Italian club crisis hits their national team

Italy's Mario Balotelli (R) and Giorgio Chiellini react on the bench after their loss to Uruguay in their 2014 World Cup Group D soccer match at the Dunas arena in Natal June 24, 2014. REUTERS

No coach, no president, no forwards and no place in the World Cup knock-out rounds, the question is, where do Italy go from here?
Right now, the common feeling is that Italian football is in crisis.
This had long been the case in the club game but at least the national team could on occasions relieve the gloom, such as when they reached the Euro 2012 final, albeit only to be dismantled 4-0 by Spain.
That is no longer the case after a second successive World Cup group stage elimination.
Italy may have breezed unbeaten through their qualification group to reach Brazil, securing their place with two games to spare, but such small mercies will do little to appease fans of a country used to success - they are after all four-time world champions, a record bettered only by Brazil.
Apart from Inter Milan’s Jose Mourinho-inspired Champions League triumph in 2010, Italian teams have struggled in Europe.
Since AC Milan won the competition in 2007, Inter’s victory is the only occasion an Italian side has gone beyond the quarter-finals. Several times, they haven’t even made it there.
Last season, Milan were the only ones to make it out of their group, although they were subsequently crushed 5-1 on aggregate by Atletico Madrid.
In 2012 Italy also lost their fourth place in the Champions League as Germany overtook them in the UEFA rankings.
As for the national team, they came into this tournament ranked ninth in the world but their abject exit will likely see them drop several places.
Following their failure at the last World Cup, they dropped six places and later that year, in October, dropped to their joint lowest ever ranking of 16 in the FIFA list.
Depending on their results later in the year, they risk breaking that record.
It is hardly the time to be left with no coach and no federation president following the resignations of Cesare Prandelli and Giancarlo Abete after their 1-0 defeat to Uruguay on Tuesday.
The immediate issue will be to replace Prandelli, with Italian media suggesting former Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri and current Galatasaray boss Roberto Mancini top the list.
However, both are used to considerably higher salaries than the 1.7 million euros ($2.3m) Prandelli was receiving.
Other potential targets could be former Roma and Zenit St Petersburg coach Luciano Spalletti, former Palermo and Udinese boss Francesco Guidolin or Alberto Zaccheroni, who left the Japan post following his country’s elimination on Tuesday.
Another issue to solve is Italy’s striking problem.