FEELING THE BLUES

Italy missing a third consecutive World Cup is no mystery-false dawns have hidden the structural decline in its football ecosystem for too long

- BY KARTHIK RAVINDRANATH

World War II had left Italy devastated.

But, when it came to football, Italians had cause for optimism ahead of the 1950 World Cup. They had Grande Torino. The historic 1940s squad of Serie A club Torino had won five consecutive Italian league titles. They looked unstoppable and supplied a large contingent to the Italy team—at one point, 10 of the 11 players. With Torino’s players, a third consecutive World Cup was not unfathomable.

Then, on May 4, 1949, an aircraft carrying the team crashed into the rear supporting wall of the Basilica of Superga, on a hilltop near Turin. The entire squad was gone. Without them, the national team could not recover. Italy were eliminated in the first round, suffered the same fate in 1954 and failed to qualify for Sweden 1958. The next time Italy would fail to qualify was for Russia 2018. Football had changed drastically in those 60 years. But, Italian football had stubbornly refused to modernise.

The events of March 31—missing out on a third consecutive World Cup after being beaten to a 2026 berth by Bosnia and Herzegovina—is a culmination of unmitigated structural decline, masked by an illusion of health.

To understand what is ailing Italy, we must start from the fascist foundations of the national team.