Italy's football chief resigns after World Cup disaster
Gabriele Gravina resigned days after Italy fell at the play-offs
The head of Italy's football federation (FIGC) resigned on Thursday, falling on his sword after the men's national team failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time.
Gabriele Gravina revealed he would step down as the country's top football official following a meeting held at the FIGC's headquarters in Rome on Thursday.
His announcement came a day after Sport Minister Andrea Abodi called on him to resign.
Italy fell at the play-offs again on Tuesday, this time after a penalty shoot-out against Bosnia and Hercegovina, and will miss this summer's finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The shock waves of the latest humiliation for one of the world's most successful football nations forced Gravina, 72, to go back on his initial plans to wait until a FIGC board meeting next week to announce a decision on his future.
The FIGC said in a statement a vote for a new president will be held on June 22.
Giovanni Malago, the former long-time head of the Italian Olympic Committee who was president of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics organisation committee, is amongst the names in the hat.
Gravina's resignation means Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso could also step down as it was the federation president who asked the 2006 World Cup winner to stay on beyond the end of his current contract, which expires in the summer.
Italy's failure led Abodi to release a statement saying: "It's clear that Italian football needs to be rebuilt from the ground up and that starts with changes at the top of the FIGC."
That came a day after Gravina had hit out at politicians "who have only pushed for resignations", while also admitting Italian football "is in a profound crisis".
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