Maldini: 'No legal issues' if Italy really wanted Pirlo

Paolo Maldini insists that there would not have been any major legal issues to overcome had the Italian FA truly wanted to appoint Andrea Pirlo as the next head coach of the Italy national team, and instead feels that his appointment was blocked by the court of public opinion.

Maldini has spoken in-depth about his short-lived reign as the technical director of the FIGC and his fall-out with FIGC President Giovanni Malagò in an interview with the Corriere della Sera .

Click here to read the full interview in English.

Maldini reveals why Pirlo was blocked from taking the Italy job

After trying and ultimately failing to convince Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola to take over as head coach of the Italy national team, Maldini had made a move to appoint his former Milan teammate Pirlo, who is currently serving as head coach of Dubai United in the UAE.

Maldini’s idea to appoint Pirlo was met with backlash from various factions of the Italy support, and even more importantly, by some areas of the FIGC.

It had become clear that Pirlo is a global ambassador for the Russian betting company Fonbet, which raised plenty of moral and ethical questions, and there had been concerns that those ties might present some sort of legal issue as well.

REGGIO NELL’EMILIA, ITALY – MAY 18: Head coach of Juventus Andrea Pirlo speaks with the media during an Juventus press conference ahead of the TIMVISION Cup Final between Atalanta BC and Juventus on May 18, 2021 in Reggio nell’Emilia, Italy. (Photo by Claudio Villa/Getty Images for Lega Serie A) In the end, Pirlo’s appointment was blocked, and Maldini has made it clear in his interview with the Corriere della Sera that this was ultimately Giovanni Malagò’s call. And, if Maldini did not have the authority to make the final decision on the next CT, as he had been promised, he felt his position was untenable and decided to hand in his resignation after just 17 days in the job.

Maldini has made it clear, however, that had Italy truly wanted to appoint Pirlo, then there would not have been any legal complications, as some individuals from the FIGC had claimed.

“I would say so (that Pirlo’s ties to Fonbet did have an effect on his candidacy for the Italy head coach job),” Pirlo told the Corriere della Sera.

“We didn’t know about it. Public opinion has done its job. But, there was nothing on a legal level that would have prevented Andrea from becoming the head coach of the national team.

“It was definitely exaggerated in a certain way. Pirlo was willing to end his relations with the Russian betting company. He’s a decent person, he didn’t deserve all this fuss. They brought out the code of ethics, a dignity decree. But, if there was a genuine desire to have him as head coach, there wouldn’t have been any legal obstacles.”

Maldini then made it clear that Malagò was ultimately responsible for Pirlo not getting the job.

Italy technical director Paolo Maldini, special advisor Leonardo, FIGC President Giovanni Malagò and Lega Serie A President Ezio Simonelli (figc.it) “He phoned me and Leonardo to say: ‘In my opinion, we can no longer go for Pirlo. From today, the coach is up to me. From today, the rules change, I decide on the coach and you endorse it’.

“But I had a job and responsibilities and I thought this was an unacceptable thing to say. We took 24 hours and then handed in our resignation, on a contract that hadn’t even started. I’m used to things being done in a different way. There was no longer the confidence that we needed to carry out an enormous job.”

Click here to read more from Maldini’s bombshell interview.