Since February 2007, the Vatican organizes each year the Catholic football World Cup, called the Clericus Cup. It includes sixteen teams composed of priests and seminarians, reinforced by lay people working for religious orders. Players come mostly from international colleges of Rome.
The Vatican team carries the colors of the papal flag on its jerseys. They are one of only eight fully-recognised sovereign states whose national team is not a FIFA member.
The Vatican City squad consists of the Swiss Guards (voluntary military force drawn from male Swiss citizens), members of the Papal council 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.
On December 18, 2006, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, stated 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 Juventus, Roma, Inter Milan and Sampdoria". Meanwhile Vatican has organized the Clericus Cup.
Taken from the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference site.
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