Trapattoni gets backing
from Italian FA
Under-pressure Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni has received the backing of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and been told his contract will be honoured.
Amid speculation he could lose his job, Trapattoni met with FIGC president Franco Carraro on Monday to discuss Italy's recent poor results, including last month's defeat by Wales in a European championship qualifier.
"Trapattoni is staying as coach of the team and his position is not based on any time restriction," FIGC vice-president Giancarlo Abete said.
"This was never a meeting to discuss Trapattoni's job, this was to clarify our respective positions. Trapattoni is and remains linked to the FIGC and has a contract we intend to honour".
The hour-long meeting between Trapattoni and Carraro at the FIGC's headquarters in Rome concluded a frantic period of speculation in the Italian media.
Since Italy's 2-1 loss to Wales three weeks ago the media have debated the merits of possible successors, including former Chelsea coach Gianluca Vialli, ex-Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and England coach Sven Goran Eriksson.
The large number of potential candidates, however, masked the fact that there was not an obvious choice available.
VERY CALM
Trapattoni, meanwhile, has always maintained he will not resign and the FIGC have shown little desire to sack him.
He certainly did not look like a man facing the sack when he arrived at the FIGC's offices on Monday.
"I'm very calm," he told reporters before his meeting with Carraro.
At the press conference afterwards, Abete denied that the FIGC had been actively searching for a replacement.
"I don't think that any other coach has been contacted by the Federation," he said. "If we had looked for a substitution the logical step would have been to contact somebody -- up to this point nobody has been contacted.
"No Italian or foreign coach has been contacted as a possible substitute to the current one," said Abete.
The FIGC had earlier issued a statement dismissing specific reports that Eriksson had been targeted to replace Trapattoni.
Carraro has written a letter to the English FA to clarify the matter and assured them there was no contact with the Swede.
TRICKY FRIENDLY
Italy face a tricky friendly against Turkey on November 20 in Pescara and the pressure clearly remains on Trapattoni to get a positive result.
"It is a friendly match, obviously it is a very important friendly match because Turkey are a team who finished third in the World Cup and we want to do our best. We will obviously have to look at things as they happen," said Abete.
Italy's defeat in Wales and their 1-1 draw at home to Yugoslavia last month leaves them third in European championship qualifying group nine, behind the Welsh and the Yugoslavs.
But Abete said the FIGC was backing Trapattoni, whose contract runs up to the European championship in 2004, to turn the situation around.
"There is a faith and conviction that we can make up the ground in the matches ahead of us. We will continue to work hard towards the Finland match in March," said Abete.
Trapattoni said he too was confident his team would recover and reach the Euro 2004 finals, which will be held in Portugal.
"I am convinced that qualification won't be easy but that we can get there," he said. "We can weather the storm.
"I haven't discovered anything new from any of these situations -- I feel the same as I did three months ago after the World Cup or even before the World Cup. I feel we can do it."
As a club coach with Juventus, Inter and AC Milan, the experienced Trapattoni won more honours than any other Serie A manager and said the criticism he has received in recent months had not upset him.
"As I've always maintained, after so many years in football, it is not a strange or new fact if you criticise me," he said.
