Pirlo and Maldini: the row involving their sons as agents erupts - what could happen

Special Teams Legends Onlus Press Conference

New background details are emerging on the increasingly complicated issue of the Azzurri’s next head coach.

Fresh turmoil and fresh concern are piling up for the newly appointed president of the Italian Football Federation, Giovanni Malagò. Political controversy over the sponsorship deal with Russian betting agency Fonbet and the trips to Moscow by possible new Italy head coach Andrea Pirlo had already put him under pressure. Now the issue involving the children of the Brescia-born coach and technical director Paolo Maldini is also landing at the door of the man at the top of Via Allegri.

The facts

According to Il Corriere della Sera, a fresh wave of protests could break out if Pirlo is actually appointed. He is due to lead his United FC side in the friendly against Salzburg in Austria today, but is still waiting for fresh contact from the FIGC to formalise the agreement until 2030 worth €1.5 million per season. The issue centres on the roles held with two different player agencies by Nicolò Pirlo and Christian Maldini, the eldest sons of Andrea Pirlo and Paolo Maldini. The former deals with intermediary work and scouting for You First, whose clients also include Spain’s World Cup-winning head coach Luis de la Fuente, while the latter works with Giuseppe Riso’s GR Sports, the agency of, among others, Maldini’s other son, Daniel.

Lippi’s previous case

The question of appropriateness, already raised by the harshest critics in recent hours, brings to mind a very similar case from the summer of 2016, when former FIGC president Carlo Tavecchio considered Marcello Lippi for the role of technical director of the Italy national team to support head coach Gian Piero Ventura. That idea collapsed once the potential conflict of interest linked to the established agent career of Davide, the son of the former head coach who won the World Cup in 2006, came under scrutiny, forcing him to step back. Andrea Pirlo and Paolo Maldini could now face the same dilemma, even though formally neither Nicolò nor Christian is currently registered on the list of agents.