Italy’s relegation status in football is deep

Balance is rude. Only one of the four Champions League teams of the four-time (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006) world champion country of football, Italy, is participating in the current season’s competition.

Inter lost to Bodö/Glimt with a total of 2-5 goals and Juventus to Galatasaray with 5-7 goals in the first play-off stage. After all, Atalanta cleared Borussia Dortmund after winning 4–1 on Wednesday.

Napoli, the reigning champion of their country, had already dropped out of the game in January after finishing only 30th in the 36-team league stage.

And how is it going on the national team front? Not well.

Italy was left out of the World Cup in Russia 2018 and the final tournament in Qatar 2022. Now there is a great danger that the country will not even make it to the 48-team games, which will be played next summer in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Italy, who finished second in last year’s World Cup qualifying group after the superior Norway, will face Northern Ireland in the further qualification on March 26. If they win their home game in Bergamo, their next opponent at the end of the month will be either Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The road to the Games is certainly not uncomplicated. Already two consecutive stomach falls at the World Cup level are considered a big disaster, but what about the third one? The answer is easy: a scandal.

Italian the sample of discount status in top football is starting to be so wide and long-lasting that the discussion about the root causes of the problems has been going on for years.

Although success usually comes in cycles, there is no longer any reason to desperately run away or cunningly hide the harsh facts.

But right now it’s more of a black swan.

The sharpest tip of the harsh and completely justified criticism practically falls on two main themes: on the one hand, the quality of junior coaching, and on the other hand, the top-level economy compared to Italy’s competitive reference countries.

Too much team tactics and too little individual basic technique! Although these things are of course not mutually exclusive, the argument is maintained year after year. And no reason at all.

When you go to watch junior football in Italy, you often come across coaches who, as the “arrigosacches” of their own lives, try to teach children and young people the uniform movement of the defensive line or the details of opening the game, even though they may not even know how to pass the ball and it’s good to run properly.

A common and very good question is where the new “robertobaggios”, “francescototti” or “alessandro del piero” can arise.

And what comes to the economy of top football, the main reasons for the low score are obvious.

For example, the relatively low value of television contracts, the old-fashioned stadium situation and other inadequate infrastructure, in an international comparison, directly affect player and coach salaries as well as the whole image of the attractiveness of Italian football.

Despite all the problems and the discount status, there is also a promising paradox under the surface: if Italy plays in the summer World Cup, it will once again be counted among the possible champion candidates or at least among the dark horses.

But right now it’s more of a black swan.

Correction 26/02/2026 at 10:41: The article originally claimed incorrectly in a couple of places that all Italian clubs are out of this season’s Champions League. In reality, Atalanta are still in the race.