Italy coach Antonio Conte on Friday
sounded an alarm about the falling number of Italian players in
Serie A, saying the national team's competitiveness was under
threat.
"The concern about the (2022) World Cup in Qatar is due to
the fact that, when (2006 World Cup-winning coach Marcello)
Lippi was in charge, he could choose from 61-62 Italians out of
100 (players)," Conte said.
"Today this has come down to 33. This is the greatest risk
that Italy runs today. If this percentage keeps coming down,
it'll be difficult to be competitive".
The former Juventus boss said profound changes were needed
to stop this,
"Something is wrong. We need the trend to be reversed," he
said.
The issue of limiting foreign players is a delicate one.
European Union freedom of movement laws rule that there can
be no restrictions on clubs signing players from other parts of
the EU.
Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) President Carlo Tavecchio
clumsily referred to this issue during his successful election
campaign last year, saying there were too many "banana-eating"
non-EU players in Italian football.
The comments led to him being banned from UEFA and FIFA
congresses for six months.
The federation went on to limit Italian team's squads to
25 players, including at least four home-grown player and at
least four products of the club's academy.
Conte's alarm comes after Italy dropped to 17th in the
updated FIFA soccer world ranking on Thursday, their lowest-ever
position, after last month's 1-1 draw with Croatia in a Euro
2016 qualifier and a 1-0 loss to Portugal in a friendly.
"I think that the prestige we have in the world does not
correspond to 17th place in the FIFA ranking," Tavecchio said at
Friday's news conference on Italy's youth teams.
"Italy has an image that many people don't like. But we
want to defend with Antonio Conte".
Conte is staying on as Azzurri coach despite prosecutors
this week requesting he be indicted in relation to alleged
match-fixing in a second tier match when he was in charge of
Siena in the 2010-11 season.
He announced that Luigi Di Biagio will continue as Italy
Under-21 coach despite them not going beyond the group stage of
the recent European championship finals.
Tavecchio, meanwhile, announced that Italy will bid to
host the 2019 European championships finals.
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