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Vatican City national football team

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Vatican CityVatican City
Shirt badge/Association crest
AssociationFederazione Vaticanese Giuoco Calcio
Head coachGianfranco Guadagnoli
Top scorerAlessandro Quarto (1)
Home stadiumStadio Petriana, Rome, Italy
Stadio Pio XII, Albano Laziale, Italy
First colours
First international
Vatican City Vatican City 0–0 San Marino B San Marino
(1994)
Biggest win
Vatican City Vatican City 5–1 SV Vollmond Switzerland
(Rome, Italy; 2006)
Biggest defeat
Vatican City Vatican City 0–2 Monaco 
(Cap-d'Ail, France; 22 June 2013)
Vatican City Vatican City 0–2 Monaco 
(Rome, Italy; 10 May 2014)

The Vatican City national football team (Template:Lang-it) is the football team that represents Vatican City. They are one of only nine fully recognized sovereign states whose national team is not a FIFA member. The others are the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Monaco, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu and the United Kingdom. In May 2014, Domenico Ruggerio, president of the FA, stated that “I prefer to be amateur...To join FIFA, at that level, will be like a business” after stating "The important message of friendship and love is demonstrated by the sport — the real sport, not the business that is in football these days...It is not just important to win a match; it is how you carry yourself." Therefore that, he added, meant that "the ethos of the Vatican’s soccer team was, at odds with FIFA membership."[1]

The Vatican City football association was founded in 1972. Its current president is Domenico Ruggerio.[1] [2] Gianfranco Guadagnoli, an Italian, is the current head coach.[1] The team has been managed by Giovanni Trapattoni in the past.[3] His first match as manager was played on 23 October 2010 when Vatican City faced a team composed of Italian financial police.[4]

Overview

In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II established a Vatican sports department with the aim of "reinvigorating the tradition (of sport) within the Christian community".[5] In 2006, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone suggested that the Vatican could field a team of men from Catholic seminaries. About the prospect, the cardinal stated, "If we just take the Brazilian students from our Pontifical universities we could have a magnificent squad." The cardinal also noted that in the 1990 FIFA World Cup, there were 42 players in the final round who attended Salesian training centers worldwide.[6] For example, Marcelino, Spanish hero of the 1964 European Nations' Cup was a former seminarian. It was Bertone's proposal that the Vatican's players, even if accepted by UEFA, would be drawn from the population within the Catholic Church worldwide, not just citizens of Vatican City. He was unclear at the time whether the Vatican would grant these players Vatican citizenship to make this possible.[7]

With the smallest population of any nation, approximately 900, it is difficult to form a squad. The Vatican City squad consists entirely of employees of the Vatican: police officers, postal workers, government officials and members of the Swiss Guard, the Vatican’s de facto army, charged with protecting the pope. Since most Vatican citizens are members of the Swiss Guard, they cannot be amassed in large numbers for a long time. Therefore, the national team has played only a few rare international matches, often drawing a fair amount of interested press.[1] When Vatican City played its first match in 2002, only one player, Marcello Rosatti, had a Vatican passport. In 2006, Vatican City was invited to participate in the Viva World Cup by the N.F.-Board and were expected to participate[8] but were unable to participate because they were unable to assemble a 15-man roster.[9] In total, Vatican City have played only four full international matches against other nations, one draw and three defeats to Monaco in 2002, 2011, 2013, and 2014 respectively.

In addition to its full international matches, the team has played a friendly match, its first, against the San Marino reserve team in 1994.[10] The final score of that match is believed to be a 0-0 draw but Steve Menary’s book ‘Outcasts: The Lands that FIFA Forgot’ states that Vatican insiders told him that the match ended 1-1.[11] In 2010, the Vatican organized a team to play a friendly game against Palestine. However, the team was made up of Catholic priests and was not considered the Vatican City national team.[12] In 2006, the Vatican City played SV Vollmond, a team from Switzerland, at Stadio Petriana with Vatican City prevailing 5–1.[6][13]

The Vatican's stance on football

The first football game played in the Vatican, in the Cortile del Belvedere, was in the presence of Pope Leo X on January 7, 1521. The first Vatican league was created in 1973 and was first won by employees of L'Osservatore Romano, the newspaper of the Holy See.[14]

