Does Italian Football Have An Immigration Problem?
Published 05/12/2026, Substack For all the reasons assigned to explain the malaise, one seems absent. I have watched every World Cup from 1978. And one of the revelatory aspects of soccer during the pre-globalization era, was the idea that when you tuned in to watch the games, you would get a flavor of each national side-many of the teams had a certain look and style of play (even if often viewed and described by pundits in a stereotypical way). This was especially true for Italy. There has always been something akin to a sporting bella figura watching an Italian national side enter the pitch for the anthem and pennant exchange by the captains. The hair, the track suits, the look. And perhaps some of the Azzuri problems may lie in the fact that in the Europe of 2026, it still looks a lot like Vittorio Pozzo’s winning side. Of all of the big traditional sides, Italy seems to be the slowest in incorporating immigrants of color into it’s national side. They have of course, had black ...