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1 week ago
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Alessandro Del Piero has passionately pointed out the reasons behind Italian football's latest slump.
For the first time in the Champions League era, a Serie A team is at-risk of failing to qualify for the round of 16.
Inter were shockingly eliminated by Bodo/Glimt, Napoli were knocked out in the league phase, while Juventus must overturn a 5-2 deficit against Galatasaray and Atalanta are 2-0 down to Borussia Dortmind in Wednesday's second legs.
The national team, who Del Piero won 91 caps for and won the 2006 World Cup with, must beat Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina away in a one-off game to avoid failing to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup.
"Can I cry? It's a struggle situation," legend Del Piero told CBS before Inter's loss on Tuesday.
"Not everything is a bad as it appears, but 90 or 95%.
"It is the result of what has happened in Italy in the past years.
"The level of investment is low. Other markets have become much, much bigger than us.
"Problems? Stadiums. We know you have to perform better outside of the pitch [to improve] that.
"Youth systems? We will see Borussia Dortmund play Atalanta with two Italian guys [born in] 2008. Excuse me? What's going on? Why don't we have these Italians, why are they playing for Dortmund?"
Samuele Inacio Pia, aged 17, and Luca Reggiani, 18, are involved in the German club's first team.
Del Piero added: "There is something missing in many parts. We still need to collect the pieces together and make it.
"We don't want to make history of breaking this streak of 41 years. Especially, at the end of the month with the national team.
"I believe that, financially, our teams need to be more regulated. Not having so much debt. We don't [all] have owners, like Juventus have, who write a big cheque at the end of the season.
"We need to find again the love for the game, not only on the pitch. We need to be more responsible for what we show the public, there are so many controversies sometimes.
"We need to find tradition, not only for young footballers."
Del Piero also insisted that Serie A's top clubs must end a culture of transferring players frequently between each other.
"We have huge amounts of transfers between big teams -- Inter-Juve, Milan-Inter, Fiorentina-Juve, Inter-Napoli," he said.
"This doesn't happen to other clubs. I don't say that this is wrong. But we [had] different relationships which brought us here. We need to stop a bit, and say: 'What do we need?'"
Jurgen Klismann, the Germany legend who won the 1990-91 UEFA Cup with Inter, told ESPN: "It's hugely embarrassing for every Italian football fan, not only Inter fans, because the other clubs are struggling in the same way.
"There are so many questions now discussed in Italy. How can this happen, you lose to a team who have made its name in the past two or three years in the Conference League, going to the semifinal and beating some big names. They were outstanding, they deserved the biggest compliments.
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"But for a club like Inter this is really a catastrophe, a moment where they have to reflect.
"What is going on? They have to question everything.
"The team was never convinced they could turn it around. The stadium was sold out, the atmosphere was brilliant, but they never created clean chances. It was all half- chances. They could never step up rhythm-wise, never go to another gear."
