Football is no longer the first sport in Italy! In a country that has won the World Cup four times and football is part of its national culture, the number of members of the tennis and rowing association exceeded football for the first time. After more than a century, Italian football has lost its first position in terms of the number of official members of the sports associations. An unprecedented event in a country that has always been one of the biggest soccer powers in the world. According to the Gazzetta dello Sport, statistics from the Italian National Olympic Committee show that the Tennis and Rowing Federation surpassed the Football Association with 1 million 123 thousand 54 members in 2024 with 1 million 162 thousand 477 members. This difference of almost 40,000 people was recorded while the number of tennis and rowing members increased to 1,254,153 people in 2025.

Football is no longer the first sport in Italy! In a country that has won the World Cup four times and football is part of its national culture, the number of members of the tennis and rowing association exceeded football for the first time. After more than a century, Italian football has lost its first position in terms of the number of official members of the sports associations. An unprecedented event in a country that has always been one of the biggest soccer powers in the world. According to the Gazzetta dello Sport, statistics from the Italian National Olympic Committee show that the Tennis and Rowing Federation surpassed the Football Association with 1 million 123 thousand 54 members in 2024 with 1 million 162 thousand 477 members. This difference of almost 40,000 people was recorded while the number of tennis and rowing members increased to 1,254,153 people in 2025.