Italy chooses Malagò as FIGC chairman: confidence in his CV, but no plan on the table

On the basis of what program exactly was Giovanni Malagò elected as the new president of the FIGC? And how did he differ from challenger Giancarlo Abete? The honest answer: almost no one knows. That is the core of the skepticism accompanying the election.

Abete, the losing candidate, pointed out afterwards that the procedure overshadowed the content: 'A debate about the content was not possible, nor was a shared program. It was wrong to first appoint the person and only then the program, also in the interests of Giovanni Malagò.'

Malagò (67) enjoys undeniable prestige in Italy. He was considered the architect behind the successful candidacy of Milan-Cortina for the Winter Games and was at the helm of a historically successful Olympic cycle. He previously led the CONI for three terms and gave new impetus to several sports. Despite some shadow spots in his career and life, he is perceived as primarily a man of results - and it is precisely on that image that Italian football now blindly relies. Striking: not a single face changed in the Federal Administration.


In the meantime, the call for concrete policy remains loud. 'People involved in football have to tackle the specific problems. General talk won't get you anywhere,' coach and thinker Julio Velasco recently warned. 'We keep talking about stadiums, but what does that have to do with the game of the national team? Nothing. Stadiums are important for the entire ecosystem and marketing, but you have to address the specifics. Otherwise we will wait twenty years for talent to blossom again.'

The day after 'the night of Zenica', Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis spoke out: Malagò is the right man to revitalize Italian football — on trust. Serie A followed in his wake, and later almost all other sections joined, with the exception of the Abete camp. Remarkably, the same De Laurentiis yesterday advocated rigorous interventions: removing approximately 140 matches from the calendar and returning to 16 clubs in Serie A. Exactly the type of reform that predecessor Gabriele Gravina tried in vain for years (albeit towards 18 clubs) against the resistance of the top clubs.

Why would that work with Malagò? Without a previously shared program, any interest group can withdraw at the first unwelcome measure. This increases the chance of the well-known Italian status quo: everyone against everyone. If Malagò is to truly reform, he will inevitably face dividing choices. It remains unclear how he gets everyone on board.

Perhaps that is not what Italian football primarily asks him to do. The implicit expectation seems simpler: choose the right national coach and bring the national team back to the surface. Italy is rarely the country of long-term planning and broad-based reforms; it thrives on sporadic miracle months and cherishes the hope of another 2006 or 2021. In the meantime, the structural decline of football in the boot has not been stopped — and certainly not solved by trust alone.