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The Clericus Cup is an annual association football tournament contested by teams from the Roman Colleges, which are seminaries of the Catholic Church located in Rome. During the fourth season (2010), the tournament involved sixteen schools and fielded players from 65 countries, with the majority coming from Brazil, Italy, Mexico, and the United States of America.〔http://www.clericuscup.it/public/file/ClericusCup/nazioni2010.pdf〕 The players are normally seminarians studying to be Roman Catholic priests. A handful of players are ordained priests. The annual tournament is organized by the Centro Sportivo Italiano (CSI). The league was founded in 2007, and matches for the seventh season will begin in early 2013. Officially, the goal of the league is to "reinvigorate the tradition of sport in the Christian community" and has been called the "clerical equivalent of soccer’s World Cup." In other words, it exists to provide a venue for friendly athletic competition among the thousands of seminarians, representing nearly a hundred countries, who study in Rome. The league is the brainchild of the Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, who is an unapologetic football fan.〔http://www.lavanguardia.es/deportes/noticias/20090528/53712774317/el-vaticano-bendice-el-futbol-del-barsa.html〕 While some press outlets hinted that the Church hoped to offer a brand of football free of football hooliganism, the reality is that play on the field is intensely competitive. The teams that regularly contend for the eight play-off spots are, on the field, fierce rivals. ==The league== This competition had its beginnings in 2003 when Jim Mulligan, a seminarian at the Pontifical Beda College, founded a knockout tournament involving eight international teams from the Rome Seminary Colleges. This competition was then called THE ROME CUP. The first match in the competition took place in May 2003 between the Pontifical Beda College and The Venerable English College. (It was won 5 - 2 by the English College.) Fr Jim Mulligan is now a priest in the Archdiocese of Westminster, London and continues his sporting activities carrying out sponsored abseils and parachute jumps to raise money for various Church projects. The 2009 season drew 16 teams, representing 15 international seminaries, plus the Gregorian University. The league is divided into two sides or divisions: Division A and Division B. In 2009, Division A included four national seminaries (The Pontifical North American College, The Brazilian College, The French College, The Polish Institute) and two international colleges (San Paolo and Mater Ecclesiae). The Italian College of Sant'Anselmo, and the multinational Gregorian University rounded out Division A. Division B included the Mexican College, The Pontifical Roman Seminary, the Urbanianum (which fields players primarily from Africa and East Asia), as well as the religious institutes Augustinianum, Sedes Sapientiae, Redemptoris Mater, and Guanelliani Internazionale (The Servants of Charity). Two schools, Almo Collegio Capranica and Pio Latino merged to field the team Almo-Pio.〔http://www.iltempo.it/2012/12/12/clericus-cup-preti-calciatori-in-cerca-di-gloria-1.213490〕 The first season was played from February to May 2007. The second season began in November in of 2007 and finished on May 3, 2008. The regular season games were played at Oratorio San Pietro, on the Via di Santa Maria Mediatrice, 24. The third season was played from February to May 2009 with Redemptoris Mater winning the championship against the Pontifical North American College. The fourth season was played from February to May 2010 with the championship game again consisting of Redemptoris Mater against the Pontifical North American College. Redemptoris Mater won the championship game, 1–0, against the North American College, the same score as in 2009. The fifth season of the Clericus Cup will begin in February 2011. During the second season, the inaugural and final match were held at the site of the 1960 Summer Olympics: the Stadio dei Marmi in Rome. In the third season, the opening game was officiated by one of Italy's top referees, Stefano Farina.〔http://www.repubblica.it/2009/02/sport/calcio/coppe/clericus-cup/clericus-cup/clericus-cup.html〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Clericus Cup」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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