League, the wait is over: tomorrow’s curtain-raiser is Domagnano v Virtus

The 2022-23 BKN301 Campionato Sammarinese will kick off with a Friday night curtain-raiser. Domagnano and Virtus – who also, curiously, met on the opening day of the 2020-21 season – have the task of launching this new edition of the competition, which, in addition to the new title sponsor, brings with it a major change to the format. From this year, in fact, it will be the team that finishes top of the regular season that will be crowned champions, while the play-offs will be used to decide the rest of the final standings, starting with the runners-up spot, which means European qualification. Everyone will be out to dethrone La Fiorita, last season’s winners, who begin their campaign on Sunday against Cailungo. The latter have recently entrusted their goal to National Team keeper Elia Benedettini, one of the standout moves of the summer transfer window, amid a flurry of signings made by the fifteen clubs on the Titano. Sunday’s league programme will be spread across three different venues, the same as on Saturday. Acquaviva, which will already have hosted the Friday night opener – also marking the refereeing debut of Laurentiu Ilie after many seasons spent as assistant referee and fourth official – will the following day stage the clash between Pennarossa and San Giovanni, officiated by Davide Borriello. Last season’s bottom two, Juvenes-Dogana and a heavily revamped Cosmos, will begin their bid for redemption against Fiorentino and Murata respectively. At the Stadio Federico Crescentini the match will be refereed by Alessandro Vandi, while Montecchio will provide the stage, in addition to Cosmos-Murata, for a refereeing exchange programme that will see a largely Estonian team of officials in action. The quartet will be led by referee Kristo Külljastinen, assisted by Sten Klaasen and Riivo Stolts, with Giacomo Cenci as fourth official. On the same pitch on Sunday, Libertas and Folgore are expected to serve up what is probably the weekend’s most eagerly anticipated encounter. Mattia Andruccioli will take charge of that match, while in Fiorentino Domenico De Girolamo will oversee proceedings between the new-look Tre Fiori side coached by Andy Selva – fresh from winning the San Marino Super Cup and riding the wave of that triumph and their summer European exploits – and Faetano. As mentioned above, La Fiorita will begin their title defence against Cailungo; the Acquaviva refereeing team for that match will be led by Outail Kaddoudi. Tre Penne sit this round out.   The seven fixtures over the weekend – as with all games in the regular season and the subsequent play-offs, including the Coppa Titano – will be shown live on Titani.TV, free of charge, with only a log-in required. Thanks to the installation of Spiideo automatic cameras, the FSGC has definitively entered a new era: the data recorded so far (over 2,000 registrations on the platform; around 1,000 streams during the San Marino Super Cup final, with coverage reaching all corners of Europe and extending to other continents from the very first broadcasts last season and throughout the summer’s European matches) provide strong encouragement to continue down this path with ever greater commitment and effort. The weekend and midweek offering will not be limited to full live streams with commentary, but will also include highlights of every single match, which the FSGC will make available on its channels very shortly after the final whistle of the late kick-offs. In short, every week there will be a wide-ranging and easily accessible opportunity to get your fill of Sammarinese football: all with the aim of bringing the goals and exploits of football on the Titano – through the quality of new filming and streaming technologies, integrated with the possibilities offered by social media – truly to every corner of the globe.

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