H2 congress event
Goals were celebrated in the Vatican as far back as the 16th century. On 7 January 1521, and with Pope Leo X looking on, the then Papal States organised a Florentine football match – an early form of the game that is still played in Italy and from which modern-day football and rugby originated.
The modern game reached Vatican City shortly after World War II, and it hosted its first tournament in 1947: a four-team competition between sides made up of employees of the Holy See, but which had to be suspended when fighting.
