Italian football is making a fresh start under Mancini. Malagò has chosen not to upset anyone

Giovanni Malagò has chosen to entrust the Italian national team’s managerial role to Roberto Mancini. Much to his regret.

Giovanni Malagò had been chosen by Italian football to serve as president of the Italian Football Federation to put the system back on track, to give it a direction and thus a purpose. The president had set that direction, and it was a strong signal: Paolo Maldini and Leonardo were brought in to give the national team a new look and a new shape. Then it all went pear-shaped. The head coach chosen by the pair, Andrea Pirlo, was deemed unsuitable by almost universal consensus; then there was the contract scandal with Fonbet, and that was that. Not even three World Cups on home soil were enough to make people accept a clean slate and a fresh start from scratch.

And so Giovanni Malagò has opted for mediation. Not a capitulation to the clubs. Serie A wanted Antonio Conte; he chose Roberto Mancini and announced it at the Federal Council meeting. His departure from the national team to take up a lucrative role with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation has been forgiven. The disappointing failure to qualify for the 2022 World Cup has been forgiven. All has been forgiven. We’re starting afresh with a manager who has won something – more than just something – from the touchline. We’re starting afresh with the president’s chosen man, the man he had in mind immediately after his election, and even before that.

The fact that the national team’s technical director was appointed first, however, speaks volumes about what is to come. The FIGC is unlikely to bring about any radical changes; it will try to mediate and fix the major issues. Everything else will be improvised as we go along. Italian football, on the other hand, had responded very poorly to those who, with an authoritative air and a firm hand, had shown the way forward. There is always a call for a touch of democracy in decision-making when changes threaten a state of stagnant equilibrium where nobody really loses, even though few stand to gain.

And so the task of picking up the pieces should fall to a gentleman of the football world, yet one who is capable of doing his job well: Claudio Ranieri. A man who raises his voice only when necessary, who knows how to listen, mediate and console, but who also possesses the bearing of a leader, without making a show of it. The president of the FIGC had already considered him in the days leading up to the appointment, but then decided to take a gamble.

Giovanni Malagò has learnt, the hard way and against his will, that it was better not to upset anyone, to try to change things without those who fear losing even a shred of their fleeting power actually realising it.

Will it work? Things in Italian football have always sorted themselves out without any major upheavals, through a natural evolution of events. However, there are fewer young people, the population is ageing, and other sports are growing in prestige and membership.