Carolina Morace
Nickname: Tiger
Born: 5 February 1964 in Venice, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Clubs as a player: Trani, Lazio, Verona, Modena, Reggiana, Torres, Aguana, Milan (all Italy).
Honours as a player: Participation in 6 European Championships (twice runner-up) and at the 1991 FIFA Women’s World Cup. 153 caps for Italy, 105 goals.
Coaching career: Lazio (women), Viterbese C1 (men, professional football), Italy U-18 national women’s team, Italy national women’s team.
Miscellaneous: Today, Morace lives in Rome and works as a television football commentator and lawyer. Her favourite (men’s) teams are AS Roma and Manchester United, her favourite players are Cristiano Ronaldo and Francesco Totti.

Carolina Morace:
“Girls need role models”
Scoring 105 goals in 153 games for Italy is in itself worthy of considerable adulation but since retiring from international football, Carolina Morace’s contribution to both the men’s and women’s game rates without doubt amongst the greatest.
FM: How did you initially get into football?
Carolina Morace: I started playing in Division C in Venice, where I was born, when I was 11 years old. Before my very first match, Mum said ‘Ciao, please make sure you take care because you are small and the other players are a lot older and bigger than you. Be careful of tackles’. Mum was really worried about me getting hurt. The funny thing was though, late in the match I got a breakaway and was running full steam towards the goal with the defender chasing me. As the goalie came out to close me down, the defender pushed me and I collided with her. But despite being the small one, it wasn’t me that got hurt. She unfortunately came away with a big black eye and I was fine.
Why did you start playing football? Girls playing football was not so common in the 1970s.
Morace: There isn’t really a reason I wanted to play. Football is like art. When people paint, write or sculpt, the talent needs to come out. With football it is the same.
How did you progress to the national team?
Morace: I was playing for Spinea in Division B when Sergio Guenza, the national coach and also the coach of the Lazio junior men’s team called me to ask if I would train with the national women’s team. I was only 14 years old, but I wasn’t nervous at all. I was just happy and relaxed. When I looked at the other players who were 28 or so, the only difference between me and them was my young face. Physically I was as big as them and I could play, so the age gap did not matter. The first match I played at San Paulo, the Naples stadium where Maradona played, certainly also surprised them. They could see I was fast and had ability, and that I was an unselfish player. I therefore had a good relationship with my team-mates.
What made you such a good player?
Morace: I was a good player because I trained responsibly and I was keen to learn. For example, I learned to play with both feet by focusing on my left foot during training. On the days that the team was not training, I went with my trainer, Professor Perrone, to the field where we did hill sprints, plyometrics and resistance training. My whole body changed and thanks to him, my talent was supplemented with physical ability. I became faster and more powerful and subsequently stayed with him until the end of my career. Professor Perrone also joined my staff when I went into coaching.
What were the highlights in your playing career?
Morace: The first was when we played a derby match in Agliana versus Pisa. We were winning 1-0 when our goalkeeper got sent off midway through the first half. They scored a penalty to make the score 1 -1 and we had to play the remainder of the match with 10 players. Just before the second half started, I said to one of the younger players who was worried about lasting the distance, ‘Don’t worry, I will score.’ And I did. I scored two goals to make the final result 3-1. Another highlight was playing England at Wembley as a curtain raiser to Manchester United v. Liverpool in the FA Cup. I scored four times, which is a record that can now not be broken given that Wembley has been reconstructed. Even the English fans applauded when I went into the tunnel.
How did you progress into coaching?
Morace: Football is my life and when I played, the coach always remarked that I knew what was happening so I thought I might make a good coach. I started as the player/coach for the regional team in Lazio. Then after I got my Serie C coaching qualification, the newspaper wrote a story to say I was the first woman in Italy to obtain professional coaching qualifications. Viterbese approached me after this to take over their men’s team. It was a great experience and in my first game as coach the fans all brought cards with pink roses on them. It was a little bit different from coaching women where many of the players had been team-mates and they knew and respected me on the field. Still, it never made any difference when I was angry whether it was a man or a woman on the field. I liked coaching the men and they respected me. I am still in touch with many of them today. In fact, two of them, Liverani (Fiorentina) and Biacco (Catania), work with me on TV.
