Vatican & Esperanto soccer teams??

[rowan]

Can someone explain to me how in hell the Vatican City - inhabited solely by the pope, cardinals and a bunch of clergy - and the artificial language of Esperanto can be fielding teams in international soccer competition

From Roon Ba:

17.05 Les Abymes Guadeloupe 2-2 Dominica Friendly
13.05 Saint Peter Port Guernsey 2-1 Jersey Muratti Vase Final
13.05 Cairo Egypt 'B' 1-0 Yemen Friendly
12.05 Fillan Hitra 1-2 Frøya Norwegian League 5th Division (Trøndelag), Group 2
06.05 Basseterre Saint Kitts & Nevis 2-1 Barbados Friendly
29.04 Saint George's Grenada 2-2 Trinidad & Tobago Friendly
29.04 Rome (Italy) Vatican City 0-0 Monaco Friendly
26.04 Le Lamentin Martinique 4-1 Guadeloupe Friendly
23.04 Saint Helier Jersey 0-2 Panjab Friendly
18.04 Machakos Kenya 'B' 0-0 Malawi 'B' Friendly
15.04 Linares (Chile) Mapuche 8-1 Esperanto Friendly

http://www.theroonba.com/football/men/2017.html

[Lizard]

Wikipedia says: "The Vatican City squad consists entirely of employees of the Vatican: police officers, postal workers, government officials and members of the Swiss Guard, the Vatican’s de facto army, charged with protecting the pope."

Sounds a bit like the Railways Cricket team in India.

[Lizard]

...I mean in that employment rather than residence is the criteria, not in that many members are Roman Catholic virgins from Switzerland.

[morepork]

I hear they invest heavily in their youth academy schemes.

[rowan]

Wikipedia says: "The Vatican City squad consists entirely of employees of the Vatican: police officers, postal workers, government officials and members of the Swiss Guard, the Vatican’s de facto army, charged with protecting the pope."

Sounds a bit like the Railways Cricket team in India.

Thanks, Wiki's banned here under the State of Emergency Rules which have been imposed seemingly permnanently. I can actually see how the Vatican might have managed to assemble what most of us would regard as a 'social team,' but how many of them were actually born there? I've heard nobody is actually born in the Vatican City as there aren't actually any women there. Anyway, I'm presuming the Monaco team they drew with bore little if any resemblance to the team which competes in French first division as well as the Champions League from time to time...

As for Esperanto . . .
.

[Mellsblue]

I hear they invest heavily in their youth academy schemes.

This is very funny and very wrong. Kudos.

[rowan]

I don't know how many Armenians there are in Argentina, but there's only 3K people on FDN & it's Brazilian:

26.05 Buenos Aires Armenians in Argentina 10-0 Fernando de Noronha Friendly

Meanwhile, England 'C' have battled to a 2-1 victory over Panjab in Solihull. No disrespect to the visitors, but that doesn't sound very impressive to me

Meanwhile, Burkina Faso has sent a 'B' team to Chile? Shouldn't they have sent their A team to play Chile B? That would've made more sense.

http://www.theroonba.com/football/men/2017.html

[rowan]

Meanwhile Northern Cyprus (been there ) will be hosting these teams in a tournament for states, minorities, stateless peoples and regions kicking off this Sunday.


Abkhazia
Northern Cyprus
South Ossetia.
Kárpátalja,
Felvidék.
Isle of Man Ellan Vannin (Isle of Man)
Padania
Székely Land