Italian sporting goods company Lotto Sport Italia has signed a new sponsorship agreement for 18 football teams taking part in the Clericus Cup—the first championship for priests and trainee priests/seminarians.

The company will provide the balls and strips for approximately 300 players. For the Vatican team, it has personalised the ‘Magma’ Jersey using the colours of the Papal flag. It will combine the Lotto double-diamond logo, the crossed keys found on the Pope’s tiara and the Vatican City seal.

The first eleven-a-side football championship of its kind will involve students and the Papal Seminaries of Rome and the surrounding province, is the brainchild of  Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, underlining that it is not simply a round of church recreation matches but a world cup in its own right, involving players from 37 countries.

The elimination rounds of the competition will take place over seven match days with two tables of nine teams contending for places in the semi finals, the first match kicking off in Rome on February 24. The semi finals will be divided into home and away legs, on May 5 and 19. The final days will be June 7, for the match deciding third and fourth place, and June 9 for the grand final. The winners will go on to compete in the regional and/or inter-regional finals of the Italian CSI “Open” championship.