End Of The Dream

The Champions League is already over for the best team in Europe’s worst league

- San Marino

For the worst league in Europe, San Marino’s Campionato reached a thrilling conclusion last season. Trailing 1-0 to holders and overwhelming favorites La Fiorita in the play-off Final, Tre Penne equalised in the seven minutes of injury time with a goal from Stefano Fraternali.

As the club’s ultras, Tifosi Corretti Sambuca (TFC), used a loud hailer to broadcast support from a balcony on a building overlooking the Stadio Fonte Dell’Ovo, Tre Penne went on to win 3-1 and claim their place in this season’s Champions League preliminaries.

That was on May 25. A month later, Tre Penne were out of the Champions League, beaten 1-0 by FC Santa Coloma of Andorra.

Their exit was disappointing because, although the national team is one of the world’s weakest sides, Sammarinese clubs have been showing tentative signs of improvement – which makes watching their games more appealing than those of the national side.

“Sometimes it’s embarrassing to watch the national team,” sighs Tommaso Verzini, one of the TFC ultras’ leaders. “That’s why we don’t follow them. The players know they are going to lose. They are going to resist and maybe to score. “It makes me cry. You can feel the agony among the players.”

The agony has reduced somewhat for San Marino at club level, and those appearances in European competition which used to involve heavy defeats, even against clubs from other small countries, have mainly stopped.

In July 2013, Tre Penne became the first Sammarinese club to win a game in 1-0 in a Champions League qualifier, although they still went out, losing 3-1 on aggregate. In 2018, Tre Fiori became the first Sammarinese club to win a continental tie, beating Bala Town from Wales 3-1 on aggregate in a Europa League preliminary.