Calcio Storico Fiorentino·Combat Sports

Comune Firenze

🏛️Official — Comune Firenze

Comune di Firenze — Regolamento del Calcio Storico Fiorentino· 2026 Regolamento del Calcio Storico Fiorentino — 16th-century Florentine combat-football: 27-on-27, 50 minutes, played annually in Piazza Santa CroceOpen source

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Section 1: Introduction

Calcio Storico Fiorentino ("Historic Florentine Football") is a 16th-century combat-football tradition unique to the city of Florence, Italy. The sport pre-dates modern association football and survives today as an annual June tournament organized by the Comune di Firenze (Municipality of Florence), regulated by official municipal rules (the Regolamento). Four teams representing Florence's historic quartieri compete in a single-elimination bracket: Bianchi (Santo Spirito, White), Azzurri (Santa Croce, Blue), Rossi (Santa Maria Novella, Red), and Verdi (San Giovanni, Green). Matches combine soccer, rugby, wrestling, and bare-knuckle boxing — historians describe it as one of the world's most physical traditional sports.

Section 2: Equipment

Ball: leather "palla" (similar to medieval European football); slightly smaller than modern soccer ball
Player uniform: traditional 16th-century costume in team color (white, blue, red, or green) — long pantaloons + headscarf, no shoes or modern athletic gear
No helmets, no pads — bare-knuckle, bare-foot, traditional dress only
Mouthguards permitted (modern adaptation, not historical)

Section 3: Playing Area

Piazza Santa Croce, Florence — the central piazza is converted to a sand-covered playing field for the annual tournament
Field dimensions: ~80 m × ~40 m
Marked goal lines at each end of the piazza (low netted goals, span the full width)
Sanded surface (typically 30+ cm of compacted sand) to soften falls + grappling impact
Spectator stands erected on perimeter

Section 4: Players & Officials

27 players per side on the field (one of the largest team formats in any organized sport)
Positions: 4 datori indietro (defenders, "back-givers"), 3 datori innanzi (sweepers), 5 sconciatori (midfielders), 15 innanzi/corridori (forwards)
Officials: 1 main referee (Giudice Commissario) + 6 line judges + medical officials + crowd marshals
Players must have residency or family ties to the quartiere they represent
Modern era: men only, age 18+; medical fitness pre-clearance required

Section 5: Rules of Play

Match Length

50 minutes (single continuous period — no halftime)
No substitutions: players who exit (injury, ejection) are not replaced
Reduced-team play continues if one side has fewer players

Object of the Game

Score a "caccia" (goal) by getting the ball over the opposing team's full-width goal at the end of the piazza
Goals can be scored by carrying, throwing, or kicking the ball over the goal line — any method
Throwing the ball over the goal-line but missing → counted as half-caccia (mezzo caccia) to opponent (severe penalty)

Permitted Physical Contact

Wrestling (one-on-one only): a player may grapple an opponent who is currently in possession or actively involved with the ball
Punching (one-on-one only, modern rule restriction): no group attacks; modern rules limit head-shots
Body checks + tackles fully legal

Prohibited Techniques (Modern Era)

No kicks to the head
No striking from behind
No ganging up (multiple players attacking one opponent)
No striking a player who is on the ground

Section 6: Scoring

1 point per caccia (goal)
−0.5 points per mezzo caccia (missed throw over goal-line) — incentivizes careful ball-handling
Team with most cacce after 50 minutes wins; tie = match goes to extra time or "draw" depending on bracket round
Tournament final winner: prize is a Chianina white-cow steak (Bistecca di Chianina) — traditional reward

Section 7: Violations & Penalties

Ganging up (multiple players attacking one): ejection from match
Strikes from behind, head-kicks, hitting downed opponents: ejection from match
Unsportsmanlike conduct / fighting outside ball-play: ejection
Ejected players cannot be replaced — team plays short for remainder
Persistent rule violation across multiple matches: tournament expulsion
No anti-doping testing currently (traditional/local-tournament status; not WADA-affiliated)

Section 8: Safety Considerations

Calcio Storico Fiorentino is one of the most physically dangerous traditional sports actively played — injuries during the annual tournament typically include broken noses, dental damage, fractures, dislocations, and concussions. Pre-event medical clearance required. Comune di Firenze mandates: full medical team on-site (multiple physicians + paramedics + ambulances staged at piazza), pre-match medical screening, on-the-field stretcher and medical extraction protocol, on-call hospital (Santa Maria Nuova) advised of tournament dates. Players sign waivers acknowledging the historic-combat nature of the sport. Modern rule restrictions (no ganging-up, no head-kicks, no hits on downed opponents) were introduced to reduce mortality + serious injury rates — but Calcio Storico remains a high-injury-rate sport even relative to professional combat sports.

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