Carraro asked Vialli to be Italy coach, Trapattoni regrets, 2002 and 2006 World Cup suspicion

Italian suggestions of animosity towards them hit a fever pitch during the previous tournament, when Italy crashed out of the 2002 World Cup to hosts South Korea in the Round of 16.

It was an infamous match, officiated bizarrely by Ecuador’s Byron Moreno, including two disallowed goals, some penalty shouts, and a Francesco Totti red card.

So, what happened?

“What happened is that we got everything wrong,” replied Carraro.

“Trapattoni was not a coach suited to knockout football, and we had chosen a training retreat that was too isolated. I take the blame, I was the President of the Federation.”

Moreno’s infamy only grew in later years, when he was suspended in Ecuador for some very strange decisions while seeking election to the Quito City Council, then was arrested in 2010 for smuggling heroin in New York.

“Moreno was certainly favourable to the home team, we were told that corruption was commonplace in South Korea, and then he had his own problems later. Having said all of that, if Christian Vieri had put the ball in the net at the last minute, we wouldn’t even remember the name of that referee now,” insisted Carraro.

Nonetheless, Trapattoni remained at the helm until after the EURO 2004 debacle, a decision the former President bitterly regrets.

“I have an extraordinary fondness for Vialli and I am grateful to him because, unlike so many others, he always kept quiet about our meeting in October 2002. After the awful World Cup in Japan and South Korea, Trapattoni had started so badly in qualifying for the Euros in Portugal.

“Speaking to Antonio Giraudo, it emerged that Vialli might be amenable to become the Italy coach. I went to meet him in Turin, unfortunately we couldn’t make it work. Nobody ever found out about that. He was a great man.”

If Italy were struggling then, they could not have dreamed that the Nazionale would miss out on two World Cups in a row, and risk a third.

“I don’t even want to think about that possibility. I remember Gennaro Gattuso as a player for the Azzurri, he was never best friends with the football, but his effort was always 110 per cent,” added Carraro.

“The problem in my view is that football is now structured entirely around clubs, so teams play constantly, then have only a handful of days on international duty to create that alchemy. We managed to create it at EURO 2020, and I think Vialli was a big part of that.”