Gabriele Gravina

Gabriele Gravina is president of the FIGC (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio), Italy's national football federation, a post he has held since 2018. On 31 March 2026, Italy lost 4-1 on penalties to Bosnia and Herzegovina in their World Cup playoff, making them the first former champion to miss three consecutive World Cup tournaments. Gravina publicly refused to resign despite simultaneous demands from Sports Minister Andrea Abodi, senator Claudio Lotito, and the league body Lega Calcio. A board meeting is scheduled for the following week to decide his future.

Gravina's tenure has coincided with two catastrophic qualifying failures. Italy were eliminated in a playoff shootout before the 2022 Qatar World Cup and have now repeated the pattern. Under the current structure, managers have minimal time to build squads: Gennaro Gattuso completed fewer than 15 training sessions across ten months before the Bosnia defeat, fewer than one and a half per month. Critics argue Gravina has failed to restructure the federation to support competitive national team preparation.

The governance crisis extends beyond one man. Italy have not appeared at a World Cup since 2014 Brazil, a 16-year absence that will stretch to at least 2030. Abodi's call to rebuild "from the ground up" signals that political pressure, not just football opinion, is now driving the federation's future. The outcome of next week's board meeting will determine whether Gravina remains or whether Italy enter a full structural reset.