Introduction to Faroese Soccer

The highest soccer division in the Faroe Islands is called the "Formula Division" (Formuladeildin in Faroese), where Formula is the name of the sponsor. 10 clubs are competing for the championship title. The teams play 3 times against each other, which in total gives 27 matches for each. The 2 bottom teams are relegated to the 1st division.

The 10 clubs are (for the 2007 season, in alphabetical order): AB Argir, B36 Tórshavn, B71 Sandoy, EB/Streymur, GÍ Gřta, HB Tórshavn, KÍ Klaksvík, NSÍ Runavík, Skála and VB/Sumba.

The league runs from early April until late October. (2007 league fixtures)

The Cup competition, Lřgmanssteypiđ ("the Prime Minister's Cup") starts in mid-March and the final is played in mid-August in Tórshavn, the capital. (2007 Cup program)

The players in the Faroese soccer league are not professional but have civilian jobs. However, money is creeping into the game more and more and maybe a few of the players can be described as semi-professionals by now.

Quite a few foreigners play in the Formula Division, mostly from East European countries, Serbia especially, but there are also players from Brazil, Argentina, Denmark, the Ivory Coast and other places.

History

Although soccer is not the national sport in the Faroe Islands (rowing with old traditional Faroese boats is), it is by far the most popular.

The first club, TB Tvřroyri was established already in 1892. The two next clubs to be founded were KÍ Klaksvík and HB Tórshavn, both in 1904 (by the way the same year as FIFA was founded, but that was probably just a coincident).

Today there are 23 clubs competing in 4 divisions: The Formula division, 1st division, 2nd division and 3rd division. (Here we only mention men's soccer. The women also play, but that's another story ;-)

Although soccer is more than a hundred years old in the Faroe Islands, the first official league championship wasn't played before 1942. KÍ Klaksvík won it.

1944 is the only year since then, when there hasn't been competed for the championship. The reason was, amazingly, that there weren't enough soccer-balls in the Faroe Islands that year :-)

The Faroe Islands played their first international game in 1930 against Iceland, which Iceland won 1-0. The Faroes also played 3 games against Shetland that year, drew 1 and lost the 2 others.

Faroe Islands join FIFA and UEFA

Up until 1988, when the Faroe Islands were accepted as a member of FIFA, the Faroes almost only played against Shetland and Iceland and on a few occasions against the Orkneys and Greenland. In 1990, the Faroes also became a member of UEFA.

The Faroe Islands played their first FIFA registered match against Iceland in 1988. Iceland won a narrow 1-0 victory.

In April of 1989, the Faroe Islands played a friendly against Canada, which the Faroe Islands surprisingly won 1-0. Goal scorer was Torkil Nielsen (17 months later he would score another goal that became one of the most famous goals in world soccer ever). This was a very significant result for the Faroe Islands, as Canada had actually participated in the World Cup in Mexico in 1986. So, from earlier having been satisfied with beating other island-communities like Shetland and Orkneys, the Faroes had now beaten a World Cup team. This was by then the proudest moment of Faroese soccer.

Faroe Islands beat Austria in first ever qualifier

But it was noting compared with what was to come just 17 months later. The Faroe Islands had decided to take part in the qualifying tournament for the European Championship in Sweden in 1992, and the first match was on 12 September 1991 against Austria, who shortly before had taken part in the World Cup finals in Italy 1990.

Most people in the Faroe Islands expected the Faroese to be heavily beaten and anything under 0-10 was seen as an ok result by many. But, the Faroese team surprised the whole world by beating Austria 1-0. – This result has since been regarded as one of THE most surprising results in world soccer ever! Goal scorer was Torkil Nielsen.

Although the Faroe Islands were formally the home team, the match was played in Landskrona, Sweden. This was due to the fact that there was no suited grass-pitch in the Faroe Islands at that time. Most teams played on artificial pitches (of which the first came in 1986), and a few still played on hardgrounds. Now there are two soccer stadiums with grass pitches which are used for the internationals, but the league is only played on artificial pitches (except in Hvalba, were lower division club Royn play their matches on natural grass).

