Vatican City Championship

Vatican City Championship
Founded	1 May 1972
Country	Vatican City
Number of teams	8
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	None
Domestic cup(s)	Coppa Sergio Valci; Supercoppa
Current champions	Rappresentativa OPBG (4th title) ; (2023)
Most championships	Dirseco ; (8 titles)
Website	http://www.sportinvaticano.com

The Vatican City Championship (Italian: Campionato della Città del Vaticano) is the top men's association football league of Vatican City. Founded in 1972 as the Coppa Amicizia, teams are composed of workers representing various state departments.^[2] Teams are permitted to field an outside player from Italian amateur teams to play as goalkeeper,^[3] and players combine to form the Vatican City national team for rare friendly matches.^[4] The Vatican football association, Federazione Vaticanese Giuoco Calcio, is not a member of FIFA^[5] and is overseen by its president Domenico Regards as of May 2014.^[4] All matches are played at the Associazione Sportivo La Salle complex in Western Rome, although the larger Campo Cardinale Francis Joseph Spellman served as home until recently.^[6] The league has amateur status with matches and training taking place outside of work hours. Matches take place on Mondays and Tuesdays.^[7] Equipment and uniforms are occasionally donated by organizations and benefactors^[8] with deficits being covered by the Vatican government.^[9] The league takes place between October and May each year with a two-month break in December and January.

History

The first organized football took place in the Vatican in 1947 when a four-team league was staged. The final that year was contested between Pontifical Villas and Fabbrica di San Pietro.^[10]^[11] The league was suspended shortly after creation because of fierce competitiveness. Only friendly matches were allowed for the next two decades until another league was reformed in 1966. Seven teams competed during the first season with employees of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, claiming the first championship.^[12] The current league was founded as the Coppa Amicizia, later renamed the Campionato della Citta Vaticano, by Sergio Valci who was former president of the FA and a Vatican healthcare employee until his death in 2012.^[1]

A secondary cup known as the Coppa ACDV was created in 1985. It was renamed the Coppa Sergio Valci in 1994. The Vatican Supercoppa began in 2005 and sees the winner of the Campionato della Citta Vaticano face the Coppa ACDV winners.^[2]^[12]

Teams in the 2019–20 season

Teams
DirTel Team
Fortitudo 2007
Pontificia Università Lateranense
Archivio Segreto
Dirseco
FC Guardia
Musei Vaticani
Rappresentativa OPBG

Source: Sport in Vaticano

Champions

Season	Champions (number of titles)
Coppa Vaticano
1947	Final abandoned
Coppa Amicizia
1973	Osservatore Romano (1)
1974	Governatorato (1)
1975–1978	Not held
1979	Astor Osservatore Romano (2)
1980	Not held
Campionato della Citta Vaticano
1981	Malepeggio Edilizia (1)
1982	Hercules Biblioteca (1)
1983	SS Hermes^{[nb 1]} (1)
1984	Virtus Vigilanza^{[nb 2]} (1)
1985	Teleposte (1)
1986	Teleposte (2)

Season	Champions (number of titles)
1987	Tipografia Osservatore Romano (3)
1988	Servici Tecnici (1)
1989	Associazione S.S. Pietro e Paolo (1)
1990	Dirseco (1)
1991	Dirseco (2)
1992	Associazione S.S. Pietro e Paolo (2)
1993	Dirseco (3)
1994	Dirseco (4)
1995	Dirseco (5)
1996–2000	Not held
2001	Associazione S.S. Pietro e Paolo (3)
2002–2004	Not held
2005	Galacticos Musei Vaticani (2)
2006	AS Cirioni (1)
2007	AS Cirioni (2)

Season	Champions (number of titles)
2008	Associazione S.S. Pietro e Paolo (4)
2009	Gendarmeria (2)
2010	Dirseco (6)
2011	Dirseco (7)
2012	Dirseco (8)
2013	San Pietro Team (1)
2014	San Pietro Team (2)
2015	Musei Vaticani (3)
2016	Musei Vaticani (4)
2017	Santos (1)
2018	Rappresentativa OPBG (1)
2019	Rappresentativa OPBG (2)
2020–2021	Not held
2022	Rappresentativa OPBG (3)
2023	Rappresentativa OPBG (4)

Source:^[2]

Top scorers

Season	Team	Scorer	Goals	Ref.
1973–2006	Unknown
2007	Musei Vaticani	Alessandro Quarta		^[13]
2008	Cirioni-Fortitudo	Corrado Rossi		^[14]
2009–2010	Unknown
2011	Dirseco	Armando Goxhaj	15	^[15]
2012–2014	Unknown
2015	Musei Vaticani	Alessandro Quarta	19	^[16]
2016	Fortitudo 2007/Pantheon	Flaviano Sperati	20	^[17]
2017	DirTel	Armando Goxhaj	22	^[18]
2018	Fortitudo 2007	Flaviano Sperati	16	^[19]
2019	Dirseco	Santo Morabito	20	^[20]

Notable former players and coaches

Gabriele Giordano Caccia - Apostolic Nuncio to Lebanon
/ Dino da Costa-former Italian international
Source(s):^[9]^[10]

References

^ ^a ^b Argano, Fabrizia. "Il Campionato in Vaticano: "Papa Francesco tifa per noi"" (in Italian). corrieredellosport.it. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c Zinelli, L. "Vatican City - List of Champions". RSSSF. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
^ Collodi, Luca. "Al via il Campionato di calcio in Vaticano" (in Italian). Radio Vaticano. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
^ ^a ^b Montague, James. "A Friendly Games for a Beatific State". New York Times. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
^ Baxter, Kevin. "Vatican soccer tournament is a competition of Biblical proportions". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
^ McGuiness, Pat. "VATICAN CITY: A POTTED HISTORY". Retrieved 25 August 2016.
^ Nuti, Nicola. "Anche il Vaticano ha il suo campionato interno di calcio" (in Italian). News Cattoliche. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
^ Nuti, Nicola. "Vaticano: 7 squadre per il campionato di calcio" (in Italian). News Cattoliche. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
^ ^a ^b Mattei, Giampaolo. "Lo scudetto vaticano? Ai Gendarmi E per gli Svizzeri "zero tituli"" (in Italian). vatican.va. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
^ ^a ^b "Chi Siamo" (in Italian). Sport in Vaticano. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
^ "Santa Sede. Messa per l?Associazione Sportiva" (in Italian). avvenire.it. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
^ ^a ^b Nolan, Kevin. "The unlikely marriage between football and Vatican City". These Football Times. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
^ Schöggl, Hans. "Vatican City 2007". RSSSF. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
^ Schöggl, Hans. "Vatican City 2008". RSSSF. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
^ Schöggl, Hans. "Vatican City 2010/11". RSSSF. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
^ Schöggl, Hans. "Vatican 2015". RSSSF. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
^ Schöggl, Hans. "Vatican 2016". RSSSF. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
^ "2017 Classifica" (in Italian). Sport in Vaticano. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
^ "Vatican City 2017/18". Sport in Vaticano. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
^ "Copa Vaticana 2018-2019" (PDF) (in Italian). Sport in Vaticano. Retrieved 2 July 2019.