Čeferin sends a message to Italians: Bosnia and Herzegovina deserved to win

(Patria) - The Italian national team failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third time in a row because they were defeated in Zenica by Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday. The Azzurri complained a lot at Bilino Polje before the match, and also about the refereeing afterwards. However, the head of UEFA, Aleksander Čeferin, decided to speak out and give the Italians a lesson.

The Dragons managed to beat Italy on penalties in the playoff final and qualify for the World Cup, which is a fantastic achievement.

However, when it comes to Italy, the defeat in Zenica is a great tragedy, considering this is the third World Cup in a row they have failed to qualify for.

Before the match, the Italians tried to find excuses by complaining about the condition of the Bilino Polje stadium, and after suffering defeat, they had a lot of criticism regarding the refereeing.

However, after everything, the head of UEFA, Aleksander Čeferin, also spoke out, giving the Italians a lesson and making it clear that Bosnia and Herzegovina deserved to win, and he expressed support for the head of the Italian Football Federation, Gabriele Gravina.

"I hear that Italians are calling for the resignation of the Federation president, the coach, and many others. But they are not to blame; the problem is that the relationship between sport and politics in Italy is very poor, and they do not have the support they deserve financially. If everyone united, you would soon become European and world champions again," says Čeferin and continues.

"Perhaps Italian politicians should ask themselves why they have one of the worst infrastructures in Europe. This is absolutely not Gabriele's fault, and I wouldn't dare attack the players or the coach either. When I was the president of the Federation in Slovenia, I told the coach and the players that you are heroes if you win, but also the worst if you lose".

It angers and saddens me that there are people who secretly wait for something to go wrong, and then they jump out and start criticizing. They don't cheer for Italy; they cheer for themselves. Tell me, which Italian player was not called up who should have been? That's football, and even with the best players on the field, anyone can lose a match".

"Gabriele is my first vice-president, and he is very important to me. But the biggest loss would be for the Football Federation. It won't be easy to find someone who loves football and Italy so much. But I'm not naive enough to believe that egocentric people, who are just waiting for something to go wrong, would think about that. They don't care".

Čeferin pointed out that he was not overly surprised by Italy's defeat.

"In a way, I was. On the other hand, BiH has a young, strong team, and they played at home. Italy was under much greater pressure. BiH deserved to go to the World Cup, while Italy lost the match after the sending off".

We play our first match on June 12 in Toronto against Canada, and on June 16 in Los Angeles, we play Switzerland. We play the third group stage match on June 24 in Seattle, and our opponent is Qatar.

We play all these matches at 9 PM our time.

(sportsport.ba)