Sawt Falasteen - Milan-Cortina chief Malago elected new head of Italian FA

The 67-year-old saw off, as widely expected, his only challenger for the position, former football chief Giancarlo Abete, taking 68.58 percent of the votes during an extraordinary general meeting held at the FIGC's headquarters in Rome.

His election was little more than a formality as he had already secured the backing of Italy's top two professional divisions, Serie A and Serie B, and the player and coaching associations, who together commanded over half of the available votes.

Malago is an experienced sports administrator and canny political operator who presided over the birth of a golden age for Italian sport as head of the national Olympic Committee (CONI), the country's highest sporting body, between 2013 and 2025.

He takes control of the FIGC with the national sport at its lowest ebb, lagging further and further behind its traditional European rivals since Italy last won the World Cup 20 years ago.

Serie A was once the world's richest and prestigious league but even its biggest teams -- AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus -- can no longer compete with the financial might of England's Premier League and a handful of other mega clubs on the continent.

- World Cup failure -

Last season Atalanta were the only Italian team got to the last 16 of the Champions League where they were demolished 10-2 on aggregate by Bayern Munich.

And Italian football was sent into a tailspin in March after the men's national team failed for a third consecutive time to qualify for the World Cup which is currently being played in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Malago's predecessor Gabriele Gravina ended up stepping down as FIGC chief after initially trying to stay in charge, while coach Gennaro Gattuso and team general manager Gianluigi Buffon also resigned following elimination in the qualification play-offs by Bosnia-Herzegovina.

That penalty shootout defeat will be all the more galling to Italian fans who watched the Bosnians being hammered 4-1 by Switzerland on Thursday.

Malago will not only have to appoint a new national team coach -- widely reported to be Roberto Mancini -- but also satisfy a long-standing desire for reform within the FIGC and head Italy's part of Euro 2032, which is being co-hosted with Turkey.

In April UEFA chief Aleksander Ceferin told the Gazzetta Dello Sport that Italy could lose the tournament due to the condition of the country's football stadiums, which he called "some of the worst in Europe".

One of the key tasks facing Malago is a reform of youth development in a country which was once a conveyor belt of football talent but whose highest profile current player is Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Not long before the Bosnia disaster and the subsequent rash of resignations, the FIGC announced a new youth football project in which two heroes of the 2006 World Cup win, Simone Perrotta and Gianluca Zambrotta, are playing a key role.

And while the senior national team has often been a source of national embarrassment, Italy's under-17s were crowned European champions for the second time in three years earlier this month.

C.Hamad--SF-PST