Andrea Pirlo won't be coaching Italy. The federation pulled his candidacy after his role as a global ambassador for Russian bookmaker Fonbet became politically untenable — and the fallout didn't stop there.
Two executives who had just joined the Italian setup resigned within weeks of being appointed. Paolo Maldini, reportedly brought in as technical director, has quit. Leonardo, an advisor and former Brazil international, followed. Whatever they were building around Pirlo collapsed almost immediately after it was assembled.
Politics, not football
This was never really about whether Pirlo could coach at international level — his mixed stints at Juventus and Sampdoria have given plenty of ammunition to doubters on that front. This was about optics. Italy is backing Ukraine. Having a national team coach publicly tied to a Russian gambling company was always going to be a problem, regardless of how commercially innocent the arrangement actually is.
Pirlo pushed back on social media, calling the role "exclusively for commercial and sports" purposes and insisting it is connected to his current job managing Dubai United in the UAE. "To assign a political meaning to that collaboration is to attribute to me beliefs that I have never expressed and that do not belong to me," he said. That may be entirely true. It doesn't matter. The optics were fatal.
Federation president Giovanni Malagò opposed the appointment. Italian politicians weighed in. Once that happens, the football conversation is over.
Italy's coaching circus rolls on
The broader backdrop here is grim. Italy just missed a third consecutive World Cup — losing to Bosnia and Herzegovina on penalties in the playoff — and the federation has now burned through another coaching saga without landing anyone. They reportedly spoke to Pep Guardiola before turning to Pirlo. Now Guardiola said no, Pirlo is gone, two executives have resigned, and journalist Gianluca Di Marzio is linking Roberto Mancini to the role.
Mancini, who took the job in 2018 and left in 2023, would be a retreat to familiar ground rather than a bold rebuild. Whether that's reassuring or damning probably depends on how much faith you have left in Italian football's decision-making. Right now, that faith has taken a beating.
Any odds on Italy qualifying for the 2026 World Cup should be read through the lens of a federation that just watched its coaching process detonate in real time.
