The Chronicles of Narnia: Italy at the World Cup by 'Inter right'

A few days ago, during a television interview, the Iranian Minister of Sport, Ahmad Donyamali, made an important statement: "Thousands of our fellow citizens, including our religious leader, have been killed during the war launched by Israel and the United States. Consequently, there is no possibility that Iran will take part in the next World Cup."

Words that are quite understandable in the face of the tragedy experienced by a population entangled in a military conflict, currently forced to focus its thoughts and efforts on something infinitely less trivial than football. However, in our country those words have shone almost like the northern lights in the skies of the polar regions.

Yes, because according to the voices rising in chorus from our media, in the event of a withdrawal, suspension or any other reason that excludes a national team already qualified for the World Cup, FIFA’s orientation would be to keep the door open even to possible extra-territorial repechage.

_{Public domain image}

In other words, according to TV and newspapers in the Belpaese, Infantino and his associates might be thinking of favoring — thanks to prestige, titles won and the FIFA ranking — the national team coached by Rino Gattuso, at the expense of all the other contenders. In short, a “boardroom decision” that would perfectly close the circle of a total symbiosis between the FIGC and Inter (benefiting in 2006 from a scandalous title awarded off the pitch) and that would make the result of the play-offs scheduled for March 26 and March 31 irrelevant.

But is that really the case? Can Italian fans truly breathe a sigh of relief and approach the matches against Northern Ireland (and possibly Wales or Bosnia) without any anxiety, a bit like when facing international friendlies?

Theoretically, the possibility of a semi-automatic repechage for Italy — even in the event of yet another failure — does exist and is provided for in Article 6.7 of the World Cup regulations, according to which FIFA maintains “exclusive discretion” regarding the eventual choice and may adopt any measure it deems necessary to resolve the issue.

_{FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons}

In practice, however, the chances of seeing Italy at the World Cup — if it fails to qualify — appear extremely slim. The article in question represents the classic “escape clause”, inserted to justify extraordinary measures that may become necessary due to force majeure, but certainly not the guiding star that those who govern world football are expected to follow.

According to its own internal regulations, as well as long-standing practice, FIFA’s first option in case of Iran’s withdrawal would fall on the first non-qualified team from the same confederation, namely the AFC, the Asian equivalent of UEFA.

At the current state of affairs, the national team most likely to benefit from a possible repechage would be Iraq, should it lose the intercontinental play-off against either Bolivia or Suriname, or the United Arab Emirates if the Iraqis were to secure qualification on their own.

_{The AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Zhou Guanhuai, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons}

It is therefore very difficult — not to say impossible — that those at FIFA (and especially an old fox like Infantino) would choose to break the well-established pattern and antagonize the entire Asian federation, while at the same time setting a dangerous precedent of rule-less discretion.

The habit of easy solutions and preferential paths reserved for the “state team” in recent years may be convincing the Italian press (probably not very confident that the national team will qualify on its own merits) that receiving a true gift, detached from sporting merit, would ultimately be a legitimate right — something owed to us almost like a sort of medieval ius primae noctis.

However, outside of Narnia there is a real world, one we are no longer used to, where things follow a clear and logical order rather than the dominant narrative or the convenience of a single side. Unless the “octopus” has extended its tentacles even further — because in that case, anything would be possible.

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