Women's football is not a popular sport in

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

, no women's national

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team exists, and the national football association does not have a full-time staff member working on the sport.

Background and development

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

is the fourth most popular women's sport in the country, behind

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

which is the most popular. In 2006, there were 65 total registered female footballers in the country, 48 of which were senior players over 17 years of age. That year, there were 16 football clubs in the country, only one of which was open to women to play on mixed gender teams. Women's football is represented in Federazione Sammarinese Gioco Calcio, the national football association, by specific mandate. They do not have a full-time staffer dedicated to women's football. Less than 5% of the national federation's budget is earmarked for women's football compared to 22% for men's competitions and 9% for youth competitions. In 2009, Caesar Biordi was in charge of women's football in the country. By September 2020, the country has a women's club,

San Marino Academy San Marino Academy, or simply San Marino, is a Association football, football club based in the City of San Marino, San Marino, who play in the Italian football league system. The women's team made their debut in the Serie A (women's football), S ...

, which competes in the Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

. Eleonora Cecchini is the only Sammarinese player of the team.

References

Women's association football in Europe Football in San Marino {{SanMarino-sport-stub