Italy legend Roberto Baggio has declared it 'shameful' that Italy did not automatically qualify for the Qatar World Cup owing to last summer's triumphant European Championship campaign. Italy beat England on penalties at Wembley to win their first major tournament since 2006. Speaking at an event from Rome, Baggio, who himself suffered World Cup final agony in 1994, labelled the situation surrounding Italy's non-appearance at November's World Cup finals 'shameful'. He said: 'Italy won the European Championship, I think it’s shameful, it’s madness that they are not given an automatic berth to the World Cup for that,'Italy went from their highest high since they won the 2006 World Cup to one of their lowest moments as a nation missing out on consecutive World Cup tournaments'Anyone can lose one game against anyone else on a bad day, but these lads deserve some sort of reward for what they achieved, don’t they? 'I think Italy suffered psychological after-effects from the World Cup elimination.

Source: Daily Mail June 03, 2022 12:33 UTC