They didn't. It was Claudio Lottito who use dhis influence over then FIGC president Carlo Tavecchio to hire Ventura so he could cancel the contract with Ventura to coach Lazio in 2016/17 and freed him to appoint Simone Inzaghi instead.
Wow never knew that's what it was about. Guess that is also why Ventura wouldn't quit until they fired him so he could get paid. I don't blame him much for that though as I would have done the same thing to get an important final paycheck....
It took a bit of searching but here's a great explanation with nice cartoon characters. People who think catennacio is what England did, or what Italy played after the 70's should watch this and educate themselves so they don't fall prey to English pundit and broadcaster meme's and their, at least in the past, denigration of Italian successes by using terms like catennacio negatively. He get's right into it between the 10s mark and 20s mark stating clearly that "Perhaps no style so misunderstood. Nowadays there is a tendency to refer to Catenaccio for any defensive style of play. It's meaning is quite specific and arguably not quite so defensive!" Watch the video: Tactics 1982 to 1990. While saying it was still a form of catennacio, it had changed significantly by then and was effectively over after that.
Adriano Galliani broke the story after the WCQ playoff defeat to Sweden in 2017. Inzaghi had originally been sent to Salernitana to coach them before Lotito changed his mind. The subsequent five seasons showed why it was a great switch for Lazio but a terrible one for gli Azzurri.
True. At the time I did not read about this. I don't live in Italy so I'm not always up to date with what is being said in the Italian press. I go by bouts; in major tournaments I log into the online versions of the Corriere dello Sport and the Gazzetta dello Sport but often if we lose / get eliminated I get disgusted and stop reading; this is probably how I missed this story.
Like Perugia’s Luciano Gaucci (RIP) , Claudio Lotito is also a very controversial character. I wouldn’t put anything past him.