FIFA World Cup qualifiers: Gennaro Gattuso needs to look at Italy’s problems instead of pointing fingers

Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso (AP Photo)

What’s eating Gennaro Gattuso? The AC Milan and Italy legend, who won the World Cup in 2006, has been tasked with returning the once-mighty Azzurri to the top table for the first time since 2014. But Norway and a rampant Erling Haaland crushed hopes of automatic qualification, and Italy now face two nerve-wracking single-leg play-offs in March to punch their ticket to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

On Monday night, at the San Siro in Milan – Gattuso’s old stomping ground – he saw his team torn apart by Norway, who scored four unanswered second-half goals after Pio Esposito had given Italy an 11th-minute lead. Even if they had won, Italy would still have been play-off-bound, as Norway finished with an incredible goal difference of +32.

Afterwards, a rueful Gattuso seemed to point the finger at the qualification format. “In my day, the best [group] runners-up went straight to the World Cup, now the rules have changed,” he said. “Italy's record of six wins? You'd have to ask the people who make the groups and the rules.

“If we look at South America, where six out of 10 teams go directly to the World Cup and the seventh heads into a play-off with a team from Oceania, that does give you regrets and a certain sadness. That is the disappointment. The system needs to change in Europe.”

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Those claims aren’t backed up by facts. While it’s true that Europe gets only 16 slots – the continent has 26 teams currently in the top 50 of the FIFA rankings – the ground reality has also changed vastly since Gattuso was a young teen making his way in the game.

In 1990, there were just 32 nations under the UEFA umbrella. Now, after the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, there are 54. With the five mandatory FIFA windows for internationals leaving room for just 10 matches a year, Europe has to play in smaller groups of four or five with only the winner qualifying automatically. An 18-game campaign on South American lines is ruled out because UEFA wants to squeeze the Nations League into the calendar.

As for the jibe about South America, eight of the ten nations there are in the top 50 of the rankings, and competition is so fierce that just one point separated second and sixth – five-time World Cup winners, Brazil, were fifth.

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The only continent to get slots way above their standing in the game is Asia, with eight automatic qualifiers and only four teams – Japan, Iran, South Korea and Australia – in the top 50. But even there, Qatar (52), Uzbekistan (55), Saudi Arabia (58) and Jordan (66) have a better ranking than shock African qualifiers, Cape Verde (71). Curacao, who clinched their place from Central America last night, are ranked 82.

Most football fans would love to see Italy at the World Cup. But for that to happen, there needs to be introspection, not pointing fingers.