Zola calls on Italian FA to sack Ventura
Former Italy international Gianfranco Zola has called on the Italian FA to sack manager Giampiero Ventura after their failure to qualify for next summer's World Cup in Russia.
Ventura's future is up in the air after the 'Azzurri' failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 58 years after their 1-0 play-off aggregate defeat to Sweden and Zola, who appeared 35 times for the Italian national side, believes that Ventura's exit would be the best option for all parties.
"It will be necessary [for him to go], because it's not going to be easy for him to continue with his work," Zola told 'Sky Sports News'.
"It's a pity because he's a good coach, he really gets his teams playing good football but in this case, unfortunately as a national team coach, you cannot get the amount of time that is necessary to develop his football.
"It would be wrong to put all the pressure on the coach, all football in Italy needs to be regenerated and we need solutions to improve it.
"There are certainly men with very good credentials. We have to start restructuring our youth system and we need to improve the quality of players that we are producing.
"At the moment we are not producing a lot of quality and a country like Italy, which has always been known for producing players, it is a pity to see that."