Italian Football Federation (FIGC) president Giancarlo Abete has revealed that Cesare Prandelli will continue as national team coach even if the Azzurri fail to qualify for the knockout stages of Euro 2012.
La Nazionale must defeat Group C whipping boys Republic of Ireland in Poznan on Monday and hope that Spain and Croatia do not draw 2-2 or higher in Gdansk.
Abete, though, has explained that Prandelli`s job does not depend upon Italy securing a quarter-final place.
"Whatever the final result, Prandelli and the federation will continue their relationship for another two years," he told Sky Sport Italia.
"At the moment, we are not making assumptions [about going out], even if it were to happen, because we will talk about it then for weeks. But we`ll do that only in the event of a negative outcome.
"The team is there, the concentration is there - we deserve to go through."
Abete is also confident that Italy will not take their eyes off the ball against the Irish and get distracted by what is happening between Spain and Croatia.
"I feel like all of us are focused on the outcome of the Italy-Ireland game; that we are thinking only about ourselves," he explained.
"We have had difficulty scoring, but I saw a strong Italy at the start of both our games so far."
Both games in Group C kick off at 20:45CET.
Goal.com
First Published: Monday, June 18, 2012, 23:12