What do you do nowadays?
Morace: At weekends, I work as a football commentator on television. I started doing this when I was 28 and my first TV co-worker was Nils Liedholm.
Later I worked with Zibi Boniek and Sandro Mazzola. It is relatively easy work for me as it is about providing viewers with comments based on technical and tactical analysis. It certainly takes a lot less effort than coaching or playing. I am a lawyer by trade but during the week I work as a professor in the science of movement in Rome. I teach football culture to first-and second-year post-graduate physical education students. I also have a role as a FIFA ambassador. For me this is very important because young girls need to have role models.

The South African national team may have lost their coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira, but the former FIFA World Cup™ winner has certainly left a foundation on which to build a competitive team for 2010.
Pictures of hundreds of thousands of Germans packing the streets of Berlin to celebrate with their team after a third-place finish were among the more endearing images of the last FIFA World Cup™ finals. The massive outpouring of patriotic fervour and affection for “Die Mannschaft” exposed a gentler edge to the Germans and did wonders for their international image. It was again a display of how sport is a leader in engendering powerful social change.
Ordinarily though, the Germans are not used to celebrating bronze. They have previously won gold at the FIFA World Cup™ and the European Championship and are perennial contenders for football’s highest honours. But while their 2006 team fell short of the mark, they will go down as one of the most memorable German sides ever for their tenacity, their sense of purpose and particularly for the way they overcame pre-tournament odds.
Few remember now how vilified coach Jurgen Klinsmann and his players were before the 2006 tournament started. Their preparations had been a motley string of results against mediocre opposition and there was a clarion call for the coach’s head even before the finals got underway. But they overcame that difficult patch at the start of the FIFA World Cup™ finals and after victory in the tournament’s opening game seemed to gain a momentum that rapidly brought about a change in mood among the German populace out on the streets.
Who could forget that memorable last-gasp winner against Poland in Dortmund or Jens Lehmann’s saves in the quarter¬final shootout against Argentina, aided by the crumpled notes he had on their spot kick takers? All of this made Germany 2006 a magical event, driving home how important the performance of the host nation is to the success of the FIFA World Cup™.
THREE STEPS
Casting forward to South Africa 2010, there were doubts as to whether Bafana Bafana ever could be effective in their own tournament. And not without good reason either. South Africa had managed to snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, ceding top place in their 2006 FIFA World Cup™ qualifying campaign at the last hurdle and missing out on the finals. They had also turned in some miserable results in successive CAF Africa Cup of Nations tournaments in Tunisia and Egypt.
It did not take a genius to realise the team needed a strong leader to get on track for the 2010 finals and to their credit South Africa’s football administrators moved quickly to appoint a high-profile coach to guide the side.
Carlos Alberto Parreira had been approached in the past to coach the side and turned them down. But when South Africa came calling again, he jumped at the chance to return to yet another FIFA World Cup™, this time as coach of the hosts for 2010. He arrived in Johannesburg with an air of gravitas and a vision for creating a competitive team. There were three successive steps to his mission, intended to build the team slowly over time. A strong dose of patience and perseverance and a broad vision were needed in order to come anywhere close to what the Germans achieved in 2006.
Although Parreira’s first game in charge was a comfortable 3-0 win in Chad, it was soon evident the Brazilian had his work cut out. Positive results were in short supply but did not sway him off course. Even as public patience began to wear thin and critics sharpened their pencils, Parreira insisted on experimenting with new players and also testing his young charges against top-quality opposition.
QUICK REPLACEMENT
It was a lonely path through 2007 and although Parreira had an extended honeymoon from the usually fickle fans, there was always an undertone of dissent, which picked up in volume when the side again failed to get past the group stage of the Africa Cup of Nations finals at the start of this year.
It seemed unfair, for while the team did not win in Ghana, they only lost one game too, and that courtesy of a series of calamitous defensive errors. On the whole, the side showed a marked improvement. Plus, Parreira had uncovered a bevy of new stars, sidelining a tiring generation of mainly foreign-based players who had been playing on reputation only.
