Business Lessons Learnt from Italy Failing to Qualify for the World Cup

I am half Italian and half British and spent 20 years of my life living in Italy. Italy has always been known for good food, slick design (in particular fashion) and of course “calcio” (soccer/football).

I left Italy in 2000 and since lived in Middle East and UK and traveled extensively around the world selling private jets.

When in Italy I played soccer at amateur level and became a fan. I still remember watching Italy play Brazil at World Cup 1982, where Italian striker Paolo Rossi scored a hat-trick (3 goals), leading to an Italian victory for 3-2 and then brought Italy to the World Cup win. The whole country was ecstatic and it gave the economy a great boost too.

Italy then went onto losing against Brazil at a penalty shoot-out during the World Cup final in 1994, to then win another World Cup in 2006. Previously, Italy had another two World Cup wins, back in the Mussolini years, in 1934 and 1938.

However, the last two World Cup’s Italy failed to get past the group phases and the other day, for the first time since 1958, they even failed to qualify for the tournament.

Let’s look at the causes of this failure and what lessons we can learn and apply in business from this:

Many have complained there are too many foreigners playing in Serie A (Italian soccer league), this not allowing young Italian players to develop and emerge. I tend to disagree with this, the young talent is there, it just needs to be developed and organized. As peak performance expert, Anthony Robbins says: “Success is 20% skill and 80% psychological”

On the other front Italy has produced some incredibly successful soccer coaches over the last 10-15 years, from Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto Mancini, Fabio Capello, Marcello Lippi, Claudio Ranieri, Antonio Conte, Massimo Carrera, & Luciano Spalletti. These Italian coaches have had success in other countries so why did they appoint a man with no success to coach the Italian national team?

Giampiero Ventura, after failing to lead Italy to World Cup qualification as head coach, was fired the other day. This man lacked the skills and mindset to deliver winning results. The Italian football federation is to blame for this. Like in business, if you want a winning CEO you need to put together a good remuneration package. As I always say, “you pay peanuts, you get the monkeys.”

During the final leg of the World Cup qualifying playoff, Italy dominated Sweden with more than 75% of possession, yet failed to penetrate a packed Swedish defence: delivering endless amounts of crosses into a penalty area, where their opponents held a clear height advantage, was clearly a very bad strategic decision on behalf of the Italian coach. The Italian team had scored just three times in its last six competitive fixtures, after playing some very mediocre teams like Israel, Macedonia and Albania.

During the final match against Sweden a very much revealing scene played out on the Italian bench when a member of Italy’s coaching staff asked veteran 2006 world-cup winner, Daniele De Rossi to warm up. The midfielder reacted angrily, appearing to reply: “Why should I go on? We don’t need a draw, we need a win.”

De Rossi’s words were accompanied by a gesture in the direction of Napoli forward, Lorenzo Insigne. De Rossi would later explain that he was trying to make the coaching staff understand they needed someone fresh upfront to score the winning goals.

Insigne is in great form, one who scored 18 league goals from the left wing for Napoli last season and almost reached double-digits for assists as well. He is the only Italian valued at over €100m by the CIES football observatory, and yet never made it on to the pitch against Sweden– after making only the briefest of cameos in the first leg.

Is the coach really to blame? I am sure Mr Ventura did his best. Winning is not something everyone is capable of and when you play at this level you need someone who knows how. Another coach would have made different choices, combining winning experience with mind-set.

I am well aware that a winner doesn’t always win but always displays a winning mind-set. After losing the first leg of the play-off to Sweden 1-0, the Italian coach blamed their loss on the referee. A wining coach would have looked at the match and tried to see what they could have done better as a team and taken those lessons on board to prepare the next match. Instead the Italian coach pointed his finger at the referee, A winner always focuses on what he or she can control and improve and takes action.

I reckon environment is key into helping create a certain type of mindset. It is interesting to note that so many Italian coaches have had super success abroad.

Another interesting element to note is that the last six Serie A seasons were all won by Italian club Juventus. The Italian champions, also reached two Champions League finals in the last 3 years. They have had two winning coaches, during these six seasons and have bought up most of the young emerging young talent on the market. These young players are out on loan across Europe, so they can develop. Some of these players are then sold to other teams, while others are brought in to play for Juventus.

The coaches Juventus selected were also skilled at developing young talent. One example is Paul Pogba, who under coach Antonio Conte, was developed and then sold to Manchester United for over $100M. The ownership of Juventus soccer club have a winning strategy, this creates an environment where new talent can realize their true potential.

The internet is revolutionizing the world of business, connecting talented people to opportunities, like never before in the history of the world. A musician can post their videos on youtube, in the comfort of their home in Tokyo, and be spotted by a talent scout in New York. Succeeding in Italy has always been difficult, due to a strong culture of nepotism. As long as Italy remained a close market, everyone was playing by the same rules. The internet has brought Italy onto the international scene. However, the schooling system in Italy has not adjusted. Young Italians should be graduating from High School with a good command of the English language, key into engaging across the web to potential business on a global scale. You stop any Italian teenager in the streets of Milan, Florence or Rome and you will struggle to find one that speaks English.

The Italian football federation has failed to innovate too and so have most of the club teams. Interesting to note that the Agnelli family, that own Juventus, have educated their children abroad and all speak fluent English. Speaking English opens far more doors, helping to develop a very different mind-set.

The fact Italy has scored very few goals, had 75% ball possession in the final match against Sweden but failed to score a goal is just a symptom. The cause of the problem is strategic and that is linked to choosing the wrong people to manage the Italian Football Association. They need a a team to run the association that is young, understands the world (English skills a must) and has a grip on using social media. Juventus Football Club have such a management team, this enables them to build their brand internationally and this adds value bringing in more money. With more money you can improve the team and you would start with hiring one of the world’s best football coaches, that ironically happen to be Italian…

• Having won in the past doesn’t guarantee you will in the future
• Developing a sound innovative strategy is key
• Part of the strategy would be to hire a good coach (CEO)
• The Coach (CEO) will surround himself with a good team
• How the team plays will be determined by the CEO (market strategy)
• Understanding the world you currently live in and how it is developing. Italy knew the Swedes had tall defenders, so why keep crossing the ball. A keep the ball down and keep passing fast would have allowed Italy to penetrate the Swedish defence more effectively and score. This is where player selection would have been different.

Fabrizio Poli is an independant aviation consultant specialized in aircraft sales. He is also an accomplished Airline Transport Pilot having flown both private Jets and for the airlines. Fabrizio is also a bestselling author and inspirational speaker & has been featured on Russia Today (RT), TRT World, Social Media Examiner, Bloomberg, Channel 5, Chicago Tribune, Daily Telegraph, City Wealth Magazine, Billionaire.com, Wealth X, Financial Times, El Financiero and many other Media offering insight on the aviation world. Fabrizio is also regularly featured as an Aviation Analyst on Russia Today (RT) and TRT World. Fabrizio is also aviation special correspondent for luxury magazine, Most Fabullous Magazine. Fabrizio is also considered one of the world's top 30 experts in using Linkedin for business. You can tune in weekly to Fabrizio's business Podcast Living Outside the Cube available both in video & audio. You can also follow Fabrizio's aviation videos on Biz Jet TV . Fabrizio's latest book "Health4Flyers", the first natural-health book for pilots, flights attendants and frequent flyers is now available worldwide.