Gravina, Buffon Quit After Italy's World Cup Failure
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- Gabriele Gravina resigned as FIGC president after Italy fell 4-1 on penalties to Bosnia-Herzegovina in a World Cup play-off final, making the four-time champions the first former winner to miss three straight tournaments (2018, 2022, 2026)
- Gianluigi Buffon, 48, also quit as delegation head via Instagram, citing "an act of responsibility" once Gravina stepped down; the 2006 World Cup winner said the main objective of bringing Italy back to the tournament was not met
- Gravina, 72, ran FIGC from October 2018, presiding over Italy's Euro 2020 penalty-shootout win over England at Wembley but also the appointments of coaches Luciano Spalletti and current boss Gennaro Gattuso, whom he asked to stay
- FIGC has called a presidential election for 22 June, with former Italian Olympic Committee chief Giovanni Malago — who led the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics organising committee — among the leading candidates
- UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin warned Italy could lose co-hosting of Euro 2032 (with Turkey) unless it submits five modern stadiums by an October deadline, calling out Italian politicians for the country's poor football infrastructure
- Ceferin had backed Gravina publicly before the resignation and explicitly absolved him of blame for the stadium crisis
Why it matters: Italy now has until 22 June to elect a new federation president and until October to convince UEFA it can deliver five modern stadiums — failing either threshold means the four-time world champions risk losing co-hosting of Euro 2032 while also needing to rebuild a national team that has now missed three straight World Cups for the first time in its history.
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