Italian Football Federation President Carlo Tavecchio Resigns After World Cup Failure
Italian Football Federation president Carlo Tavecchio has resigned from his position following the country's failure to reach the World Cup for the first time in nearly six decades, according to Sky News.
The 74-year-old, who was initially appointed into his former role in August 2014, and then re-elected in March earlier this year, was left devastated after Gli Azzurri were unable to answer Sweden's one-goal first leg lead at San Siro last week, leaving them out of to the summer tournament.
It had been thought that the politician was intending to stay on in his position within the Italian Football Federation, with it believed that he was playing a large role in finding Gian Piero Ventura's replacement after slamming his fellow countryman following their qualification playoff exit.
“With a little intelligence, this debacle could’ve been avoided”, the 74-year-old said in the fallout of last Monday's defeat, as quoted by the Evening Standard.
“The Swedish players are very tall and strong, so we should’ve approached them with a different philosophy.
“We played badly. Against players who are all nearly two metres tall, we kept putting in crosses. We should’ve gone around them with the little guys. I thought of correcting him. I thought there are 100,000 Neapolitans in Milan, at least 20,000 would be at the stadium, how can you not play [Napoli forward Lorenzo] Insigne?
“The debacle was technical. The choices made by the coach were wrong. I have to say it.”
However, despite laying the majority of the blame at the door of Ventura, the pressure that had mounted on Tavecchio seems to have been too much for the Italian to handle, with him since resigned from his post and apologised while doing so.
“I’m sorry,” Tavecchio told reporters. “I’m leaving because I failed. I apologise to all Italians. Now is the time for Italian football to embark on a new era.”
