{"id":561765,"date":"2026-07-27T11:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/561765\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T11:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:46:11","slug":"italy-abandons-plan-to-make-andrea-pirlo-coach-after-scrutiny-over-russian-betting-company-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/561765\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy abandons plan to make Andrea Pirlo coach after scrutiny over Russian betting company ties"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Italy<\/a> international Andrea Pirlo said on Monday he was no longer in contention to become the country\u2019s head coach after his commercial links to a Russian<\/a> betting company drew criticism and opposition to his potential appointment.<\/p>\n

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The 47-year-old World Cup winner had reportedly emerged as a leading candidate to replace Gennaro Gattuso after Spaniard Pep Guardiola turned down the the job.<\/p>\n

However, Pirlo\u2019s candidacy came under scrutiny because of his role as a global ambassador for Russian bookmaker Fonbet, prompting objections from Italian Football Federation (FIGC) officials and from Italian lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Pirlo defended his involvement with the company earlier on Monday in a post on Instagram. He said he had been informed on Sunday that he was no longer being considered for the Italy job.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter learning last night that I am no longer the candidate to lead the Italian national team, I believe it is my duty to clarify a few points,\u201d he said on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past few days, I have watched with great bitterness the debate that has developed around my name and the possibility of taking on the role of Head Coach of the Italian national team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout my career, first as a player and now as a coach, I have always carried out my work in full compliance with the laws of the countries where I have worked and with the contracts I have signed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pirlo, currently managing United Arab Emirates Pro League side United FC in Dubai, signed an ambassadorial agreement with Fonbet in October.<\/p>\n

He said the collaboration was exclusively commercial and sporting in nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo assign a political meaning to that collaboration is to attribute to me beliefs that I have never expressed and that do not belong to me,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Scrutiny of Pirlo\u2019s ties to the company intensified after he appeared alongside former Italy teammate Marco Materazzi at Moscow\u2019s Luzhniki Stadium during an event organized by Fonbet, drawing criticism as Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is saddening to see that, despite your extraordinary contribution to world sport and to Italy\u2019s image abroad, in your own country you are now the subject of ostracism by an establishment that many describe as \u2018pseudo-democratic\u2019; a fate that, moreover, has already befallen thousands of Russian athletes, conductors, musicians, artists, and film directors in recent years,\u201d Alexey Paramonov, Russia\u2019s ambassador to Italy, wrote in a letter to Pirlo posted on Facebook.<\/p>\n

FIGC technical director Paolo Maldini, the former AC Milan and Italy defender who took up the role this month, is responsible for identifying the next national team coach who will lead the four-times world champions\u2019 bid to qualify for the 2030 World Cup finals after failing to reach the last three global tournaments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Italy international Andrea Pirlo said on Monday he was no longer in contention to become the country\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-561765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}