In March came another testing friendly, this time against powerful Paraguay, at full strength and brimming with confidence after taking an early lead in the CONMEBOL qualifiers for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ finals. Parreiras prodigies turned in a stellar performance in winning 3-0 and after 21 matches and 61 players it seemed the Brazilian had finally delivered the magic touch.
After years of ridicule, the side looked buoyant and brimming with hope, suggesting they too could take the home populace on the same heady ride the Germans had in 2006. But then came the bombshell of Parreiras sudden resignation, a decision taken because of the illness of his wife and his desire to be closer to his loved ones in Rio de Janeiro. The news came at a potentially crucial juncture for South Africa, just over two years away now from hosting the world’s biggest sporting event, a blow to the solar plexus of a nation slowly daring to believe.
South Africa moved quickly to replace him and aimed for continuity with the appointment of another Brazilian, Joel Santana. And while fate would appear to be cruel, it could be that this test of character serves only to fortify the side in the same way that the Germans dug deep into their store of resilience to prove their doubters wrong in 2006.
Bafana Bafana said a sad goodbye to Parreira but the former FIFA World Cup™ winner has certainly left a foundation on which to build a competitive team for 2010. And he would certainly be welcome to join in should the fans end up celebrating in the streets of Johannesburg just as they were in Berlin.

Josehp S. Blatter was elected for his first term as FIFA President on 8 June 1998 in the back of an ambitious agenda.
The task facing Joseph S. Blatter when he was appointed President was made all the more difficult by the increasingly complex environment surrounding football. Nowadays, FIFA faces new challenges in the shape of political and economic constraints as well as sociocultural barriers. Football, which brings together billions of fans — adding meaning to their lives, kindling all manner of emotions, and in some cases even providing them with an income — now finds itself at a crossroads. “I am proud of FIFA’s accomplishments during my ten years as President. However, the work is far from finished and it is my dearest wish that we press ahead with our reforms in the next few years. We do not introduce reforms for the sake of it, but in order to protect football. FIFA is world football’s governing body and, as such, has a duty to protect the king of sports,” says President Blatter.
All of FIFA’s activities are motivated by the same guiding principle – to develop the game, touch the world and build a better future. In other words, FIFA’s principal objectives to date of developing football and organising competitions have been joined by a third objective in the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™”, namely that of using football as a means for social development.
Pillar 1: Development – laying the foundations to develop the game
Objectives: Provide greater support to the associations through the Goal Programme, speed up aid to Africa in the run-up to 2010 and embrace other types of football. A third of FIFA’s budget is now allocated to development, while another third is reinvested in football through competitions. More than 300 Goal projects have been implemented or are in the process of being so. These have enabled the building of association headquarters, technical centres and artificial pitches. FIFA has organised the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup since 2005 and continued to promote futsal, thus embracing all types of football. The FIFA Club World Cup, which replaced the Intercontinental Cup, is an elite club tournament open to the six confederations.
The Win in Africa with Africa initiative has enabled the creation of 53 artificial pitches, the introduction of training courses for administrative staff at four African universities and support for African championships and clubs.
Pillar 2: Competitions – touching the whole world
Objectives: Further increase the huge popularity of the FIFA World Cup™, award the tournament to Africa, develop women’s football, improve refereeing and fight doping.
FIFA’s competitions are a key element of football development because they motivate players at all levels. The 2006 FIFA World Cup™ proved to be a great success, in particular thanks to the public viewing and the famous fan fests, which brought together 18 million spectators. Moreover, the introduction in 2000 of World Cup rotation enabled the 2010 tournament to be awarded to South Africa, a first for the continent, and the 2014 event to be awarded to Brazil. However, in view of the huge interest generated in the world’s biggest single-sport event, the Executive Committee decided in late October 2007 to amend the rotation principle and to extend the applications in future to all continents except those which organised the previous two tournaments.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2007, which proved to be a huge success, also provided the stage for the 4th Women’s Football Symposium. The rapid growth in women’s football is embodied by the expansion of the FIFA World Cup™ and the launch of the U-20 and U-17 Women’s World Cups. In the field of medicine, FIFA has stepped up its anti-doping measures, while maintaining football’s principle of individual case management in accordance with the agreement with WADA.
