The decision was made once it became clear they could not get Andrea Pirlo installed as the new Azzurri head coach.
FIGC president Giovanni Malagò had brought in Maldini on 11 July to lead a new technical structure for Italian football, promising him significant autonomy in football decisions, with Leonardo appointed at his side as advisor. The pair's first task was finding a successor to Luciano Spalletti following Italy's failure to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup.
After approaches to Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti were turned down, Maldini and Leonardo settled on Pirlo as their only candidate — reportedly telling colleagues "him or him, nobody else" — and a verbal agreement was struck for the former midfielder to lead the national team through to the 2030 World Cup.
That plan collapsed once Pirlo's role as global ambassador for Russian betting platform Fonbet, whose advertising is banned in Italy, became public. Malagò, uneasy about the arrangement from the start, declined to authorise the appointment on Sunday, forcing the cancellation of meetings scheduled in Rome for Monday that were meant to finalise the deal, including the termination of Pirlo's contract with Dubai's United FC.
With their sole candidate blocked and no appetite from Malagò for alternatives such as Thiago Motta, Maldini and Leonardo concluded their promised autonomy had not been honoured and tendered their resignations.
FIGC vice-president Giovanni Abete confirmed the federation had effectively learned of the departures secondhand.
"Let's call them resignations, though I don't think they've been formalised yet. We found out about the news as we were leaving the president's office. Until 45 minutes ago, we were thinking about the alternatives the technical director and advisor were proposing. Now we have to start from zero with a serious project," he said.
The search for a new head coach now returns to where it started, with Malagò's preferred candidate, Roberto Mancini, once again the frontrunner, and Antonio Conte — the choice favoured by Serie A clubs for his experience — still to hold any formal talks with the federation. Giorgio Chiellini has also been mentioned as a possible replacement for Maldini in the technical director role, as Italian football searches for stability having failed to reach the last three World Cups.
The episode continues a turbulent run for Maldini in sporting management: he was sacked as AC Milan's technical director in June 2023 following a breakdown in relations with owner Gerry Cardinale, barely a year after guiding the club to the Scudetto. His exit from the federation, alongside Leonardo's, leaves Malagò needing to rebuild the leadership structure he unveiled with considerable fanfare barely a fortnight ago, at a moment when Italian football can ill afford further delay in settling on a long-term plan for the national team.