Italy repechage to World Cup, Silvio Baldini ends up in the'eye of the storm
Little more than a week to go before the World Cup to be played in North America, including Canada, Mexico and the United States, and there is still no certainty that Iran, which qualified on the field but is experiencing yet another not easy situation at the geopolitical level, will be at the starting ribbons. Should Team Melli throw in the towel there is the United Arab Emirates in pole position for the replacement while Italy does not seem to believe in it anymore.
The super-experimental convocations of the interim technical commissioner, Silvio Baldini, for the challenges with Luxembourg and Greece, go in that direction. And there are those who did not like them: “By leaving almost all the big guys at home we gave the wrong signal, because if we had 1 percent to participate in the World Cup now we have 0 percent,” the thought of more than one fan of the national team.
Complicating the picture even further was U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who declared before parliamentarians that the United States will not allow Iranians linked to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) to infiltrate the delegation to participate in the World Cup. Rubio clarified that Washington has “no problem” with the entry of the Iranian national team per se, but added, “What we won’t allow is for them to include in their delegation a group of people who we know have nothing to do with sports and who have ties to the IRGC or realities of that nature, so we will monitor the situation very closely.” A knot that is far from easy to untie, considering that several players and executives accompanying the team have their own pasts in the IRGC.
On a logistical level, Iran’s situation remains intricate: the team, which is training in Turkey, is expected to leave over the weekend for Tijuana, Mexico, where the new training venue has been set up after the Trump administration’s refusal to host the training camp in Arizona. Visas for players and staff, however, have not yet arrived. The biggest concern is about multiple-entry ones for the United States: Iran will have to cross the Mexico-US border three times to play its Group G matches, two in Los Angeles – against New Zealand on June 15 and Belgium on June 21 – and one in Seattle against Egypt on June 26. Iranian Football Federation President Mehdi Taj said Mexican visas should arrive soon and U.S. visas will follow quickly. The outbreak of the war in the Middle East on Feb. 28, with the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, has according to Taj “completely disrupted” the national team’s plans, forcing among other things the cancellation of already scheduled preparation friendlies.
In this scenario, even Paolo Zampolli, special envoy of the Trump administration and main sponsor of the Italian cause, has in fact raised the white flag: “My dream and that of many was to have Italy with us. I had suggested to the president and Gianni Infantino that, in case Iran did not come for whatever reason, Italy could be brought back. Unfortunately, things did not work out that way and we have Iran training in Mexico. Iran’s players will only be allowed to come and play on the day in the U.S. and then return.” Words that sound like an epitaph for the Azzurri’s hopes.
After all, Baldini himself had already clarified his position since the eve of the Coverciano gathering, with disarming frankness: “To coach Italy you need a certain curriculum, and today I do not have it. I’m certainly not a peacock: I’m aiming for the Under-21 European Championship and the Olympics.” The coach has summoned the Under 21 group, supplementing it with profiles like Donnarumma and Pio Esposito precisely in function of that Olympic path, already looking beyond the horizon of the World Cup that opens in a few days without the Azzurri.