Pillar 3: Corporate social responsibility – going beyond football
Objectives: FIFA has a worldwide social responsibility that goes beyond football. It has a moral obligation to contribute to building a better world and also to provide help in the event of an emergency.
In 2005, the FIFA Congress decided to add a new dimension to the mission of world football’s governing body to “build a better future”. With this in mind, it is contributing substantially to the realisation of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals and has decided to allocate at least 0.7% of its total revenue to its corporate social responsibility initiatives. The Football for Hope Movement, which is key to the strategic alliance between FIFA and streetfootballworld (a non-profit organisation that brings together the various parties involved in Development through Football worldwide), was launched to contribute to social development using football as an instrument. Moreover, the fight against racism continues thanks to the organisation of official anti-racism days during FIFA competitions and also through stricter disciplinary measures.
Besides strengthening the three pillars of its mission, FIFA has succeeded in reinforcing its institutional and regulatory structures and safeguarding the autonomy of the game.
Institutional expansion
Objectives: Protect football by ensuring that the principles of fair play are upheld.
The Dispute Resolution Chamber, the first international chamber with equal representation of clubs and players, has been established to resolve contractual disputes between players and clubs. Moreover, the Task Force “For the Good of the Game”, the first international body to bring together representatives of every interest group in football (players, clubs, leagues, associations, confederations and FIFA) has led to the establishment of a Strategic Committee that examines the major issues in modern football, including transfers, betting, players’ agents, etc. An Ethics Committee, responsible for ensuring ethics and fair play in football, has also been created. For the first time, an agreement between FIFA and FIFPro was signed to initiate cooperation with players’ representatives.
Regulations – the best protection for everyone involved in football
Objectives: Reinforce the rules protecting everyone involved in football – the players, the game, the clubs and the national teams – in order to preserve the ethics of football.
The new Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players has been established on the basis of an agreement with the European Commission. Solidarity mechanisms have been implemented between clubs. Transfers of under-18 players have been banned. Nine reforms aimed at different key areas (players’ agents, transfer database, monitoring illegal betting, licensing of clubs worldwide, dispute resolution chambers at national level, standard electoral code for elections at associations) have been added to the range of measures already in place.
Politics – the autonomy of sport
Objectives: As world football’s governing body, FIFA aims to preserve the autonomy of sport and, by involving itself through football in areas facing difficult situations, helps to ease tensions.
By collaborating with the IOC, other international federations and UEFA, FIFA has gained recognition by the European Union of sport’s special status. Each time FIFA visits an association, its representatives enter into dialogue with the government to promote sport and football, develop infrastructures and cooperate in combating criminal activity in football. Finally, FIFA vigorously defends the autonomy of football and the associations against governmental interference. Moreover, FIFA has supported meetings between Palestine and Israel, appointed Korea Republic and Japan as joint hosts of the 2002 FIFA World Cup™ and initiated dialogue between Cyprus and Turkey.
Administration – a call for greater transparency
Objectives: Faced with accusations at the start of this decade that it was not transparent, FIFA decided to do everything in its power to prove the contrary. The success of its commercial, marketing and internet activities attest to its transparency.
After the “troubles” of 2001, prudent financial management and the creation of reserves have allowed FIFA to guarantee its future. Its own funds now comprise 750 million Swiss francs, thanks in particular to its financial and commercial success in television and marketing. As for the internet, FIFA.com, the exclusive site of FIFA and the FIFA World Cup™, follows on from the huge success of FIFAworldcup.com, which recorded 4.2 billion pages viewed during the 2006 FIFA World Cup™. Moreover, FIFA has achieved complete financial transparency thanks to the establishment of an Internal Audit Committee based on international accounting standards, which produces annual financial reports. Finally, FIFA inaugurated its new headquarters in 2007, fully equipped with modern administrative tools.
If FIFA did not exist
The reasons for establishing FIFA – to launch the FIFA World Cup™ and promote and regulate international football – are as relevant today as they were in 1904. If FIFA did not exist, it would have to be created in order to bring together all the different interest groups involved in football.
As world football’s governing body, it is FIFA’s responsibility not only to manage and promote football but also to lay the foundations for its future, not by prioritising unilateral interests, which are usually dictated by financial considerations, but by allowing the game to preserve its many valuable assets. For the Game. For the World.