay), five from Europe (Germany, France, Spain, England and Italy). They celebrated four triumphs just like Germany, only Brazil is better with five trophies. However, he will certainly not add another squadra azzurra.
Also, the absence of a European monarch is considered pagan. Until now, the European champion was missing from the world tournament only in 1978 in Argentina (Czechoslovakia), 1994 in the USA (Denmark) and 2006 in Germany (Greece). And the Italians, after their previous European victory in 1968, did very well in their subsequent world appearance, reaching the final in Mexico 1970, where they lost to the great Brazil.
At the same time, Italy was a regular participant, there was no doubt about its membership among the elite. In the last century, it failed to qualify for the best only once, in the fight for the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, when it lost on the field of both opponents in Portugal and Northern Ireland (promoted). When she didn’t make it to the previous championship in 2018 in Russia, it looked like a one-off failure. However, another setback suggests it could be otherwise.
Drunkenness last year, how much this year. Italian calcio is shrouded in a veil of shame, which, in addition to the loss of sporting prestige, has unfortunate economic consequences.
