Luciano Spalletti to stay as Italy boss despite calls to resign

Luciano Spalletti will remain as Italy boss after being given a vote of confidence by the head of the country’s football federation.

FIGC president Gabriele Gravina confirmed the news at a media conference this morning, less than 24 hours after defending champions Italy were dumped out of Euro 2024 following a disappointing performance in losing 2-0 to Switzerland in the round of 16.

There were calls for Spalletti to resign in the Italian media but Gravina believes the 65-year-old, who succeeded Roberto Mancini in August last year, is the man to take the team forward.

He said: “Yesterday there was a long chat with the coach and I think it is unthinkable to solve problems by abandoning a project that is multi-year. You cannot abandon the project after eight or nine months.

“A coach who has been in charge for nine or 10 games is central to the project, and he cannot always have all the players available.

“Spalletti has our trust, a new challenge begins in 60 days and we can’t hope that a Cristiano Ronaldo, [Lionel] Messi or [Kylian] Mbappe will suddenly pop up in Italy. We have to value the talent that is there in our country.”

Full time. #SUIITA #EURO2024 #Azzurri #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/aFo53mv4Zb

— Italy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri_En) June 29, 2024

What next for Italy?

Attention now turns to the Nations League followed by the World Cup, a tournament Italy have not qualified for since 2014, with qualifying getting underway in March 2025.

Gravina added: “These are the players we have, we are a little further away from the objectives we had set ourselves, but we cannot give up. 

“We need to raise awareness as best we can and bring the best out of these young guys. We know that it would be an unimaginable disaster not to qualify for the World Cup three times in a row.”

The Italy players were “mortified” by their exit, according to Gravina, who insists it was a collective blame for their failure.

“We met last night, everyone was disappointed, the boys were mortified,” he said. 

“The biggest disappointment is that they were not able to demonstrate the sacrifices they have made over the last 30 days. I’m not disappointed by them, rather by the performance. They are the guys we have to continue investing in. In 60 days it is difficult to find alternatives that make a big difference in quality.”