RAPPRESENTATIVA OPBG FINISH VATICAN SEASON ON TOP

It was a case of "as you were" at the end of the 2018-19 Vatican City league championship, which saw Rappresentitiva OPBG, the team of the Ospedale Pediatrico Bambin Gesù (Bambin Gesù Paediatric Hospital) lift the title for the second year in a row, but it was yet another season which was plagued by controversy almost from the start.


There was a particularly bitter encounter between Musei Vaticani and Dirseco, which the latter had originally won by three goals to one, despite having three players sent off. One of them, Marco Puoti, was subsequently suspended for three matches for foul and abusive language.


Worse was to follow for Dirseco; Musei Vaticani complained to the ACDV that one of the Dirseco squad who had played in the match had not supplied said medical documentation, and their complaint was eventually upheld after a hearing at the end of November and an appeal from Dirseco in early December. As a result, Dirseco were forced to forfeit the match, and were penalised with a 3:0 defeat, a result which changed the course of the championship season.


Dirseco were also badly affected by a ruling in the intervening period which stated that any and all players who had not forwarded the correct medical documentation to the ACDV on time would have their registrations scrapped with immediate effect, and any teams who subsequently fielded players with no medical documentation would be penalised with a 3:0 defeat.


Three of the Dirseco squad were among nineteen players whose registrations were revoked, but Dirseco were by no means the worst-affected team; that dubious distinction fell to Dirtel, who lost nine of their squad in one fell swoop. However, most, if not all, of those banned were eventually able to play again after supplying the required documents.


The temporary loss of players did Dirtel no good at all, and they were bumping along at the bottom of the table for most of the season, just out of reach of Guardia. Both teams picked up points deductions of two points each during the season to leave them even further behind everyone else, which halved the Swiss Guards' side's points haul at the end of the season. They also lost one of their players for five matches due to a red-card offence. 


PUL (Pontificia Universitas Lateranense) picked up an alarming amount of bookings during the season, but still did not finish bottom of the fair-play table - Guardia compounded their miserable season by filling that spot; PUL somehow took fourth place in the offenders' list. They ended their league campaign in a very distant fourth place, the same position in which they finished the 2017-18 season.


At the top end of the table, meanwhile, Rappresentativa OPBG were leading the pack, with Dirseco and Musei Vaticani in hot pursuit, but they were unable to catch the leaders, who won the championship with a game to spare after a 0:0 draw - the only scoreless match of the entire 2018-19 league season - against Musei Vaticani. There was one source of comfort for Dirseco, however: Santo Morabito finished as top goalscorer for the season after netting seven goals in his team's last two matches as Dirseco ended the season in style, scoring thirteen goals against Fortitudo 2007 and Archivio, and firmly hitting form ahead of the Coppa Sergio Valci.




