At a press conference from Iserlohn, the Federal President Gabriele Gravina he also spoke about the long-range prospects with coach Luciano Spalletti and the possibility of imposing the use of young Italians on clubs:
Is it possible to impose the use of young people?
“There are national and international laws that prevent us from imposing certain choices. It is a cultural fact and cultural fate passes through some numbers, we have 42-43% of selectable players but beyond this data we are strenuously resisting the request to register non-EU players and this implies very strong political attacks. Even a training championship like Serie B requires it. There is no right cultural attitude to understand that we need to focus on the youth sector and the nursery. There is resistance within us and I do not have the possibility of changing something if not through a behavior of persuasion, of conviction. Then I want to clarify one thing: between me and Politics there is no contrast, there is a dialectical confrontation that also exists in France, Spain or England”.
We didn’t go to the World Cup twice and the project cannot ignore the qualification for the next one. Is this awareness there?
“Yes, there is this awareness. The planning with Spalletti aims at 2026 knowing that we can base all our expectations on this, but also knowing that we must always deal with reality. Since 2018 the Federation’s choice has been that of financing all the basic activities bringing home important historical results, but then these results must lead to new resources for the national team. We can talk all you want, but this is the group of footballers: maybe some will emerge others, the coach will have to work, but the truth is that we all realized that we went backwards yesterday. Having said that, we cannot forget the good performances of the qualifying period when, in addition to the results, we played well “The 2026 goal is real, we are all aware of the fact that it would be an unimaginable disaster not to be at a World Cup for the third time in a row because it would mean not having found answers.”