Ex Juventus & Napoli executive Moggi: ‘Italy broken at the core, Gravina must step aside & De Laurentiis is right’

By Samira Vishwas On Apr 2, 2026

Luciano Moggi has launched a scathing attack on the state of Italian football in the wake of the Azzurri’s third consecutive World Cup elimination, calling for Gabriele Gravina to resign and demanding that Sports Minister Andrea Abodi intervene to force genuine structural change.

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The former Juventus and Napoli director, speaking on Radio Tutto Napoli, drew a direct line between Italy’s current crisis and the fallout from the Calciopoli scandal of 2006, arguing that Italian football has been in terminal decline ever since its last major triumph.

“Remember that the last great result was in 2006, when we won the World Cup with a strong leadership structure,” he said, via TuttoMercatoWeb.

“From that point, with the dawn of Calciopoli, Italian football was finished.”

ZENICA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA – MARCH 31: (L-R) President of CONI Luciano Buonfiglio, President of FIGC Gabriele Gravina and UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin look on prior the FIFA World Cup 2026 European Qualifiers KO play-offs match between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy at Stadion Bilino Polje on March 31, 2026 in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Photo by Getty Images/Getty Images)

Moggi: ‘Italy broken at the core: the fish rots from the head, Gravina must step aside’

On Gravina, Moggi was unsparing. “The national team is a mirror of the system, if we have been eliminated three times, it means something is fundamentally broken at the base. The fish rots from the head, and therefore Gabriele Gravina should step aside. He has been neither lucky nor up to the task.”

His prescription for recovery was equally blunt. “We need to start from zero, a total clean-out. Minister Abodi should intervene seriously. Enough talk: what is needed is a real revolution.”

The suggestion that political intervention may be the only way to force meaningful change at the FIGC reflects a growing mood in Italy that the federation is incapable of reforming itself from within.

Moggi also backed Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis in his calls for a restructuring of Serie A.

“De Laurentiis is right, a general overhaul is needed because things cannot continue like this,” he said. “Today we have reached the point of being afraid of teams like Bosnia. That says everything.”