Gennaro Gattuso wanted to talk about Italy’s revival. Instead, he ignited a global storm.
Days after a 2-0 away win at Moldova national football team – a result that kept Italy’s fading 2026 FIFA World Cup hopes alive – the former midfield enforcer turned national team coach finds himself under heavy fire for remarks seen across Africa, South America and beyond as dismissive, outdated and tinged with Eurocentric bias.
Gattuso, hired on June 15 to pull Italy out of a decade-long qualification nightmare, has spent the past months wrestling with a brutal reality: the four-time world champions have missed back-to-back World Cups, and their route to the expanded 48-team 2026 tournament remains precarious.
His mandate was to rebuild a fractured giant. Instead, he is fighting a two-front battle – one on the pitch, another online.
The controversy erupted during a post-match interview after the Moldova win with comments captured by broadcasters.
Reflecting on the shifting structure of World Cup qualification since his playing days, Gattuso complained that Europe’s path had become unfair, pointing directly to the rise in African representation for 2026.
“In my day, the best runners-up went straight to the World Cup,” he said. “In 1990 and 1994 there were two (African) teams – now there are nine. It’s not a controversy, but it creates difficulties.”
He went on to highlight South America’s six automatic spots out of ten teams, suggesting that Europe has become the confederation squeezed hardest by the reform.
The numbers align: CAF will have nine automatic places; UEFA will have 16; CONMEBOL retains six (plus a playoff slot); and CONCACAF, AFC and OFC each gained ground under the 2023 reforms.
But Gattuso’s framing – delivered at a tense moment for a nation desperate to avoid another qualification failure – landed badly.
His remarks ricocheted across Africa within hours.
In Morocco and Senegal, pundits blasted his comments as “colonial thinking dressed in nostalgia.”
Nigerian media flagged the idea that Europe’s struggles should be pinned on African growth.
“It’s not Africa’s fault Italy can’t qualify – fix your youth system, not our slots,” read one viral comment.
In Kenya, hashtags #AfricaDeservesMore and #GattusoOut dominated the African X landscape.
Even in Europe, support was mixed.
Former Italy manager Arrigo Sacchi urged Gattuso to focus on domestic shortcomings rather than global allocation politics.
Commentators across Italy defended him as blunt but raising valid concerns; outside Europe, the sentiment was overwhelmingly unforgiving.
Meanwhile, the deeper context weighs heavily on Gattuso.
Italy’s win against Moldova kept their qualification hopes alive, but those hopes were effectively ended after a 1-4 home defeat to Norway national football team on Sunday, which forced them into the playoff route and dashed their hopes of a direct path.
Gattuso insists he meant no disrespect. “I feel sadness for how hard it’s become,” he said, adding that he is being “massacred in South America” for even mentioning imbalance.
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