There are calls for change in Italian football after Italy were eliminated in the first round of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Following Italy’s exit, both the Azzurri coach Cesare Prandelli and FIGC president Giancarlo Abete resigned from their positions. This happened in June but the decisions on the new Italy coach and FIGC president were delayed until this month.
Carlo Tavecchio and Demetrio Albertini are the two candidates in the August 11 election for the FIGC presidency, and both men want to make changes to the Italian game after the Abete era.
The 71-year-old Tavecchio is the President of the National Amateur League or Lega Nazionale Dilettanti (LND) and he has attracted great controversy since his nomination.
During an LND summer assembly, he said that an African player could quickly go from “eating bananas” to starting for Lazio. Then it was discovered that on an Italian television program back in May, he had said that women were considered to be “handicapped”.
He has been criticised by the Italian press and on social media for his comments and FIFA has requested an investigation into the racist comments he made. Tavecchio has gone as far as to say that he has suffered more scrutiny than John F Kennedy’s assassin over his comments.
Despite his controversial remarks and the calls for him to be removed from the candidacy, he is still going to run for the election. What is more bewildering is that he still has plenty of support.
In another country, more people from outside of the media would have put greater pressure on Tavecchio to resign for his racial remark. The positive news so far is that some Serie A and Serie B club presidents have withdrawn their support for Tavecchio.
Regardless if Tavecchio’s ideas are ideal in making Italian teams competitive at club and international level, he has demonstrated to boast of a questionable public image through his horrible choice of words.
Putting the controversy aside, does Tavecchio actually have any concepts or plans to improve football in Italy?
He has neither gone into the details of his plans nor have they been highlighted as much as Albertini has.
Tavecchio wants to freshen up the coaching base of Coverciano, have a federal centre in each region of Italy connected with the LND and have restrictions on foreigners. He also wants to impose a maximum limit of players on each club’s roster.
His ideas on selecting the next Azzurri coach are outdated however. Tavecchio has considered reviving the idea of promoting coaches that have worked in the federation instead of selecting a coach from club level.
He wanted to put Gianni Rivera in charge for Italy’s September 4 friendly against the Netherlands and eventually give the reins to Francesco Rocca.
Rocca has worked with Italy’s youth teams in the past and Tavecchio wanted him to implement a style of play that would go from senior team and be passed down to all the youth teams.
Tavecchio had also considered other people in the FIGC such as Azzurrini coach Luigi Di Biagio and coach of Italy’s women’s team Antonio Cabrini.
Albertini has not revealed who he would consider for the Azzurri job but he has some clear ideas on how he wants to revolutionise the Italian game.
The 43-year-old told Gazzetta dello Sport about his five-point plan which is based on the German model and will put a focus on youth development.
Albertini wants to have two separate administrations for professional and amateur clubs. He also wants to modify the amount of teams in the professional leagues in Italy and include B-teams in Lega Pro.
He wants a minimum of 8 to 10 youth team players on each senior roster and that clubs should have a maximum of 25 players.
Albertini wants to expand more on grassroots projects and he too wants to revitalize Coverciano by providing youth development programs for the Italian national youth sectors.
Although Tavecchio’s candidacy has been surrounded with controversy and Albertini has shown clarity in his ideas, the veteran administrator is still the favourite to win the election.
It seems that the voters like the club presidents and major administrators in Italian football are still of the belief that an experienced head is the safer option while youthful candidates provide too much risk.
Tavecchio with his old ideas and way of expressing himself represent an old Italy whereas Albertini is trying to modernise Italian football.
Monday’s election is decisive for the future of Italian football, and for the sake of the sport they need to vote for a candidate that will improve the game.
If Tavecchio wins, he needs to demonstrate his ability as an administrator because there will be bound to still be people condemning his remarks. If Albertini wins, he needs to show that he is a man who can turn his ideas into real actions with an end-product regardless of his age.
Follow Vito Doria on Twitter: @VitoCDoria
