Italian Football Federation (FIGC) president Gabriele Gravina believes FIFA should intervene in Saudi Arabia’s stance on overloading finances with the aim of luring stars from Europe.
Speaking at Report Calcio 2023 (via Sky Italia), Gravina dished on a plethora of important topics, including Gianluigi Buffon’s future with the Azzurri following his retirement and the idea to co-host UEFA EURO 2032 with Turkey.
“I have been talking about a great event for five years because I am convinced that it is the way to go ahead. There is awareness and humility in realizing that while we have achieved 4-5 stadiums in the last 10 years, Turkey has built 41. We have decided to make an agreement with Turkey, which I consider important from a cultural point of view. It places us in a Mediterranean development area with a great power like Turkey.”
He further dished upon Saudi Arabia trying to compete with their financial backing.
“Right now, the Saudi Arabia phenomenon responds to other logics, we know very well what the projection towards 2030 is, with respect to the logic of enhancing the sporting and football phenomenon as a social phenomenon of aggregation and product enhancement first in North America and then in China.”
“With Saudi we are in the area of competence of FIFA and I think it is right that it begins to identify a method for a whole series of interventions that no longer respond to the logic of the market but to the logic of support through the use of state funds; a state which, among other things, has the unlimited wealth. Today we still have time to partially remedy, otherwise, we will run the risk of having an absolute imbalance towards some markets.”
Gravina revealed they want Buffon to work with the Federation in some capacity.
“It’s no use hiding, we’re working on it. Gigi is our goal, we’ll try to achieve it, but it’s not just up to us. Gigi is certainly not Gianluca Vialli’s clone, he has other characteristics but he is certainly an icon of world football and I believe that it’s his natural plan to work in the national team. We will do everything to bring him on board, we’re at a pretty advanced stage.”
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