5 reasons why Italy has failed to qualify for 3 consecutive World Cups

ROME (AP) — Italy won't get a chance at redemption for Roberto Baggio’s miss in the 1994 World Cup final at the Rose Bowl.

The four-time champion isn’t even going back to North America for this year’s tournament after a penalty shootout loss to 66th-ranked Bosnia-Herzegovina in the qualifying playoffs.

It’s the third straight World Cup that Italy will miss after getting eliminated at the same stage by Sweden ahead of the 2018 World Cup and by North Macedonia in 2022.

Here’s a look at five reasons why the Azzurri continue to struggle:

Compared to the title-winning 2006 Italy squad that featured standouts like Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti and Andrea Pirlo, there haven’t been Italian players of that caliber for years.

The most expensive player on the current squad is midfielder Sandro Tonali, who was purchased by Newcastle in 2023 for about 80 million euros ($93 million).

The only other world-class player is Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

The starting strikers are Argentine-born Mateo Retegui and Moise Kean of Fiorentina.

The Italian league was considered the best in the world in the 1980s and 1990s when the likes of Diego Maradona, Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit came to play in the primes of their careers. It’s where Kaka won the Ballon d’Or award with AC Milan in 2007 — the last Italy-based player to receive the honor.

These days, ageing standouts like 40-year-old Luka Modric (at Milan) and 39-year-old Jamie Vardy (Cremonese) come to Serie A to conclude their careers.

So without international stars, the league’s level has dropped and that has a trickle-down effect on the national team.

Juventus, which used to provide the backbone for Italy’s squad, hasn’t won Serie A since 2020. And there wasn’t a single Milan player on the playoff squad.

Inspired by Jannik Sinner’s accomplishments, tennis is encroaching on soccer’s status as Italy’s most popular sport. Hordes of kids are gravitating to tennis instead of the traditional pastime of kicking a soccer ball around on a street.

In 2025, 21.6 million Italians said they were soccer fans and 19.9 million said they watched tennis and padel, according to Nielsen Fun Insights.

Italy is also finding success in Formula 1 with 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli winning the last two races.

And the host country is coming off a record performance at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

“These things go in cycles,” Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso said last week. “When I see us winning in other sports it gets me motivated. It makes me feel pride. … Right now our history tells us that we’re struggling.”

Apart from when it reaches the latter stages of major tournaments, Italy’s national team doesn’t inspire much interest at home and has no organized fans.

Whereas every professional club in Italy has an organized fan base or “ultras” that supports its team with chants and scarves, the Azzurri are not backed by song or cheer on a consistent basis.

Gattuso preferred to play last week’s playoff semifinal in Bergamo’s 23,500-seat stadium rather than the much larger San Siro because he noticed that Milan and Inter fans whistled at players from opposing clubs during a loss to Norway in Milan in November.

“At the first errant pass you start hearing the whistles,” Gattuso said.

Italy is also far behind other European leagues in terms of building new soccer stadiums.

Milan and Inter only recently purchased the San Siro from the city so they can tear it down and build a new stadium in time for the 2032 European Championship that Italy is co-hosting with Turkey.

Meanwhile, Roma is in the final stages of obtaining the necessary permits to build its own arena after more than a decade of delays so it can move out of the Stadio Olimpico.

Of Italy’s major clubs, only Juventus currently owns and operates a modern stadium.

The lack of club-owned stadiums means that teams can’t earn enough to compete with wealthy rivals from abroad — which weighs down Serie A and affects the national team.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Italy's Gianluigi Donnarumma walks off the pitch after losing in a World Cup qualifying playoff final soccer match between Bosnia and Italy in Zenica, Bosnia, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)

An abandoned soccer field is pictured in Rome, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

A broken soccer ball is pictured on a street in Rome, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

A n abandoned soccer field is pictured in Rome, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Italy players react during a penalty shootout during the World Cup qualifying playoff final soccer match between Bosnia and Italy in Zenica, Bosnia, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments at 10 a.m. ET over the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to someone in the country illegally or temporarily.

