San Marino, along with
Italy, enjoys
football (soccer) as its most popular sport.
Domestic Football The
San Marino Championship, founded under the auspices of the FSGC (
San Marino Football Federation), is the premier footballing competition in San Marino. The fifteen teams that take part in the competition are split into two groups of eight and seven teams. The top three from each section at the end of the regular season progress into a semi-knockout style Championship Playoff. Prior to 2007, the playoff champion earned a spot in the preliminary rounds of the
UEFA Cup. In 2007,
UEFA granted San Marino a spot in the 1st Qualifying Round of the
Champions League. 2007 league champions
S.S. Murata was the first team to represent San Marino in the Champions League when they participated in the
2007-08 competition, losing to Finland's
Tampere team. San Marino also has a representative in the Italian system, with
San Marino Calcio playing in the fourth tier of Italian football,
Serie D. San Marino play their home matches in the Sanmarinese at the
Stadio Olimpico of
Serravalle.
International Football The
San Marino national team played its first unofficial international match in 1986, in which it suffered a 0–1 defeat to the Canadian
Olympic team. Its first competitive outing was on 14 November 1990, a 0–4 loss against
Switzerland in the
European Championship qualifier. These defeats set the tone for most of the following outings of the team, who are regarded as whipping boys in the qualifying sections of the European Championship and the
World Cup, calling into question the merits of San Marino and the other 'microstate' teams (Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Malta) being included in the main qualifying groups for said tournaments. They had a brief moment of glory when they faced
England in a World Cup qualifier on 17 November 1993, and took the lead through
Davide Gualtieri after just 8.3 seconds - still the fastest goal in World Cup competition. Despite this goal, only San Marino's third at international level, the microstate went on to lose 7–1. Until recently, San Marino's
international record was one of almost total failure, with famous draws against
Turkey and
Latvia being the only partial successes in an international career that contains over 70 defeats. However, on 29 April 2004, San Marino recorded their first ever win, with a 1–0 victory over Liechtenstein in an international friendly.
Andy Selva scored the only goal in a close game that finally gave this tiny republic a footballing victory. On 6 September 2006, San Marino suffered their biggest ever defeat, losing 13–0 to world giants
Germany in the Stadio Olimpico. It was also the largest goal margin defeat in European Championship Qualifying history. In the same competition on 7 February 2007, they came within 8 seconds of the best result in their history. They were level at 1–1 with the
Republic of Ireland after 94 minutes when
Stephen Ireland scored within 8 seconds of the final whistle. The goal scored by San Marino was their European Qualifying first goal since losing 4–1 to
Austria in 1998. As of August 2021, San Marino is 210th in the FIFA world rankings - almost last place with 805 points (the bottom is
The Turks and Caicos Islands.) The most notable Sanmarinese footballer was
Massimo Bonini, a
midfielder, who played for the national team, but most notably for Italy's
Juventus FC from 1981 to 1988. In 2020 San Marino made it through a round for the first time in a
UEFA competition making it to the playoffs of the 2022
Futsal EURO. In the 2024
UEFA Nations League Group D, Not only did San Marino achieve its first competitive win against Lichtenstein. They went top of their Group to get promoted to the Nations League Group C for the first time in their history. This was an incredible feat for the San Marino national team, and possibly the best the San Marino team have ever performed. ==Motorsport==