Sir, – Eamonn McCann (Opinion, January 23d) in his exploration of the nebulous status of the Vatican/Holy See, neglected to mention another oddity. Why doesn't the Vatican (or is it the Holy See), a sovereign state, represented at the United Nations, have a football team?
After all, other European micro-states – Liechtenstein, the Faroe Islands, Andorra, and San Marino (like the Vatican City, also surrounded by Italian territory) – have international football teams. Sure, it only has a population of circa 800 from which to select a team, and the “granny rule” might prove to be a problem (or would it?), but that could be offset by its network of clergy worldwide and judicious use of FIFA’s residency rules. And we know that it has had some good players in the past; Pope John Paul II was known to have been handy between the sticks. His successor, Benedict XVI is a Bayern Munich supporter, and the current pope, Francis, like all Argentinians, is football mad.
Apparently the Vatican is one of seven sovereign states who are not full FIFA members. Another is Monaco, against whom the Vatican fielded a team twice, in 2001 and 2011, losing both. But were they “internationals”? – Yours, etc,
TOMMY GRAHAM,
Editor, History Ireland,
Palmerston Place, Dublin 7.