Gli Azzurri

I am a fan of Italian football. Their national team was the first team I ever "followed." AS Roma is my obsession, my first true football love. I still miss Maldini, Baggio, Zola, Vieri, Panucci....
So what I say now is out of love: it is time to kick Italy out of Uefa until they clean house.
It is shameful that yet another match fixing scandal is out in the open; and I say out in the open because we all know it was never completely cleaned up after the last time. This isn't something new. This is the same old corruption and deceit and lies that has been in Italian football for years now. And the only way that it is ever going to get better, the only way the Italian FA will take direct action, is if there are some serious consequences for their actions. And the loss of the revenues from all the Uefa competitions, both club and country, is exactly the kind of punch in the gut that Italian football needs right now. Severe? Yes. Needed? Yes. How else will they ever get the impetus to really change the ingrained attitudes in their footballing culture? How else will they ever regain respect in the football community? And we know that Uefa does not have the balls to do something this drastic, this radical, so Italy needs to step up and own up to their faults. The Italian FA should voluntarily withdraw all of their teams as a show of respect for the game, clean house, and come back all the stronger for it.