Legendary Italian footballer Alessandro Del Piero has issued a powerful critique of the ongoing crisis in Italian football, calling for deep structural reforms and genuine humility. He condemned the prevailing culture of blame-shifting and self-preservation among those in leadership, which he believes has hindered any meaningful response since Italy’s World Cup playoff elimination.
The former Juventus star didn’t hold back in expressing the severity of Italy’s third consecutive absence from the World Cup. He described the 2018 elimination as a ‘shock,’ the second as a ‘nightmare,’ and the current third as ’embarrassing to justify.’ Del Piero lamented, ‘We were once an enormous power, and to find ourselves in this position for the third time is truly incredible.’
Del Piero strongly emphasized that this failure cannot be attributed to any single individual. He argued that the underlying issues run much deeper than any specific coach’s short tenure or a particular president’s leadership.
He elaborated, ‘Many complex situations have converged to produce this outcome. There is so much more behind all of this.’
His vision for recovery was equally direct, squarely addressing the culture of self-interest he perceives as stagnating Italian football.
“Fundamentally, we are only concerned with saving ourselves. That absolutely must change,” he declared.
Del Piero, 51, drew parallels with Italy’s past periods of sporting adversity, noting how historical crises in 1982 and 2006 had spurred the nation to uncover ‘energy, creativity, desire, and solutions.’ He added, ‘Even today, it feels like we are far from those solutions.’
Regarding the path to rebuilding, Del Piero highlighted a core cultural flaw in the development of young players.
“We over-instruct youngsters, which stifles their creativity,” he explained. “They excel at following instructions, but as soon as they operate outside that rigid framework, they make errors and are dismissed as inadequate. This isn’t accurate; the issue is that they have only been taught one approach.”
His concluding message for Italian football was unequivocal: “Pride must be cast aside. What is required now is humility, a readiness to start anew, to learn, and to critically examine successful models. We are no longer the entity we believe ourselves to be.”