Italian Sports Minister Andrea Abodi has said that Italy should not be given a second chance to participate in the FIFA World Cup, writes Politico.
Abodi said on the 23rd of April that giving Italy a second chance to participate in the World Cup is inappropriate and must be won. The Italian was responding to a call by US special envoy Paolo Zampolli to FIFA to replace Iran’s national team with an Italian team at this summer’s soccer tournament in North America.
The Iranian embassy in Rome also joined the discussion via the X, stating that soccer belongs to the people, not politics, and condemning the US for trying to exclude the Iranian team from the World Cup. This only shows the lack of morale in the US, which is afraid of 11 young Iranians on the field. However, striker Sardar Azmon, who has criticized the Tehran regime, has been excluded from the Iranian team.
Given the war that the US and Israel have started in the Middle East, there are doubts about the Iranian participation, but FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced in mid-April that the Iranian team should participate in the competition.
Four-time world champion Italy lost a play-off match in March to Bosnia and Herzegovina,
which had only previously qualified for the World Cup in 2014. The issue became politically heated, and the president of the Italian Football Federation, Gabriele Gravina, resigned after the loss.
Despite the unpleasant shock of missing out on a third consecutive World Cup, Italian officials immediately rejected Campoli’s idea of letting the Italian team in through the back door. The president of the Italian Olympic Committee, Luciano Buonfiglio, said he did not think there was any possibility of replacing Iran, adding that he would be offended if the Italians were allowed to participate in such circumstances. He stressed that the opportunity to participate in the World Cup must be earned.
Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti was even more blunt: “Today I’ve read the news that Trump’s envoy asked for it: I find it shameful. I would be ashamed.”
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