Italy miss the World Cup tournament. Millions euro in revenue, too.

Four-time world champions will not appear among the world’s elite for the first time in 60 years. This will cause major economic damage.

They are four-time world champions, football is by far the most popular sport in the country, and the World Cup is an event of nationwide importance. Yet Italy will be absent from the most-watched sporting event in the world for the first time in the past 60 years. The team led by iconic goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon failed in the play-offs for a place at the World Cup in Russia, losing 0–1 to Sweden over two legs. “Catastrophe, apocalypse, disaster.” That is how the Italian media described the national team’s failure. The setback will have not only sporting but also significant economic consequences. The Sky Sport portal writes of losses exceeding one hundred million euros – missing the World Cup will affect the federation’s sponsors as well as revenue from television rights sales. “It’s not just that less beer and crisps will be sold. Not taking part in the World Cup has a broader impact on the total revenues not only of Italian football, but also of the country’s economy,” sports analyst and football agent Jozef Tokos told the Economic Daily.

Less interest, less money
The full scale of losses on the Apennine Peninsula will become clear only after next year’s World Cup in Russia. It is impossible to predict exactly how much fan interest in the tournament will drop. There is no precedent to compare with, since Italy has participated in the last fourteen World Cups. What is certain is that the national football federation cannot count on receiving more than ten million euros from FIFA for taking part in Russia. “Additional losses will come from sponsorship contracts. For example, the deal with Puma guarantees the federation 19 million euros annually, but it is directly tied to the number of shirts sold,” explained economic journalist Marco Belinazzo to the Italian media. As an example, he noted that during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, two million shirts were sold, while four years later in Brazil the figure was one million less. “Not participating in Russia could cut that number in half again, which would mean a loss of four million euros,” Belinazzo calculated. Television ratings in Italian households during the World Cup are also expected to drop significantly, not to mention media coverage of the Italian national team’s performance. “These factors will cause the value of future sponsorship deals to be lower than those the Italian federation has had so far,” Belinazzo said. At present, Italian broadcaster Rai reportedly pays the federation 26 million euros a year for broadcast rights. The Italian edition of Fox Sports also reports that the state’s income from sports betting may decrease. During the last World Cup in Brazil, betting brought 10 million euros into the state treasury, with the total amount wagered nearing 300 million euros.

Without stars, it won’t work
The central figure of one of the darkest nights in Italian football history was the soon-to-be 40-year-old goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, who tearfully bid farewell to his international career. “I apologise. Not for myself, but for Italy. I apologise that we failed to achieve something that has an impact on society as a whole. That is the only thing I regret,” said the Juventus Turin goalkeeper after the match. The fact is that he was the last global star of Italian football. Long gone are the days when Italy could rely on legends such as Paolo Maldini, Francesco Totti, Alessandro Del Piero, Andrea Pirlo, or Fabio Cannavaro. “From a sporting point of view, Italy today lacks a star of the calibre of Cristiano Ronaldo or Harry Kane. The team’s leaders are goalkeeper Buffon and defender Bonucci, but it is hard to find a big name up front,” noted sports analyst Tokos. Interestingly, Slovakia also played a part in the gradual decline of the Italian national team. Our memorable victory over them at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa contributed to Italy later being placed in the second seeding pot for qualification draws, from which it has not returned to the first pot. This was one of the reasons they were drawn against unwanted opponents like Spain. “It was already clear then that one top team would struggle to qualify for the tournament,” Tokos added.