Gianluigi Buffon has said that complacency and a lack of long term vision from Italy’s football leaders and politicians are responsible for the national team’s continued decline, as he reflected on the Azzurri’s struggle to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup.
Italy, four time world champions, last won the tournament in 2006 when they defeated France in Berlin. Since then they have exited in the group stage twice and failed to qualify for the past two editions. Buffon, now head of delegation for the national team, told Gazzetta dello Sport that the crisis is no surprise and warned that the stagnation will persist without meaningful reform.
Buffon recalled returning from the 2010 World Cup with a sense of foreboding, saying he had told colleagues that the problems facing the team were only beginning. He said, “We had made mistakes, no doubt about that. But I warned people. Within a few years we would celebrate qualifying, not winning.” He added that this was not a prophecy, merely an understanding of the path Italian football was on.
He contrasted Italy’s direction with that of major European rivals, arguing that the Azzurri have been weighed down by an obsession with their own past while others have evolved. “The problem is living in two worlds,” he said. “We glorify our history and think everything is a divine blessing. Meanwhile France have been the best team for thirty years, Spain for almost twenty. They live in the present.”
Buffon said Italy are now paying the price for decisions made two decades ago, when the success of players such as Buffon himself, Fabio Cannavaro and Francesco Totti created a sense of comfort that delayed necessary changes in technical and tactical development. He argued that the country should have modernised its footballing model instead of assuming success would continue naturally.
He was also critical of what he sees as a lack of courage among politicians, saying that meaningful structural reform requires boldness that elected officials do not show. “Politicians do not do it,” he said. “They focus only on votes. There is no plan.”
Buffon warned that Italian football faces continued stagnation without stability and long term planning. “It is simple,” he said. “In ten years you will interview another Buffon in my place, but the questions and answers will be the same.”
