Andrea Pirlo
Club: United FC
Pirlo's name has distanced itself from coaching the Italian national team in recent hours due to his contract with a Russian betting company.
This comes after days of Pep Guardiola and before him Carlo Ancelotti refusing to take on the position of technical director for the Italian national team.
Pirlo's name was linked in the last 48 hours to coaching the Azzurri by a choice from Paolo Maldini, the new sports director of the Italian federation.
The Italian consumer protection agency requested that the Italian federation not appoint Pirlo because he is "a global ambassador for a Russian betting company".
The statement came: "The Italian consumer protection agency's team will submit an official request to the communications authority tomorrow requesting the opening of an investigation into Andrea Pirlo in light of violating the rules that prohibit gambling sponsorship".
It added: "Not only that, because if the Italian Football Federation appoints him as coach of the national team, an immediate appeal will be submitted to the Lazio court to prevent this nomination."
It continued: "As is known, Pirlo is an ambassador for a Russian betting site, and he also creates content in Italy through his social media channels and other activities as a former player, and promotes gambling in complete violation of Article 9 of the Dignity Decree, which prohibits any form of advertising, sponsorship, or promotion of gambling with cash winnings."
Pirlo holds the ambassador position in the Russian company as part of the terms of his contract to coach the Emirati Dubai United team, which he signed in 2025 under the presidency of the club's Russian owner Sergei Lomakin, who is also a shareholder in the Russian betting company.
Pirlo received an attack from Carlo Calenda, a member of the Italian Senate, who stated: "No one who promotes or has promoted Russia after the 2022 attack on Ukraine should hold a national position."
According to the Italian newspaper "La Gazzetta dello Sport", Italian federation president Giovanni Malago stopped negotiations with Pirlo due to the crisis that surfaced in recent hours.
The report of the pink newspaper indicated that "Pirlo is upset about the matter and sees it as a politically motivated and even hypocritical accusation."
According to reports, the Italian federation may be considering new options for coaching the national team after the new crisis.
Among the nominated names are Stefano Pioli, former coach of Milan and Al-Nassr, Raffaele Palladino, former coach of Fiorentina and Atalanta, in addition to Roberto Mancini and Antonio Conte.
So who will be the new coach of the Italian national team?
The technical director position has remained vacant since Gennaro Gattuso's resignation following Italy's failure to qualify for the World Cup this year.
The Azzurri national team missed the tournament for the third consecutive time.
The Italian national team is in Group 1 of the UEFA Nations League, which includes France, Belgium, and Turkey.
The Italian national team begins its campaign in the tournament during the September and October international break with matches against Belgium then Turkey in September, followed by France and Turkey in October.
It concludes the group stage in November with matches against France and Belgium respectively.
