Exclusion of Perlo from the Italian national team leadership prompts Maldini and Leonardo to resign

The project to rebuild the Italian national team has entered a new crisis after Andrea Pirlo dropped out of the race to take over as head coach of the Azzurri, while Paolo Maldini and Leonardo resigned from their positions at the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) following a disagreement over the identity of the new manager, according to news agencies and sports media.

Pirlo, who won the 2006 World Cup with Italy, announced that he was informed he was no longer a candidate to coach the national team, just days after topping the list of candidates to replace Gennaro Gattuso, particularly following the refusal of Spanish manager Pep Guardiola to take on the role.

Negotiations to sign Pirlo stalled amid growing controversy in Italy over his commercial ties with the Russian betting company Fonbet, his role as its global ambassador, and his participation in an event organized by the company in Moscow. This relationship drew political and institutional criticism in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

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Pirlo responded with a statement published on his Instagram account, expressing his frustration over the controversy surrounding his name and emphasizing that his collaboration with the company was limited to commercial and sporting aspects and carried no political implications.

He stressed his commitment, throughout his career as both a player and a coach, to the laws of the countries where he worked and the contracts he signed, rejecting any attribution of political stances he had not expressed. He also affirmed that his love for Italy was not tied to any official position and thanked Maldini and Leonardo for the trust they had placed in him.

Following the collapse of the contract talks, Maldini and Leonardo resigned from their roles as sporting director and advisor at the Italian Football Federation, having insisted on choosing Pirlo and refusing to consider alternative candidates for the project they were overseeing. No official announcement has been made by the FIGC regarding the acceptance of their resignations.

The Italian Football Federation had appointed Maldini as sporting director and head of the national team on July 11, with Leonardo joining as an advisor, as part of a new project to rebuild Italian football. However, the crisis ended their brief tenure shortly after it began.