In Zenica, as Bosnia’s ultras celebrated a place at the World Cup with a choreography referencing a U.S. visa, the scenes at the far end of the pitch told a different story. A group of Italian players stood together near the halfway line, heads bowed, trying to console one another while Bosnian fans partied behind them.
The disappointment was raw. Leonardo Spinazzola, in tears, described the moment as devastating after nine years with the national team without a World Cup appearance. Captain Gianluigi Donnarumma and others were silent, stunned by the result and visibly angry at the match officiated by Clément Turpin — the same French referee who had been in charge when Italy lost a play-off to North Macedonia in 2022.
Coach Gennaro Gattuso, shaken, apologised to the roughly 500 travelling supporters and to the millions watching back home. He praised his players’ effort but pointed to two pivotal moments that altered the game: Alessandro Bastoni’s red card before half-time, and Moise Kean’s missed opportunity that would have put Italy 2-0 up while reduced to 10 men. Those margins help explain how Italy became the first former World Cup champion to miss three straight tournaments.
The failures have often come down to fine details and defining decisions. In 2017, the national federation and players stuck with Gian Piero Ventura across a crucial play-off against Sweden; in 2022, Jorginho’s missed penalties against Switzerland swung qualification. On Tuesday, after extra time, Donnarumma spent much of the latter stages urging the referee to send off an opponent for a tackle on Marco Palestra. When penalties arrived, the burden proved too heavy: Pio Esposito and Bryan Cristante missed their kicks, handing Bosnia a place at only their second World Cup.
In the press room at Bilino Polje, Gattuso stood alongside FIGC president Gabriele Gravina and delegation chief Gigi Buffon as calls for wholesale change began instantly. Buffon — who had been Italy’s goalkeeper when they first failed to reach a World Cup nine years earlier and who had recommended Gattuso for the job — defended continuity and urged against rushed decisions before the domestic season concluded. His expression, however, betrayed his pain.
Gravina has increasingly been portrayed by critics as the throughline in Italy’s recent struggles: the federation head remained in place after the 2017 failure, the 2022 play-off exit and the flat Euro 2024 campaign. In Zenica he praised the team’s courage, echoing Gattuso’s description of the players as heroic for forcing penalties while a man down — an assessment that will sit uneasily with those demanding a deeper overhaul.
There were also moments of mutual respect. Bosnia’s captain, Edin Džeko, asked his supporters to applaud the Italian national anthem before kick-off — a gesture recalling Italy’s earlier role in staging matches in Sarajevo after the Bosnian War.
When asked why Italy can no longer qualify regularly for World Cups, Gattuso deferred, saying the answer belonged to others. That uncertainty does little to reassure a country that still vividly remembers the shock of missing the 2018 tournament. Back then, former FIGC president Carlo Tavecchio called the failure an “apocalypse.” With a third miss now confirmed, what began as a single calamity has become a pattern.
Italy has tried to address long-term weaknesses. After early exits in 2010 and 2014, Arrigo Sacchi was brought in to oversee coach education, youth age groups were expanded, and Italy’s Olympic committee and federation explored structural changes such as allowing Serie A clubs to field B teams in the lower leagues to smooth the jump from youth to senior football. Those reforms have produced tangible youth results: Italy won the Under-19 European Championship in 2023 and the Under-17 title in 2024, and players like Francesco Camarda, Michael Kayode and the young Pio Esposito have emerged from those setups.
Domestic football shows encouraging signs as well. Serie A placed five clubs in the Champions League group stage last season after topping UEFA’s coefficients, club ownership is generally more stable and better funded than a decade ago, and infrastructure projects tied to co-hosting Euro 2032 — including plans for a rebuilt San Siro and upgrades to Florence’s Artemio Franchi — indicate sustained investment.
Yet those positives have been eclipsed by repeated failures at senior international level. Winning the European Championship in 2021 felt like a pivot back to prominence; missing three World Cups in a row suggests deeper, unresolved issues in making youth success translate to the senior national team.
The questions now are stark: will the FIGC change course, and can long-term reforms finally yield consistent senior-team results? For supporters, players and officials alike, the answer cannot come fast enough. Until it does, Italy must grapple with an unwelcome new reality — that the federation’s past missteps and marginal moments on the pitch have combined to produce an unprecedented run of absence from football’s biggest stage.