Paolo Maldini has left his role with the Italian Football Federation after his third attempt to hire a new head coach for the national team. Andrea Pirlo was denied, adding further disarray to a country that was once a international powerhouse.
Paolo Maldini has stepped down from role as the Italian Football Federation’s (FIGC) Technical Director after just 16 days.
Maldini, alongside technical advisor Leonardo, stepped down after being appointed by new FIGC President Giovanni Malago in July 2026.
The Italian football and AC Milan icon’s departure comes after weeks of failed attempts to secure the Italian football national team’s new head coach, with the latest failed attempt being Andrea Pirlo.
It was announced yesterday (27 July) by Pirlo he has been ruled out of contention for the Italian head coach role due to his ties with Russian betting company Fonbet.
According to Corriere della Sera, Malago suspended the appointment process with Pirlo after seeking legal clarification regarding his ambassadorial contract with Russian betting firm Fonbet.
Pirlo, a former teammate of Maldini at AC Milan, was believed to have been the preferred choice of Maldini, who threatened to quit his role if Pirlo’s appointment were to be blocked. This has now been confirmed.
With Maldini and Leonardo’s confirmed departures, Malago has taken over the role of identifying the Italy national team’s next head coach.
Sky Sports News is currently reporting former Italy head coach Roberto Mancini is the leading candidate for the role. Another former head coach of the national team, Antonio Conte, has also been identified as a candidate, but there has been no contact from Malago or the FIGC.
Italy’s managerial nightmare
When Maldini was appointed technical director to lead the search for Gennaro Gattuso’s successor, he claimed “when Italy calls, it’s hard to say, ‘No’”.
However, he may not have foreseen the responses from his early attempts at acquiring the services of his leading candidates.
Pep Guardiola held talks with Maldini and the FIGC over the Italian head coach role, reportedly offering the former Manchester City boss €10m-per-year. Despite this, Guardiola prioritised more time away from the sport after he had just stepped down as manager of Manchester City in May 2026 and rejected the FIGC’s offer.
Maldini’s attention then turned to current Brazil head coach Carlo Ancelotti, his former manager at AC Milan.
Ancelotti had the same response as Guardiola, telling the FIGC ‘no’ as he had already agreed to extend his contract with the Brazilian Football Federation prior to the 2026 World Cup. Ancelotti had stated during the World Cup he was committed to seeing out his agreement with the Brazil national team which expires in 2030.
This left Pirlo next in Maldini’s latest pursuit. However, neither Maldini or Pirlo could have envisaged how a Russian-based gambling company could have setback the FIGC further.
Why Pirlo was denied the Italian head coach role
Pirlo signed an agreement with Fonbet in October 2025 to become a global ambassador for the Russian gambling company.
At the time of this agreement, Pirlo was the manager of Dubai United which plays in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) First Division. Sergey Lomakin, the Russian billionaire who is a shareholder in Fonbet, is the owner of Dubai United.
This led Malago to consulting legal advice from Italian federal prosecutors regarding Pirlo’s commercial agreement with Fonbet and Dubai United. The prosecutors confirmed Pirlo’s agreement with Fonbet was separate from his coaching role with Dubai United.
Despite this assertion, Malago opted to cancel the meeting with Pirlo during the appointment process.
Pirlo took to Instagram and wrote a statement in a post, thanking Maldini and Leonardo for proposing him to become the next Italian head coach while clarifying the decision was not made on sporting matters.
He said: “I would like to thank Maldini and Leonardo for the esteem and trust they have shown me. I am well aware of their expertise, their professionalism, and the love they have always dedicated to Italian football.
“It is regrettable that a decision based on sporting grounds was quickly dragged into a public dispute that ended up attributing motives and intentions to me that are not my own.
“My love for Italy does not depend on a specific role. It is part of my history and my identity, and it will always remain with me.”
Where gambling and geopolitics fit in
Italy has been a long standing supporter of Ukraine during its war with Russia. Italy Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has committed to supporting Ukraine, with $4.5bn (€4bn) in defence spending, while also backing international sanctions against Russia.
Pirlo’s connection to Fonbet and Lomakin has been known to the FIGC after the 2006 World Cup winner attended a football event held in Moscow ,which was hosted by Lomakin.
Gambling within Italian football is a source of controversy in recent years.
Malago’s predecessor, Gabriele Gravina, was lobbying to lift the ban on gambling front-of-shit sponsorship which has been in effect since the 2019/20 Serie A season.
Gravina had also been proposing for a percentage of revenue generated from gambling sponsorship to then be reinvested in Italian grassroots and infrastructure.
Since taking on the role as FGIC President in June, Malago has backed a proposal for the federation to gain 1% of all football gambling to be used to modernise Italian football. The funds generated from Italy’s gambling sector are being proposed for the investment of grassroots football and stadium redevelopments.
Prime Minister Meloini is expected to finalise a determination on gambling-related revenues for football investment for the country’s September 2026 budget, as well as finalising a fiscal agenda before the 2027 election.
Setback after setback for Italian football
The team of Malago, Maldini and Leonardo was expected to lead Italian football out of disarray and into a fresh future.
Italy, four times winners of the World Cup, failed to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup in March 2026 after losing to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the finals of the World Cup qualifiers.
Inquests were immediately called on the future of Italian football as Gravina stepped down as President, whilst ex-Juventus and Italian World Cup winning goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, also resigned from his role as technical director.
Maldini is widely regarded as the greatest defender in football history and one of the defining figures of Italian football, best associated with the country’s history of defensive football, locally referred to as ‘Catenaccio’.
He began his executive career in football with his boyhood club AC Milan in 2018. Maldini contributed to the club’s first Serie A league title in over a decade in 2022, leaving his role at Milan a year later in 2023.
Reports have emerged that former Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini could be Maldini’s successor, but has the unenviable task which was placed upon Maldini – finding the right head coach to lead the national team to its first World Cup since 2010.
The Italian national team’s next fixture is a UEFA Nations League game against Belgium on 25 September.