04/11/18 PUL 1:1 Rappresentativa OPBG (Angelo Petrelli; Andrea Matano)
04/11/18 Fortitudo 2007 4:0 Guardia (Emanuele Perucci 2, Francesco Caputo, Flavio Elmi)
05/11/18 Dirtel 0:3 Archivio (Simone Salvati 2, Marco Di Pietro)
05/11/18 Dirseco 1:2 Musei Vaticani (Fabio Ioannilli; Simone Angelini, Giorgio Vinciguerra)
12/11/18 Rappresentativa OPBG 2:0 Dirseco (Marco Guisti 2)
12/11/18 Musei Vaticani 3:0 Dirseco (walkover; Dirseco had won the match 3:1, but played a squad-member without the correct medical documentation)
RED CARD (in original match): M Puoti, Gianfranco Guadagnoli, Cao (all Dirseco)
13/11/18 Archivio 1:0 Fortitudo 2007 (Francesco Cataldo)
13/11/18 Guardia 0:2 PUL (Edoardo Paruta, Romano Scaccia)
19/11/18 Fortitudo 2007 2:1 Musei Vaticani (Andrea Adriani, Flaviano Sperati; Mirko Panebianco)
RED CARD: Bna' (Musei Vaticani)
19/11/18 Archivio 4:1 Guardia (Luca Pasquazzo 3, Simone Salvati; Nicola Crivelli)
20/11/18 Dirtel 0:3 Rappresentativa OPBG (Fabio Alviani 2, Marco Giusti)
20/11/18 Dirseco 1:1 PUL (Alessandro Quarta; Francesco Forina)
26/11/18 PUL 3:1 Dirtel (Carmine Salvato 2, Valerio Rubbo; Luigi Portarulo)
26/11/18 Guardia 1:7 Dirseco (David Sailer; Alessandro Quarta 3, Santo Morabito 2, Enrico Rimauro, Angelo Palma)
27/11/18 Musei Vaticani 4:0 Archivio (Marzio Chirieletti 3, Giorgio Vinciguerra)
27/11/18 Rappresentativa OPBG 4:1 Fortitudo 2007 (Iacopo Albano 3, Marco Guisti; Danilo Troiani)
03/12/18 Fortitudo 2007 2:3 PUL (Flaviano Sperati, Marco Fabrizi; Edoardo Paruta 2, Andrea Quinti)
03/12/18 Musei Vaticani 3:0 Guardia (walkover)
04/12/18 Dirtel 1:2 Dirseco (Marco Pacenza; Santo Morabito, Alessandro Quarta)
04/12/18 Archivio 0:5 Rappresentativa OPBG (Tiziano Tintisona, Matteo Mattiuzzo, Marco Giusti, Stefano Di Cecca, Domenico Orlando)
10/12/18 PUL 1:2 Archivio (Flavio Guglielmi; Marco Di Pietro, Francesco Cataldo)
10/12/18 Rappresentativa OPBG 2:2 Musei Vaticani (Fabio Alviani, Matteo Mattiuzzo; Federico Berdini, Marzio Chirieletti)
11/12/18 Dirseco 2:1 Fortitudo 2007 (Santo Morabito, Alessandro Quarta; Andrea Adriani)
11/12/18 Dirtel 0:2 Guardia (Alain Gianoni, Leonardo Schlatter)
17/12/18 Fortitudo 2007 3:2 Dirtel (Flavio Elmi, Alex Piermarini, Flaviano Sperati; D Colagrossi, Luigi Portarulo)
17/12/18 Archivio 0:6 Dirseco (Alessandro Quarta 3, Santo Morabito 2, Santiago Perez)
18/12/18 Musei Vaticani 4:1 PUL (Marzio Chirieletti 2, Giorgio Vinciguerra 2; Filippo Rita)
18/12/18 Guardia 0:7 Rappresentativa OPBG (Marzio Giusti 3, Fabio Alviani 2, Iacopo Albano, Carlo Iorio)
21/01/19 Rappresentativa OPBG 3:2 PUL (Marco Giusti, Stefano Di Cecca, Matteo Mattiuzzo; Lorenzo Menesto' 2)
21/01/19 Guardia 2:2 Fortitudo 2007 (Gabriel Alleman 2; Flaviano Sperati, Marco Antonelli)
22/01/19 Archivio 2:1 Dirtel (Simone Salvati, Luca Pasquazzo; Luigi Portarulo)
22/01/19 Musei Vaticani 0:1 Dirseco (Santo Morabito)
RED CARD: Secone (Musei Vaticani)
28/01/19 Dirseco 2:3 Rappresentativa OPBG (Claudio Cittadini, Alessandro Quarta; Marco Giusti 2, OG)
28/01/19 Dirtel 1:2 Musei Vaticani (Daniele Colagrossi; Armando Goxhaj 2)
