Federation President Gabriele Gravina ‘will try’ to adjust the Serie A fixture list to give Italy time to prepare for the World Cup play-offs in March.
The period building up to the play-offs was meant to be saved for friendlies, but will now be do or die clashes to see if they will be participating in the tournament in Qatar in November and December.
With no more breaks for international duty until then, there are calls to have a new gap in the calendar for Roberto Mancini to work with his players.
“At the moment, January 30 is the only possible window,” said Gravina after the FIGC meeting.
“We already asked the Lega Serie A this morning to reflect on it with us, but they are just as tied up as we are with the current calendar.
“We cannot change the fixtures just before the play-offs, so the only option would be making the most of the January 30 gap decided by UEFA for the South American qualifiers.
“We cannot use that window to bring the Serie A calendar forward, so we are thinking about a wider Azzurri training camp instead.”
Italy have gone in four months from winning UEFA EURO 2020 and setting a new all-time world unbeaten international record of 37 games to finishing runners-up behind Switzerland in the World Cup qualifying group.
“Let’s not condemn these lads, we should instead focus on returning to being special to win the play-offs,” added Gravina.
“If we remain ‘normal’, then it’s difficult. I’ve been in football for a very long time and I had the real sense that this team was something special when we won the Euros.
“We had two penalties that we didn’t convert, but I remain optimistic. Mancini is right when he says that if we work hard in March, we might even go into the World Cup itself with more confidence.”
This would be a good move, the squad showed how effective they are when they group together.
They need make sure that the Serie A round the week before is moved (eg play 2 games in a week later on in the season) that would have real value too.
Totally agree TOKEN BUBBLE. Clubs now need to know that the Country needs them and help the National team with everything they can give. I hope clubs start to use more of our players. They need to be match fit. I am worried for Donnarumma who is not playing and unfortunately it does show.
Agree 💯 TOKEN BUBBLE