Vatican City national football team

Vatican City

Shirt badge/Association crest
Head coach	Gianfranco Guadagnoli (as of 2002)
Home stadium	Stadio Pio XII
FIFA code	VAT
First colours Second colours
First international
Vatican City 0-0 Monaco Rome, Italy; 23 November 2002
Biggest win
Vatican City 3-0 Nazionale Italiana Religiosi Rome, Italy; 18 June 2007

The Vatican City national football team is the football team that plays for the Vatican City. They are one of only eight fully-recognised sovereign states whose national team is not a FIFA member. The others are Monaco, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Marshall Islands, and Palau.

Overview

The Vatican City have played only one full international game, against Monaco in 2002, and a friendly game against a team from San Marino (not the full national team), both ending in 0-0 draws.

In 2006, the Vatican City played SV Vollmond, a team from Switzerland, on a small field just outside of the Vatican; Vatican City prevailed 5-1.

The Vatican City squad consists of the Swiss Guards (voluntary military force drawn from male Swiss citizens), members of the Papal council, and museum guards (Italian citizens). Since only members of the Swiss Guard can get the citizenship of the Vatican and they cannot be amassed in large numbers for a long time, the national team can play only a few rare international matches, often drawing a fair amount of interested press.

Catholicus Cup

In 2007, the Catholicus Cup was played; this was intended as a "supercup" for representative teams following the Clericus Cup. The four teams included the Vatican national team, a team representing Italian priests and laity (Nazionale Italiana Religiosi), and two religious colleges. The final was contested between the Vatican and the NIR, and saw the Vatican run out 3-0 winners.

Selected internationals

23-11-2002		Vatican City	Monaco	0 - 0
18-06-2007		Vatican City	Nazionale Italiana Religiosi	3 - 0

The second of these was of course not an international match as normally understood, corresponding rather to the matches that groups in schools, universities and international organizations sometimes play as if representing (unofficially) their countries of origin.

Vatican in Serie A?

On 18 December 2006, Tarcisio Bertone, Cardinal Secretary of State of the Holy See, stated, but only in jest, that he did "not preclude the possibility that the Vatican, in the future, could put together a football team of great value, that could play on the same level as Juventus, Roma, Internazionale and Sampdoria."

The Vatican's Stance on Football

The Vatican has typically expressed strong support for football. Former Pope John Paul II was reportedly a 'keeper as a youth in Poland . It is also no secret that current German Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, is an ardent supporter of FC Bayern München since his youth growing up in Bavaria. Pope Benedict XVI is quoted as saying, "The sport of football can be a vehicle of education for the values of honesty, solidarity and fraternity, especially for the younger generation." In October of 2007, the Pope was presented with a #16 shirt (for Pope Benedict XVI) by A.C. Ancona of the Italian Serie B after Pope Benedict XVI supported their initiative to become a "beacon of morality" by adopting an "innovative, ethical model of practising football". In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican reaffirmed their belief that football should be a beacon of morality by lashing out at Serie A after matches for the upcoming season were scheduled at 12:30pm on Sundays to appease pay-per-view companies wishing to spread out Serie A matches over the weekend. The Vatican previously questioned the league's decision to play matches on Sundays at all, but "I consider this a truly harmful development," Monsignor Carlo Mazza told Tuttosport. "Putting people in front of the television screen at 12.30 CET , when they are having lunch with their families, to me seems like a 'pitch invasion' on life."

See also

• List of football clubs in Vatican City