6JUN

FIGC race widens: Maldini, Del Piero, Albertini in play

2 min read

12:17UTC

Sports Minister Abodi is backing former AC Milan captain Paolo Maldini for the FIGC presidency, which would be the first time a former player has led Italian football.

← Back to Iran's squad in, its staff out Jump to analysis ↓

SportDeveloping

Key takeaway

No former player has ever led the FIGC; whether one does now will determine the reform narrative for Italian football.

Sports Minister Andrea Abodi endorsed Paolo Maldini for the FIGC presidency via La Stampa around 4 April, placing a former player at the centre of a race that has never produced one as winner. Alessandro Del Piero and Demetrio Albertini are also discussed. None has publicly confirmed interest.

Gravina's 8 April report establishes that the real constraint is legislative, not leadership. The candidates would inherit a structural problem requiring parliamentary action on betting levies, the Growth Decree, and tax credits for domestic talent investment.

Malago's commissioner route has precedent from 2018, referenced when the FIGC scheduled its 22 June election . The government may prefer that route to avoid a contested election during the reform window opened by Italy's elimination and the structural evidence in Gravina's report. The declaration deadline of approximately 13 May gives candidates five weeks to decide.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Italy needs a new football federation president after Gravina resigned. Names like AC Milan legend Paolo Maldini and World Cup winner Alessandro Del Piero are being discussed—which would be historic since no former player has ever led Italian football. The election is 22 June, but the government might bypass the election altogether and appoint a commissioner instead.

What could happen next?

A player-president without governance experience and without a legislative programme would be unable to implement the structural remedies Gravina's report recommends.
The Malagò commissioner route would avoid a contested election during the reform window but signal institutional continuity over disruption—the opposite of what Gravina's structural diagnosis suggests is needed.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: The 2018 precedent for FIGC governance is instructive. After Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, the FIGC went through a similar succession crisis; Carlo Tavecchio resigned, Roberto Fabbricini was appointed as extraordinary commissioner, and Gravina eventually won the 2018 election.

That election also featured player-name speculation (Roberto Baggio was discussed). The commissioner route allowed governance continuity during the reform window. Gravina's election produced incremental reform but not structural change.

Counter-parallel: La Liga's 2021 electoral reform, which saw Joan Laporta return to the Barcelona presidency on a reformist platform after institutional failure, shows that player-connected figures can deliver institutional change when the political coalition supports them. The difference: Laporta had a specific governance plan and a clear political base. None of the FIGC candidates has published a policy platform.

Consensus view: Italian football governance experts at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura dello Sport have observed that the three candidate names (Maldini, Del Piero, Albertini) share a common feature: global brand recognition but no governance experience.

The FIGC presidency requires managing Serie A clubs, amateur leagues, judicial organs, and government relations simultaneously. Neither Maldini's AC Milan technical director role nor Del Piero's ambassador work prepared them for institutional governance at this scale.

Counter-view: The case for a player-president is precisely the case against the technocrat model: Gravina, Tavecchio, Abete—all career federation administrators—presided over Italy's worst decade in football. A disruptor with name recognition and player credibility could reset the institutional culture. Malagò as commissioner is the middle path: experienced governance without the election risk, but also without the reform signal.

Key tension: Whether the FIGC needs institutional continuity or institutional disruption. Gravina's report argues the crisis is structural and requires legislative action; a player-president without political relationships cannot deliver that action. A career politician or official as commissioner (Malagò) maintains relationships but may not provide the reform signal that the structural evidence demands.

Sources:Milan Reports (citing La Stampa)·Milan Reports (citing La Stampa)

Mentions:La Stampa →Italy →AC Milan →Prima →World Cup →Serie A →Growth Decree →Alessandro Del Piero →Demetrio Albertini →Giovanni Malagò →Andrea Abodi →Swiss Federal Council →Paolo Maldini →FIGC →

First Reported In

Update #6 · FIFA's stealth price hike

Milan Reports (citing La Stampa)· 10 Apr 2026

Read original →

Causes and effects

This Event

FIGC race widens: Maldini, Del Piero, Albertini in play

Whether the June election produces a player-reformer or another insider determines whether Italy's structural football crisis produces institutional change or continuity.

Led to

Serie A picks Malagò for FIGC, sidelining government

The FIGC presidential race widening to former-player candidates was the position the clubs' 18-of-20 Malagò endorsement overrode on 13 April.

Occurred 13 Apr 2026

Read story →

Different Perspectives

FIFA

FIFA remains publicly silent on every open dispute touching the tournament: no response to the UNITE HERE ICE-moratorium demand since April, no on-record comment on the Iran visa reversal, no intervention on the FIGC election. Its governance architecture, which routes bilateral matters to governments and domestic federation matters to national bodies, structurally precludes a direct answer on all three.

Andrea Abodi / Italian Sports Ministry

Abodi's ANAC referral is the first formal institutional step in his challenge to Malagò, converting a legal argument into a timed procedural clock, with both bodies reportedly receiving the request with "considerable frustration". The 15 June deadline means Italy's federation crisis will peak mid-tournament regardless of the ruling's direction.

Mauricio Pochettino / USMNT

Pochettino confirmed the 4-3-3 with Reyna and Pulisic starting against Germany, resolving the formation question at the cost of a 3-1 defeat that exposed the defensive axis. His public frustration over Richards's fitness, "I got a little annoyed", frames the 11 June deadline as an emotional as well as a tactical decision.

FFIRI / Mehdi Taj

FFIRI confirmed the squad's clearance but stated five federation staffers were blocked under a "false pretences" finding, and denied separately reported player rejections, insisting the playing group travels intact. Taj's 5 June deadline expired; the approval arrived the same day, meeting the form of the demand while leaving the delegation short.

US State Department / UNITE HERE Local 11

Unnamed US officials approved Iran's squad visas via Ankara without a formal State Department statement, leaving Taremi's individual file unconfirmed; at the same venue system, UNITE HERE Local 11's 96% strike mandate among 2,000 SoFi workers, following FIFA's silence since 7 April, means US immigration enforcement runs as two parallel pressure tracks through the opener.

France (FFF)

Manager Didier Deschamps confirmed William Saliba will play, reversing the 'very doubtful' briefing from earlier in the week and deferring any surgery until after the tournament. France recovers its first-choice central defender for the group stage at a point when rivals were adjusting their tactical assessments.