Although this was a quiet period on a political scale, with Matarrese as the president of the Federation and Luciano Nizzola, a lawyer from Turin, at the head of the Professionals League, on the sporting front controversies and divisions between "sacchians" and "anti-sacchians" were not lacking: it was the usual penalty lottery to deny Italy its fourth world title.

USA '94 ended with Italy finishing second behind Brazil.

After having failed in the European competition in England in '96, the love story between the National Team and Sacchi also came to an end - he resigned unexpectedly to return to the Milan bench.

His fall also dragged Matarrese down, and at the F.I.G.C. summit the Congress elected Luciano Nizzola, president of the Milan team for many years, with an almost unanimous vote thereby closing a 4 month management period led by the Italian Olympic Games Committee's general secretary, Raffaele Pagnozzi, called in to take control during a transitory phase after a first elective congress ended in vain.

Italian football refound its unity and its get-up-and-go, with the arrival of Giancarlo Abete as Vice-President, and with the active re-entry of Franco Carraro, jointly elected by Serie A and Serie B as Head of their League, the football CBI.