Little has been heard from Raetia since their one and only
appearance at a CONIFA tournament, when they took part in the 2016 Football
World Cup, which was held in Abkhazia. But, they are due to return to
international action for the first time since March 2017 when they play the
Vatican City in Rome tonight, 23 March.
Representing the historic region bearing the same name (which
at one time or another covered parts of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy,
Austria and Germany), Raetia FA was officially founded in 2011, and a Raetian
team played – and lost 6:1 to - Chagos Islands in November of that year in what
was the début international match for both teams. The association was a member
of the NF-Board, and played in the 2012 Viva World Cup in Kurdistan, where they
lost three games out of four but managed to record their first international
victory, when they defeated Tamil Eelam by a goal to nil.
The Raetians haven’t had too much to shout about since then.
In thirteen matches since the 2012 Viva World Cup, they have won four and drawn
one of them, including a 6:0 victory at home against Franconia in September
2015. They lost three out of their four matches in Abkhazia, but at least gained
revenge for their 2011 defeat against Chagos Islands, winning 4:3 in Gagra.
Their last international match took place in Trubbach,
Switzerland on 12 March 2017, when they lost 5:0 at home against Tamil Eelam at
the Sportplatz Gufalons before a crowd of some 250 spectators.
Raetia chairman Yacine Azzouz and his squad, managed by ex-Raetia
midfielder Boris Tradic, are busy preparing for their forthcoming friendly in
Rome against the Vatican City, which takes place tonight (23 March), a game he
has been looking forward to for quite a while. In a brief interview in the
run-up to this evening’s fixture, Azzouz gave a brief resumé of both Raetia and
its football association:
“Raetia was independent until Napoleon conquered our region
and split it up. Since then the biggest part of Alt Fry Raetia ("Old Free
Raetia“) is part of Switzerland and what we call today the Canton of Graubunden
(Canton of Grisons). This part is mostly Protestant, the separated parts such
as the Valltelina (part of the modern-day Italian region of Lombardy and which
includes the renowned ski-resort of Bormio) is mostly Catholic. But today,
religion is not a big issue any more and there are from time to time voices
from both sides of the border that want to re-unite Valltelina with the Canton
of Grisions (with a referendum).
“The FA Raetia was founded in August 2011 and played in the NF-Board World Cup in Kurdistan 2012. Our greatest success was
the victory against Monaco in 2012 with our golden generation including Raetia legends such as Silvan
Tomaschett, Alan Egli, Cafer Yildirim, Ugur Sihyürek,
Simone Fontana and Manuel Rodriguez. All
of our best players played in the 3rd and
4th Swiss division. Our best clubs, unfortunately, don’t play in higher leagues.”
FA Raetia line up before a match in 2018 (Photo courtesy of FA Raetia)
It has been a while since Raetia’s last fixture against a CONIFA
side, and that, according to Azzouz, “was due to the WFC 2018 in London, a lot
of teams were too busy during the summer break.” They did host the second edition
of the Benedikt Fontana Cup in Chur last August, which saw them up against amateur
teams representing Bern (who won the tournament), Basel and St. Gallen. The
Raetians have also been busy indoors, with their Futsal team taking part in a
tournament in Liechtenstein in January.
Times, and teams, change in football, and this has not been lost
on Azzouz, who has overseen wholesale changes in the Raetian squad, who qualify
to play for the team by virtue of their – or at least one of their parents – having
been born in the Graubunden region, since their defeat against Tamil Eelam back
in 2017.
“The team is much younger [than that of two years ago] and
unfortunately the best clubs from our region have been relegated [to the lower levels of the Swiss
Regionalliga]. We are in a period of transition and we hope to build a new team
with the great spirit of the
teams that went to Iraqi
Kurdistan 2012 and Abkhazia 2016.”
The team is entirely drawn from Swiss-born players, though some of
them have played football in Liechtenstein. It means a lot for the players, as Azzouz
put it, “to represent their ‘Heimat’ [loosely translated as ‘homeland’]. There’s
no equal English word for it.
Heimat is more than a geographical
location, it’s a feeling. It’s where
you feel at home
and where you belong to.”
The team faces challenges going into the future, the biggest of
which, according to Azzouz, is trying to improve the squad’s standard of
football. More immediate is the challenge of trying to qualify for next year's
CONIFA World Football Cup, which is scheduled to be held in Somaliland. “That’s our
goal, and we are doing everything to achieve that goal.”
But first to tonight’s friendly at the Campo Cardinal F Spellman and its famous view of St. Peter’s Basilica,
a game that has been a long time in coming, and a game which just might provide
a springboard to success for the Raetians. Azzouz: “We [have been] trying to arrange
a friendly game with the Vatican since our foundation in 2011. Finally, we have the great pleasure to
travel to Rome and meet our friends from the Vatican
City!”
RAETIA SQUAD FOR THE FRIENDLY AGAINST VATICAN CITY (Rome, 23
March; KO: 20:00):
GOALKEEPER: Tomas GENSETTER
DEFENDERS: Marco MITTNER, Guiseppe LENTO, Baerni AEBERSOLD,
Daniel BAECHTIGER, Patrick BUCHER, Lucas AEBERHARD
MIDFIELDERS: Fabio KOLB, Bashkim SELIMI, Stephan BOLAY,
Samuel WALDIS, Adrian LEMMENMEIER, Tino DEMENGA
FORWARDS: Amir AGAEI, Mirco OSWALD, Paolo
BOTTONI---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many thanks to Yacine Azzouz, FA Raetia chairman, for his assistance with the above article. Some of the information contained above was gleaned from CONIFA's website and Wikipedia.
