Gravina and the national team in the storm, from the boxer comes a scathing attack

The failure of the Italian national soccer team to qualify (its third consecutive) for the World Cup and Gabriele Gravina’s subsequent words have generated great controversy. The FIGC president, after the Azzurri’s defeat on penalty kicks against Bosnia and Herzegovina, had this to say when asked about soccer’s failures compared to all the other blue sports, which are racking up unprecedented successes: “Football is a professional sport, the others are amateur, we make reports on the basis of fairness.”

“You can make different choices, such as the commitment of young people within the under in their own tournaments, the others are state sports, such as winter sports, except for Arianna Fontana, they are all state employees,” Gravina said.

The FIGC president’s words did not go down well with Irma Testa, a boxing champion who decided to retort through social media: “The real professionals are us, we compete and win for the jersey and for our country watching millionaire footballers make bad figures.”

“I train more than a player earning less than their cooks or nannies. In spite of this, when I lose (those few times), I feel the weight of an entire nation that doesn’t ask me for anything anyway because they are busy watching soccer. Forza Italia, pasta and Toto Cutugno!” concluded the champion, a bronze medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Games.