The President of the Senate is once again at odds with the coach: “He can’t say things like that. People have the right to protest, as long as it doesn’t turn violent.”

Ignazio La Russa against Rino Gattuso, part two. The President of the Senate attacks the national team coach after his statements at the end of the match won against Moldova, in which he pointed the finger at the protests of about 500 Italian fans present in Chisinau. “You can’t call a spectator who boos ‘shameful’,” said the second-highest-ranking official in the state. “However, I don’t want to stir up controversy: Gattuso is right when he says that, with the hope of going to the World Cup, we must unite and support the national team, but even the boos of the spectators can be a stimulus as long as they are not violent.”

This is not the first time La Russa has attacked the current coach. A few hours after Spalletti’s dismissal and Gattuso’s appointment, the President of the Senate gave an interview in which he questioned the FIGC’s choice: “We chose Gattuso, so long live Gattuso, I hope it goes well,” said La Russa. “However, when Gravina says that Gattuso is a symbol of our football, I would say that this is not entirely accurate. If anything, Buffon is, and he is perhaps behind this decision. In that case, they might as well have made Buffon the coach; you don’t need to be a coach to select a national team. The symbols of our football are others, many of whom are not coaches, such as Totti and Del Piero, then there are Cannavaro, Nesta, Pippo Inzaghi… It’s not fair to consider Gattuso the symbol of our football. Our football is not Ringhio’s football, but the football of Rivera, Baggio, Del Piero, Zenga. So why not Zenga? These were harsh words, to which Gattuso himself replied at the press conference: “I don’t want to argue with La Russa, I just hope to change his mind and achieve the common goal we all share: to bring Italy back to the World Cup.”