Vatican City national football team
Encyclopedia
The Vatican City national football team is the football
team that represents Vatican City
. They are one of only seven fully recognised sovereign state
s whose national team is not a FIFA
member. The others are Monaco
, Tuvalu
, Kiribati
, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru
and Palau
.
in 2002 and 2011, and a friendly game against San Marino
.
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) 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.
. 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.
was reportedly a goalkeeper as a youth in Poland
. The current pope, Pope Benedict XVI
, is an ardent supporter of FC Bayern Munich
since his youth growing up in Bavaria
, Germany
. 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 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." 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.
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
team that represents Vatican City
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
. They are one of only seven fully recognised sovereign state
Sovereign state
A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
s whose national team is not a FIFA
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
member. The others are Monaco
Monaco national football team
The Monaco national football team represents Monaco in association football and is controlled by the Monegasque Football Federation, the governing body for football in Monaco. The current manager is Thierry Petit....
, Tuvalu
Tuvalu national football team
The Tuvalu national football team is the international football team of Tuvalu, which trains at the Vaiaku Stadium in Funafuti. The Tuvalu national football team draws from players in the Tuvalu A-Division; the national team competes in the Pacific Games and South Pacific Games...
, Kiribati
Kiribati national football team
The Kiribati national football team is the national football team of Kiribati and is controlled by the Kiribati Islands Football Association. Kiribati is not a member of FIFA but is an associate member of the Oceania Football Confederation , and is therefore not eligible to enter the FIFA World Cup...
, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru
Nauru national football team
Nauru national football team may refer to two national sports teams of the Republic of Nauru:* Nauru national Australian rules football team, nicknamed the Chiefs* Nauru national soccer team...
and Palau
Palau national football team
The Palau national football team is the national football team of Palau. The team is not affiliated by FIFA, but is an associate member of the OFC...
.
Overview
The Vatican City have played only two full international games, against MonacoMonaco national football team
The Monaco national football team represents Monaco in association football and is controlled by the Monegasque Football Federation, the governing body for football in Monaco. The current manager is Thierry Petit....
in 2002 and 2011, and a friendly game against San Marino
San Marino national football team
The San Marino national football team is the national football team of San Marino, controlled by the San Marino Football Federation...
.
In 2006, the Vatican City played SV Vollmond, a team from Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, 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) 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.
Full Internationals
| 23-11-2002 |  Vatican City |
0 - 0 | |
| 19-12-2006 | Vatican City |
0 - 0 | |
| ??-10-2010 | Vatican City |
1 - 9 | |
| 07-05-2011 | Vatican City |
1 - 2 |
Catholicus Cup
In 2007, the Catholicus Cup was played; this was intended as a "supercup" for representative teams following the Clericus CupClericus Cup
The Clericus Cup is an annual association football tournament contested by teams from the Roman Colleges, which are seminaries of the Catholic Church located in Rome. During the fourth season , the tournament involved sixteen schools and fielded players from 65 countries, with the majority coming...
. The four teams included the Vatican national team, a team representing Italian priests and laity
Laity
In religious organizations, the laity comprises all people who are not in the clergy. A person who is a member of a religious order who is not ordained legitimate clergy is considered as a member of the laity, even though they are members of a religious order .In the past in Christian cultures, the...
(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.
Other Games
| 18-06-2007 | Vatican City |
 Nazionale Italiana Religiosi |
3 - 0 |
| 23-10-2010 | Vatican City |
Guardia di Finanza Guardia di Finanza The Guardia di Finanza is a Italian law enforcement agency under the authority of the Minister of Economy and Finance. Like the Carabinieri, it is part of the Italian Armed Forces. The Guard is essentially responsible for dealing with financial crime and smuggling; it has also evolved into Italy's... |
0 - 1 |
| 03-02-2011 | Vatican City |
Stazione Carabinieri di Roma |
9 - 1 |
The Vatican's Stance on Football
The Vatican has typically expressed strong support for football. Former Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
was reportedly a goalkeeper as a youth in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. The current pope, Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
, is an ardent supporter of FC Bayern Munich
FC Bayern Munich
FC Bayern Munich , is a German sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional football team, which is the most successful football club in Germany, having won 22 national titles and 15 cups....
since his youth growing up in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. 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 2007, the Pope was presented with a #16 shirt (for Pope Benedict XVI) by A.C. Ancona
A.C. Ancona
Associazione Calcio Ancona was a professional Italian football club, based in Ancona, Marche. It was founded in 1905 as Unione Sportiva Anconitana, changing its name to Ancona Calcio 1905 in 1981 and being refounded in 2004 with its last denomination....
of the Italian Serie B
Serie B
Serie B, currently named Serie bwin due to sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It is contested by 22 teams and organized by the Lega Serie B since July 2010, after the split of Lega Calcio that previously took care of both the...
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
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
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
Monsignor
Monsignor, pl. monsignori, is the form of address for those members of the clergy of the Catholic Church holding certain ecclesiastical honorific titles. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian monsignore, from the French mon seigneur, meaning "my lord"...
Carlo Mazza told Tuttosport
Tuttosport
Tuttosport is an Italian sport newspaper published since 30 July 1945.Renato Casalbore founded the newspaper as a bi-weekly. In 1946, it moved to three editions a week, and since 12 March 1951 it has been published daily...
. "Putting people in front of the television screen at 12.30 CET
Central European Time
Central European Time , used in most parts of the European Union, is a standard time that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time . The time offset from UTC can be written as +01:00...
, when they are having lunch with their families, to me seems like a 'pitch invasion' on life." Additionally, on 18 December 2006, Tarcisio Bertone, Cardinal Secretary of State
Cardinal Secretary of State
The Cardinal Secretary of State—officially Secretary of State of His Holiness The Pope—presides over the Holy See, usually known as the "Vatican", Secretariat of State, which is the oldest and most important dicastery of the Roman Curia...
of the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
, 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
A.S. Roma
Associazione Sportiva Roma, commonly referred to as simply Roma, is a professional Italian football club based in Rome. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma have participated in the top-tier of Italian football for all of their existence but one season in the early 50s...
, Internazionale
F.C. Internazionale Milano
Football Club Internazionale Milano, often referred to as Internazionale or simply Inter, is a professional Italian football club based in Milan, Italy. Outside Italy, the club is often called Inter Milan. They are the reigning FIFA Club World champions and Coppa Italia holders.Inter have always...
and Milan
A.C. Milan
Associazione Calcio Milan, commonly referred to as A.C. Milan or simply Milan , is a professional Italian football club based in Milan, Lombardy, that plays in the Serie A. Milan was founded in 1899 by English lace-maker Herbert Kilpin and businessman Alfred Edwards among others...
or Genoa.