Nicolò Pirlo has broken his silence over the humiliating collapse of his father's candidacy to coach Italy, accusing the federation of letting "noise" drown out competence and values.

The 23-year-old, who works for the football agency Gersh Sports, posted a statement on social media on Monday defending Andrea Pirlo after the former World Cup winner was dropped from contention for the national team job amid a row over his commercial ties to a Russian betting firm.

"As a son, but also as a young man who dreams of building a future in football, all of this hurts," Nicolò wrote, adding that "noise seems to count more than competence, respect and values today." He said his bitterness was not about losing a coaching post — "that can be won and lost in sport" — but about the climate created around a man who, in his words, has "always let his work speak, without seeking shortcuts."

Andrea Pirlo, the 2006 World Cup winner turned coach of Fatih Karagümrük in Turkey, had emerged as a surprise front-runner for the Azzurri bench only after Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola both turned the job down. ESPN reported that his candidacy then unravelled over a sponsorship arrangement linking him to Fonbet, a Russian betting company, through a deal with a club in the UAE.

The saga has been chaotic even by Italian football's standards. Paolo Maldini and Leonardo, the technical directors who had championed Pirlo as a long-term project builder, are reported to have resigned once his appointment was shelved, leaving federation president Giovanni Malagò to take the final call on the appointment himself.

With Pirlo gone, the race has reverted to the two men most observers expected to be fighting for the job all along: Roberto Mancini and Antonio Conte.

Mancini, who led Italy to the Euro 2020 title (played in the summer of 2021) before a shock resignation in 2023, is reported to be in pole position and remains close to Malagò and to several senior players from his old squad. He has been out of work since leaving Qatari club Al-Sadd last month and has made no secret of his ambition to lead Italy at a World Cup, having missed out on the 2022 tournament after the team's playoff elimination.

Conte, who steered the Azzurri to the Euro 2016 quarter-finals before his current spell at Napoli, remains the preferred option of several Serie A clubs. His trademark 3-5-2 system would mean a tactical overhaul from the back-four setup Italy have used in recent cycles, a factor understood to be weighing on Malagò's thinking.

Giorgio Chiellini, the former Juventus and Italy defender, is separately reported to be the leading candidate to take over the technical director's role vacated by Maldini and Leonardo.

Whoever gets the job inherits a national team in genuine crisis: Italy have failed to qualify for three consecutive World Cups, an unprecedented run of failure for a four-time champion, and the federation is under pressure to end the chaos with a swift, credible appointment.