Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 7y

Daniele De Rossi backs call for early Serie A start to boost Italy chances

Daniele De Rossi has backed Italy coach Giuampiero Ventura's call for the start of the next Serie A season to be brought forward to help Italy's chances of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.

Ventura has urged the Lega Serie A to set the start date at the weekend of Aug. 12 and 13 rather than a fortnight later.

That would give the majority of his squad competitive matches before they travel to Spain for what could be a crucial World Cup qualifier on Sep. 2.

The two countries are tied on 10 points after four qualifying matches, having drawn in Turin in October, and the game could determine who qualifies automatically for the 2018 World Cup.

And Roma defender De Rossi told RAI: "Certainly in view of that [Spain] game it would be crucial to have minutes in our legs, but we know what football is all about nowadays.

"Clubs make money at that time of the year with us on tour in China or America, and we earn based on what our clubs earn, so it's going to be hard to do that.

"But it would be very useful for us in terms of that game."

Ventura, meanwhile, said he believed the future for Italy was "far rosier than could have been imagined" after the 0-0 draw with Germany in a friendly on Tuesday.

"They are the world champions and we hardly allowed them any chances -- I can only remember Buffon having to make one save," he said.

"Spain is a long time away and I'm only now thinking of our next test against Albania, which is going to be a big one."

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