He had said that he would bring forward the vote and so he did, in agreement with Giovanni Malagò, the supreme leader of Italian sport. Gravina returned on Sunday with the team’s plane and yesterday at the Football Federation he transformed his intentions into reality. Before announcing the date, however, he communicated it to all the presidents of the Components. Only two responded negatively, but one of them, the number one in the Serie A league, is a cumbersome enemy. Casini is against the waynot at first. Balata, president of B, who would not mind appearing before the electorate, also rejected the idea.
Liquid scenarios, as Spalletti’s game should have been. There is a date, but there are no official candidates. Gravina has shortened the time to neutralize the large group of those calling for his resignation and at the same time, with a timely move, has shortened the time of the election campaign, putting his opponents in difficulty. There are only four months between now and the vote, with the summer in between. Whoever wants to take over the Football Federation will have to speed up the process and come out into the open. We will see if politics will express a candidate or if series A or series B will do it.
And in the meantime the Components will have to reorganize themselves and bring forward the elections: by regulation the FIGC must be the last to give itself a governance.
Gravina, on the other hand, will have to decide what to do. He is tormented, conflicted, obviously embittered. Up to now he has not made a definitive decision, even if the signs suggest that he will try to climb again. After all, it can count on a majority of consensus: Giancarlo Abete’s Lega Dilettanti, which weighs 34 percent, sides with the current president, as does Matteo Marani’s Lega Pro, which holds 17 percent. Even Aic and Aiac, players and coaches, are apparently with Gravina. And the same goes for the referees. Of course, the alliances, in light of the blue collapse, will have to be renegotiated along with the programs.
Marotta: «Let’s all do some self-criticism»
Bringing forward the vote, in the president’s mind, is also a desperate invitation, perhaps the last, to put aside grudges and divisions to seek a common path. And Beppe Marotta, president of Inter, also thinks about the common good and federal councilor: «We all have to do some self-criticism, even the League. We need more collaboration with the Football Federation for the good of the National Team».
And Spalletti, overwhelmed by criticism, is thinking about the national team. Re-emerging from the abyss of nothingness into which he has sunk will not be easy for the coach who in just over two months will start again by challenging Mbappé and France at the Stade de France. The Nations League group, with 6 games between September and November, will become a testing ground for the Italian coach. In November the new president, whoever he may be, even Gravina himself, will have the strength and the possibility to make a decision on the coach’s fate. Firing him now, with his term expiring, would have been a politically wrong move.