The Vatican has typically expressed strong support for football. Former Pope John Paul II was reportedly a goalkeeper as a youth in Poland.[15] The former pope, Pope Benedict XVI, is an ardent supporter of FC Bayern Munich since his youth growing up in Bavaria, Germany.[16] 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."[15] In October 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".[15] 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."[17] Additionally, 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, Roma, Internazionale and Milan or Genoa.[18][19]

Kit

The team's current kit is provided by Diadora. The shorts are all white while the top is solid yellow with a narrow blue and white line around the right upper quadrant of the body.[20]

Matches

Against other nations

  Win   Draw   Loss

1994 Vatican City  0-0  San Marino B Rome, Italy
Stadium: Stadio Petriana
23 November 2002 Vatican City  0-0  Monaco Albano Laziale, Italy
Report Stadium: Stadio Pio XII
7 May 2011 Vatican City  1-2  Monaco Albano Laziale, Italy
Alessandro Quarto Report Stadium: Stadio Pio XII
22 June 2013 Monaco  2-0  Vatican City Cap-d'Ail, France
Report Stadium: Stade des Moneghetti
10 May 2014 Vatican City  0-2  Monaco Rome, Italy
Report Stadium: Stadio Petriana

Other

As of 23 June 2013[10]

2006 Vatican City  5-1 Switzerland SV Vollmond Rome, Italy
Report Stadium: Stadio Petriana

Current squad

Players called up for the international friendlies against Monaco on 22 June 2013[20]

No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club
1GK Andrea Giulii Capponi Vatican City Santos
2DF Maurizio Baroncini Vatican City Santos
2DF Andrea Mayer Vatican City Santos
2DF Simone Palmieri Vatican City S. Pietro Team
2DF Vincenzo Pietropaolo Vatican City Fortitudo
2DF Enrico Rimauro Vatican City Santos
2DF Mario Tiburzi Vatican City DIR.TEL.
3MF Cataldo Francesco Vatican City Fortitudo
3MF Fabrizio Gaudio Vatican City Fortitudo
3MF Mario Pacenza Vatican City Santos
3MF Angelo Palma Vatican City Santos
3MF Roberto Perinelli Vatican City Santos
3MF Sandro Troiani Vatican City Santos
4FW Simone Batalocco Vatican City S. Pietro Team
4FW Daniele Carilli Vatican City Gendarmeria
4FW Armando Goxhaj Vatican City S. Pietro Team
4FW Lorenzo Pierotti Vatican City S. Pietro Team
4FW Alessandro Quarta Vatican City Santos

Coaches

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Montague, James. "A Friendly Game for a Beatific State". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  2. ^ "Vaticano". fedefutbol.net. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  3. ^ "The things they say: Giovanni Trapattoni". FIFA. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  4. ^ "Trapattoni betreut Vatikan-Auswahl" (in German). fussball24.de. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  5. ^ "Vatican Cup lifts spirits in Rome". FIFA. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  6. ^ a b Saffer, Paul. "Pray as you play". Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  7. ^ Relano, Alfredo. "Lo que el Vaticano quiere es Selección" (in Spanish). opinion.as.com. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
  8. ^ Colchester, Max. "The World Cup For Everyone Else". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
  9. ^ Parada, Gonzalo. "La Selección de fútbol del Vaticano vuelve al verde césped" (in Spanish). gamacero.blogspot.com. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
  10. ^ a b "Vatican Football". The Path Less Traveled. Retrieved 25 June 2014. Cite error: The named reference "Vatican Football" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  11. ^ "Praying for a win – the Vatican City at World Cup 2014?". http://sbbu.wordpress.com. Retrieved 15 May 2014. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ Willey, David (19 December 2006). "Vatican plays down soccer 'joke'". BBC News.
  13. ^ "Fussball im Vatikan" (in German). 1. FC Ratzinger. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
  14. ^ Mattei, Giampaolo. "Lo scudetto vaticano? Ai Gendarmi E per gli Svizzeri". vatican.va. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  15. ^ a b c "Pope: Football a moral guide to life". CNN. 10 January 2008.
  16. ^ "Pope heading to World Youth Day aboard 'Shepherd One'". news.com.au. 9 July 2008.
  17. ^ "Vatican slams Serie A Sunday lunchtime kick-offs". ESPN. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  18. ^ "Vatican team will have the hand of God". Agence France-Presse. 18 December 2006. Archived from the original on 30 June 2007.
  19. ^ David Willey (19 December 2006). "Vatican plays down soccer 'joke'". BBC News. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
  20. ^ a b "First half goals secure Monaco win against Vatican City". Non-FIFA Football. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
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