Former Italy manager Roberto Mancini is set to return for a second spell as the national team coach, replacing Gennaro Gattuso, who departed after Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third consecutive time.
Andrea Pirlo's potential appointment as Italy's head coach is facing significant political opposition due to his commercial ties as a global ambassador for Russian betting company Fonbet, with Italian parliamentarians and football federation figures expressing concerns.
Andrea Pirlo, a 2006 World Cup winner and former Juventus manager, has reportedly been appointed as the new head coach of the Italian national football team on a four-year deal.
Former Manchester City and Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola has turned down the opportunity to coach the Italy national team, a source familiar with the discussions said on Friday, confirming media reports.
The Italian Football Federation has appointed legendary former captain Paolo Maldini as its new Technical Director, aiming to leverage his experience to revitalise the national team's international standing after recent World Cup qualification struggles.
Roberto Mancini has returned for a second spell as Italy coach, vowing to revive the Azzurri's fortunes after the nation missed the last three World Cups and failed to win a major trophy since Euro 2020 under his previous leadership.
Former AC Milan and Italy defender Franco Baresi, one of the most recognisable players of the golden era of Italian football in the 1980s and 1990s, has died at the age of 66, his former club said on Friday.
Italy's technical director Paolo Maldini revealed that the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) first approached Carlo Ancelotti for the national team coaching job before engaging with Pep Guardiola, as they seek to rebuild the Azzurri after failing to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup.
'The date of the rearranged fixtures will be announced in due course.'
The torches that will carry the Olympic flame for the 2026 Winter Games and Paralympics were unveiled on Monday in Milan and at a parallel event in the Italian pavilion at Expo 2025 in the Japanese city of Osaka.
Italians across the country hailed a great summer, during which they also won the European soccer championship and the Eurovision song contest.
Rome's bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games was unanimously endorsed by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) in what bid president Luca di Montezemolo described as an important signal of support.
Fireworks and music broke out across the country after the 3-2 shootout win
Serie A clubs voted on Wednesday to set June 13 as the resumption date for the league, which has been suspended since March 9 due to the coronavirus pandemic, although the final decision rests with the government.
Juventus appears to have surprised Serie A organisers by reaching the Champions League final, forcing last-minute changes to the domestic fixture list.
The postponed Olympic Games will now begin on July 23 next year and run until August 8, the head of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee said on Monday, as the coronavirus pandemic made it impossible to plan and prepare for them properly this year. The Games were postponed last week - the first such delay in the 124-year history of the modern Olympics. The move was a huge blow for Japan, which invested $13 billion in the run-up to the event and raised $3 billion from domestic sponsors.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Rome's new mayor, Virginia Raggi, pulled the plug on the city's bid to host the 2024 Olympics, saying staging the summer games would bury the Italian capital under mountains of debt and tonnes of cement.
The Italian federation (FIGC) is determined to complete the season and its president Gabriele Gravina has been presenting new ideas on an almost daily basis of how that can be done. Meanwhile, Turkmenistan in Central Asia is set to resume its soccer season with spectators at the weekend, making it only the second country in the world to let fans attend matches as the new coronavirus shuts down almost all of world football.
IOC President Thomas Bach asked members of the Olympic body at its session in Buenos Aires to support the creation of a refugee team, along the lines of the one that competed at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. The members responded with applause.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