The birthright citizenship order, which Trump signed on Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term, is part of his Republican administration’s broad immigration crackdown.

Trump plans to be in attendance. He will be the first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the nation’s highest court.

Every lower court to have considered the issue has found the order illegal and prevented it from taking effect. A definitive ruling by the nation’s highest court is expected by early summer.

Here’s the latest:

Way back in 1841, former President John Quincy Adams represented a shipload of African men and women who had been sold into slavery in the famous Amistad case.

Former President William Howard Taft became chief justice nearly eight years after leaving the White House in 1913. Charles Evans Hughes left the Supreme Court for a presidential run in 1912, which he nearly won, then returned to the court in 1930 as chief justice.

In 1966, Richard Nixon argued his only Supreme Court case, which he lost.

Twenty-four Democratic state attorneys general put out a statement Wednesday morning saying they’re “proud to lead the fight against this unlawful order.”

While Democratic attorneys general have sued the Trump administration scores of times, the plaintiffs in this case are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups.

The Democratic attorneys filed court papers supporting their position. Twenty-five of their Republican counterparts filed a friend-of-the-court brief backing the Trump administration.

The only state sitting this one out is New Hampshire.

More than 250,000 babies born in the U.S. each year would not be citizens, according to research from the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University’s Population Research Institute.

The order would only apply going forward, the administration has said. But opponents have said a court ruling in Trump’s favor could pave the way for a later effort to take away citizenship from people who were born to parents who were not themselves U.S. citizens.

The president and first lady Melania Trump showed up for the court ritual marking the arrival of a new justice following the confirmations of Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Justice Brett Kavanaugh a year later.

The ceremony for Trump’s third appointee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, was delayed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and Trump, who was no longer in office, did not attend.

Traditionally the president has avoided attending arguments to maintain distance between the government branches — since the executive officer’s presence is seen by many as a way to pressure the independent court to rule in their favor.

Given the unusual nature of it all — Trump’s presence in the courtroom spotlights how high the stakes are for him, as the court’s decision will have massive consequences on his longstanding promise to crack down on immigration.

Last year, Trump said that he badly wanted to attend a hearing on whether he overstepped federal law with his sweeping tariffs, but he decided against it, saying it would have been a distraction.

Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at UCLA, told the The Associated Press that Trump’s attending SCOTUS oral arguments signals how important the president views this case.

However, Trump’s presence “is unlikely to sway the justices,” Winkler said, adding that the SCOTUS justices “pride themselves in their independence, even if some agree with much of Trump’s agenda.”

The fanfare of Trump being in the courtroom will make for a different experience for the justices themselves, however, as “Trump’s presence will make the atmosphere a little bit more circus-like,” Winkler said.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer is making his ninth Supreme Court argument and second in as many weeks. Sauer’s biggest win to date was the presidential immunity decision that spared Trump from being tried for his effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Sauer was a Supreme Court law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia early in his legal career.

ACLU legal director Cecillia Wang, the child of Chinese immigrants, is presenting her second argument to the Supreme Court. In the first Trump administration, a 5-4 conservative majority ruled against Wang’s clients in another immigration case.

It’s not an April Fool’s joke. Alito was born this day in 1950. Only Thomas, who turns 78 in June, is older than Alito among the nine justices.

In the post-pandemic era, the other justices allow the 77-year-old Thomas, the longest-serving member of the court, to pose a question or two before the free-for-all begins.

In a second round of questioning, the justices ask questions in order of seniority. Chief Justice John Roberts, whose center chair makes him the most senior, gets the first crack.

The justices have routinely gone beyond the allotted time since returning to the courtroom following the Covid-19 pandemic.

A buzzer and the court marshal’s cry, “All rise,” signal the justices’ entrance from behind red curtains. The livestream won’t kick in for several minutes, until after the ceremonial swearing-in of lawyers to the Supreme Court bar.

FILE - The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington on Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

People arrive to walk inside the U.S. Supreme Court, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. The Supreme Court justices will hear oral arguments today on whether President Donald Trump can deny citizenship to children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)