29/01/19 Fortitudo 2007 4:1 Archivio (Emanuele Perucci 2, Flaviano Sperati 2; Giuseppe Malizia)
29/01/19 PUL 4:1 Guardia (Lorenzo Menesto', Valerio Spagnoli, Alessandro Elia, Andrea Quinti; S Dietrich)
04/02/19 Musei Vaticani 6:1 Fortitudo 2007 (Marzio Chirieletti 2, Armando Goxhaj 2, Giorgio Vinciguerra; Maurizio Lepri)
04/02/19 Guardia 1:2 Archivio (Gabriel Alleman; Luca Pasquazzo, Luca Alonzi)
RED CARD: Pelosi (Guardia)
05/02/19 Rappresentativa OPBG 3:0 Dirtel (Stefano Di Cecca, Nicholas Monopoli, Francesco Faggiano)
05/02/19 PUL 1:4 Dirseco (Edoardo Paruta; Santo Morabito 3, Claudio Cittadini)
18/02/19 Dirtel 2:5 PUL (D Colagrossi, Daniele Carilli; A Pietro De Curati, Alessandro Elia, Andrea Quinti, Filippo Rita, Valerio Rubbo)
18/02/19 Dirseco 3:0 Guardia (Alessandro Quarta 2, Santo Morabito)
19/02/19 Archivio 0:4 Musei Vaticani (Marzio Chirieletti 2, Armando Goxhaj 2)
19/02/19 Fortitudo 2007 1:1 Rappresentativa OPBG (Emanuele Perucci; Marco Giusti)
25/02/19 PUL 0:1 Fortitudo 2007 (Flaviano Sperati)
25/02/19 Guardia 1:4 Musei Vaticani (Nicola Crivelli; Marzio Chirieletti 2, Simone Angelini, Giorgio Vinciguerra)
26/02/19 Dirseco 1:0 Dirtel (Santo Morabito)
26/02/19 Rappresentativa OPBG 7:0 Archivio (Marco Giusti 3, Marco Della Porta, Fabio Alviani, Carlo Iorio, OG)
04/03/19 Archivio 1:3 PUL (Luca Pasquazzo; Alessandro Elia 2, Carmine Salvato)
04/03/19 Musei Vaticani 0:0 Rappresentativa OPBG
05/03/19 Fortitudo 2007 1:4 Dirseco (Emanuele Perucci; Santo Morabito 2, Alessandro Rossi, Maurizio Baroncini)
05/03/19 Guardia 2:3 Dirtel (Guillaume Favre, Nicolà Crivelli; Luigi Portarulo 2, Guido Margiotta)
11/03/19 Dirtel 3:0 Fortitudo 2007 (walkover)
11/03/19 Dirseco 9:2 Archivio (Santo Morabito 5, Alessandro Quercellini 2, Claudio Cittadini, Alessandro Rossi; Luca Pasquazzo, Giuseppe Malizia)
12/03/19 PUL 2:4 Musei Vaticani (Daniel Tumiel, Filippo Rita; Armando Goxhaj 3, Marzio Chirieletti)
20/03/19 Rappresentativa OPBG 3:2 Guardia (Marco Della Porta 2, Matteo Mattiuzzo; Gabriel Allemann 2)

TEAM	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	PTS	GD
RAPPRESENTATIVA OPBG	14	10	4	0	44	11	34	33
Dirseco	14	10	1	3	43	15	31	28
Musei Vaticani	14	9	2	3	33	15	29	18
PUL	14	6	2	6	25	18	20	7
Archivio	14	6	0	8	18	42	18	-24
Fortitudo 2007	14	5	2	7	22	21	17	1
Dirtel*	14	3	0	11	14	29	7	-15
Guardia*	14	1	1	12	13	41	2	-28

TOP SCORERS

19 Santo MORABITO (DIRSECO)  
15 Marzio CHIRIELETTI (Musei Vaticani)               
15 Marco GUISTI (Rappresentativa OPBG)
12 Alessandro QUERTO (Dirseco)
 7 Armando GOXHAJ (Musei Vaticani)
 7 Luca PASQUAZZO (Archivio)
 7 Flaviano SPERATI (Fortitudo 2007)
07 Giorgio VINCIGUERRA (Musei Vaticani)

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: As always, many thanks to the ACDV for passing on the above information. Any discrepancies will gladly be amended upon notification of same (as and when time allows!).





















 

RAETIA RETURN TO INTERNATIONAL ACTION

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

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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.