Gattuso's World Cup preliminaries: 6 of the 10 South American teams advance directly, Europe must reform

6686 Sports News on November 13 According to Italian media "Total Market", Italian team coach Gennaro Gattuso recently publicly questioned the format of the World Cup European Qualifying Tournament and compared it with South America. He bluntly said that "this format is disappointing" and called on the international football world to rethink the World Cup quota allocation and promotion mechanism.

Currently, Italy still faces the risk of missing out on the 2026 World Cup. In the European qualifying rounds, the Azzurri are second in Group I, three points behind pace leader Norway. Although there is still a direct dialogue between the two sides, if the situation cannot be reversed, Italy will be forced to enter the play-offs again. They have failed in the play-offs for two consecutive World Cups in 2018 and 2022 and missed the finals.

Faced with this predicament, Gattuso expressed strong dissatisfaction at a press conference on November 12: "We have no regrets. Once we start winning, it will be easier to keep winning. But we must also face up to the current rules. Look at the South American region: there are a total of 10 teams, 6 of which directly qualified for the World Cup. 7 are still playing in the intercontinental play-offs. This is a truly unfair situation. We must rethink the entire system."

He also emphasized that his current focus is still on the upcoming competition: "As for other things, I only focus on tomorrow's competition and will not think too far."