April 2 (Reuters) - UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has warned Italy could lose its role as co-host of the 2032 European Championship unless the country upgrades its football infrastructure.
In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport on Thursday, in which he backed Gabriele Gravina, who has since resigned as Italian football federation (FIGC) president, Ceferin repeated his previous criticism of Italy's lack of modern stadiums.
Italy, who missed out on World Cup qualification for the third straight time on Tuesday, will co-host the Euro 2032 tournament with Turkey.
"Euro 2032 is scheduled and will take place. I hope the infrastructure will be ready," Ceferin told Gazzetta dello Sport.
"Otherwise, the tournament will not be played in Italy."
Reuters has contacted the FIGC for comment on Ceferin's remarks.
Italy must give European soccer's ruling body UEFA a list of five stadiums to host Euro 2032 games by October.
However, major clubs, including AC Milan, Inter Milan, Lazio and AS Roma, have faced challenges in renovating or rebuilding their stadiums, often wrangling with public authorities, which frequently own the venues.
According to consultancy firm PwC, only six Italian stadiums were built or redeveloped in the 2007-2024 period, compared with 19 in Germany, 13 in England and 12 in France.
Despite the infrastructure shortcomings, Ceferin exonerated Gravina from blame, shifting responsibility to Italian politicians.
"Perhaps it is Italian politicians who should be asking themselves why Italy has some of the worst football infrastructure in Europe," he said.
Gravina, also UEFA's first vice-president, stepped down on Thursday during an extraordinary FIGC meeting after mounting domestic pressure related to the national team's latest failure.
Italy lost a penalty shootout to Bosnia on Tuesday in their playoff match, prompting criticism from media and political figures.
Ceferin defended Gravina, stating: "It is absolutely not Gabriele's responsibility, and I would never allow myself to attack either the players or the coach."
He also criticised detractors "who wait in hiding for something to go wrong so they can emerge and start criticising.
"They don't support Italy, they support themselves. Tell me, which Italian player wasn't called up and should have been? This is football, and even with the best players on the pitch, anyone can lose a match."
(Reporting by Trevor StynesEditing by Toby Davis)
