“Faced with the defeat against Switzerland I thought I was in an episode of Candid Camera.” John Malagopresident of CONI, uses irony, useful to tone down the drama, speaking to Corriere della Sera about the crisis in Italian football: “I have witnessed defeats, obviously. In individual sports it can happen that the tennis player or swimmer on duty on the day of the match, due to a physical or mental problem, has a terrible performance. But in a team sport, with the possibility of making five substitutions out of eleven, the scene seemed unbelievable to me: the players on the field conveyed the sensation of frustration and humiliation. It seemed like they didn’t even notice, because usually if you’re in difficulty you get carried away by the competitive spirit, but instead they were really amorphous. They never gave the impression of putting their heart and soul into it”.
Isn’t it Spalletti’s responsibility to convey the right mentality?
“Of course, after all he was honest in admitting that he had made a mistake and that the job of a selector is different from that of a coach. What a shame: after Zaccagni’s goal against Croatia in the 98th minute and that highway in the good part of the scoreboard it seemed that we were in the best possible situation”.
Can football in its institutions be so self-absolving?
“Let’s start with the coach: he must know how to manage a group based on his own tactical ideas. His CV speaks for itself but it is clear that he has responsibilities”.
So did you expect him to resign?
“Wait a minute… Those who now invoke them forget that last year they considered Spalletti the best coach available: let’s also consider that after the Naples interlude he would have had more attractive opportunities from an economic point of view. But if Luciano now says he is ready to get back in the game to demonstrate that he can obtain better results, who should make the decision to replace him? The federal leaders who are the first to be questioned?”.