Meloni allies fail to take over Italian soccer

The most high-profile team to miss out on the 2026 World Cup, Italy, is picking a new crop of officials to revamp its discredited soccer association — as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s allies failed in their bid to take more control over the body.

Veteran sports official Giovanni Malagò, a former president of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) for more than a decade, overcame opposition from Italy’s right-wing government to become the new president of the Italian soccer association (FIGC) earlier this week.

Malagò’s key challenge is to mend ties with Italian Sports Minister Andrea Abodi, with whom he has clashed in the past and who publicly questioned Malagò’s soccer credentials. Until the very last minute, Meloni’s government tried to block Malagò from clinching the FIGC’s top job — but ultimately failed.

In a soccer-mad country where the sport carries outsized cultural weight, Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup turned into a proxy battle over governance, reforms, investment and the Meloni administration’s willingness to extend political influence into independent institutions.

Frustrated Italian soccer fans, who have seen their country miss out on qualifying for the last three World Cups, just want Malagò to pick Italy’s new head coach.

The favorites for the job are Roberto Mancini and Antonio Conte — two soccer grandees who both previously coached the Italian national team. Another soccer legend, former AC Milan captain Paolo Maldini, is being touted for a new job as a bridge between the FIGC and the players, according to Italian media.

But that’s not the only item sitting in Malagò’s in-tray.

Italy must nominate five stadiums capable of hosting matches at Euro 2032, which it will co-organize with Turkey, by an October deadline. That’s potentially problematic given that Europe’s governing body, UEFA, warned that Italy could lose its role as co-organizer unless it upgrades its dilapidated soccer infrastructure.