Giovanni Malagò was elected president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) on Monday, winning 68.58 per cent of the weighted vote at an extraordinary assembly in Rome. The 67-year-old former head of Italy’s Olympic committee and the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Games organising committee defeated Giancarlo Abete, who led the federation from 2007 to 2014 and now presides over the amateur league, by 343,084 votes to 145,936. “Alone I can do nothing; together we can do everything,” Malagò told delegates at the Rome Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria Hotel, where 245 of 273 eligible voters cast electronic ballots.

Malagò’s path to the presidency was paved by an unusual coalition. The Serie A league, with the exception of Lazio’s Claudio Lotito, rallied behind him early, orchestrated by Inter Milan president Giuseppe Marotta and Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis. Support then cascaded through the players’ and coaches’ associations and parts of the second and third tiers, isolating Abete’s base in the amateur Lega Nazionale Dilettanti. The same assembly confirmed the outgoing federal council in its entirety, a continuity that Italian media commentators described as a missed opportunity for renewal after the national team’s latest debacle.

Malagò takes over from Gabriele Gravina, who resigned in April after Italy failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, losing a play-off to Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was the third consecutive World Cup the four-time champions will miss, following absences in 2018 and 2022. Head coach Gennaro Gattuso and delegation chief Gianluigi Buffon also stepped down in the aftermath. The election unfolded while the expanded 48-team tournament proceeds in the United States, Mexico and Canada without the Azzurri, a fact that outgoing president Gravina acknowledged by insisting that “problems are not solved by changing FIGC presidents” but through structural reform.

The new president inherits a federation confronting multiple structural challenges. Foremost is the appointment of a national team coach, with Roberto Mancini, who led Italy to the European Championship title in 2021 but resigned abruptly in 2023, widely reported as the leading candidate. Beyond the bench, Malagò must address a youth development system that many in Italy argue has ceased producing elite talent, and oversee preparations for Euro 2032, which Italy will co-host with Turkey amid chronic stadium infrastructure delays. Relations with the government are strained: Gravina and league representatives used the assembly to accuse Rome of withholding support and cutting funding for youth sectors.

Italy’s next competitive engagement is the Nations League in the autumn, where a group containing Belgium, Turkey and France awaits. A poor campaign would further damage the federation’s FIFA ranking and risk dropping the national team out of the top seeding pot for Euro 2028 qualification. Malagò’s immediate task, therefore, is to install a technical leadership capable of arresting the slide before the next competitive cycle begins.