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

Former FIGC President Franco Carraro reveals he asked Gianluca Vialli to be the Italy coach, regrets choosing Giovanni Trapattoni, and hints at suspicions over the 2002 and 2006 World Cup editions.

The 85-year-old sat down for a lengthy interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, including his analysis of the infamous Calciopoli scandal of 2006.

You can read the rest of his comments here.

Italy triumph and struggle under Carraro

Carraro was at the helm of the Italian Football Federation going into that scandal, which was also swirling in the build-up to the victorious 2006 World Cup in Germany.

“Some wrote that we managed to win that World Cup despite Sepp Blatter being averse to us, so much that he didn’t even hand over the trophy,” said Carraro.

“However, I think it difficult for a team to win a World Cup with the President of FIFA being against you. The truth is, the quality of the players must be accompanied by intelligent sporting politics, and I had put Pierluigi Pairetto on the UEFA refereeing commission, with Paolo Bergamo on the FIFA version.

“There is a proverb that says, help yourself, and God will help you too.”

ROME, ITALY – MAY 24: Franco Carraro attends the FIGC Special Olympics press conference on May 24, 2024 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images)

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.”

DAEJEON – JUNE 18: (From left to right) Mark Iuliano, Christian Vieri and captain Paolo Maldini of Italy complain to referee Byron Moreno of Ecuador during the FIFA World Cup Finals 2002 Second Round match between South Korea and Italy played at the Daejeon World Cup Stadium, in Daejeon, South Korea on June 18, 2002. South Korea won the match 2-1 with a Golden Goal in extra-time. DIGITAL IMAGE. (Photo by Ben Radford/Getty Images)

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.

SAPPORO, JAPAN – JUNE 03: WM 2002 in JAPAN und KOREA, Sapporo; GRUPPE G/ITALIEN – ECUADOR (ITA – ECU) 2:0; Trainer Giovanni TRAPATTONI/ITA (Photo by Martin Rose/Bongarts/Getty Images)

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.”