However, since the victory over Austria in 1990, the ride has been a bit bumpy and the point-harvest hasn't been great for the national team, although there have been some proud moments. The victories have been few and far between. In qualification matches (since the Austria victory), the Faroes have only won against 3 countries: Malta, Luxembourg and San Marino (twice against each). Since 1990, the Faroe Islands have managed 7 draws; twice against Scotland, as the most noticeable, maybe. And then there are more losses than I care to count:-) Some have been with a big margin and others have been very narrow. For example in 2003, the Faroes held Germany for 88 minutes, but then the Germans scored two goals at the death. The biggest losses are 8-1 and 7-0 against Yugoslavia, and another 7-0 against Rumenia.

European Cups

In 1992, Faroese clubs took part in European Cup tournaments for the first time. In the Champions League qualifying round KÍ Klaksvík lost 1-3 (home) and 0-3 (away) to Skonto Riga from Latvia and B36 lost 1-0 away to Avenir Beggen from Luxembourg and drew 1-1 at home in the qualifying round for the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

The following year, HB Tórshavn progressed to the first round of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup after having beaten RAF Yelgava from Latvia 3-1 on aggregate in the preliminary round. However, only the first leg of this tie was ever played due to the reason that the Latvian side never showed up in the Faroe Islands for the second leg. Therefore UEFA awarded HB a 3-0 victory. The Latvians had won the first leg 1-0 at home in a match HB otherwise dominated and could (and perhaps should) have won. If HB would have won the return leg at home, we'll never know, unfortunately.

But as a whole, there hasn't been too much to celebrate for Faroese clubs in European Cup tournaments. – A handful of home victories and a few draws, but a long list of defeats, especially away from home, where Faroese clubs have found it very difficult to perform. If we include the UEFA Intertoto Cup, the record loss for a Faroese club in European competitions is 10-0! This happened to HB Tórshavn in 1995 away to Tromsř IL from Norway. In 2004, B68 Toftir lost 8-0 to Latvian outfit Venspils in the UEFA Cup and on the same day, B36 Tórshavn lost 8-1 to another Latvian team, Metalurgs Liepajas, also in the UEFA Cup. In 2002, GÍ Gřta lost 8-0 away to Hajduk Split in the UEFA CUP. These are a few examples of how difficult it has been on away soil.

But in 2005 and 2006, there was finally something to cheer about when B36 Tórshavn progressed in the UEFA Cup and the Champions League. In 2005, B36 progressed to the 2nd qualifying round of the UEFA CUP by beating Icelandic side IBV Vestmannaeyjar 3-2 on aggregate. In the 2nd qualifying round, B36 lost narrowly 4-3 on aggregate to Danish Superliga Club, FC Midtjylland. In 2006 B36 competed in the Champions League where they beat Birkikara from Malta 5-2 on aggregate and therefore progressed to the second qualifying round where they met Turkish giants Fenerbahce, who won 9-0 on aggregate.

Faroese players abroad – professionals

There aren't too many Faroese professional soccer players around. The most famous has been Todi Jónsson, who has played in the Danish Superliga for many years where he has won 3 championship titles with FC Copenhagen as well as 2 Cup titles. Todi also became the all time top scorer for FC Copenhagen, before he joined Norwegian club Start Kristiansand in 2005, where he played to the end of the 2006 season. He is the top scorer for the national team with 9 goals in 45 matches. However, he retired from the national team in 2001 (he made a short comeback in 2005, playing a couple of matches) and is gradually retiring from club soccer now also.

At the moment, there are 2 other Faroese players in the Danish Superliga, Súni Olsen and Jón Rói Jacobsen who both play for AaB Aalborg.

Also goalkeeper Jákup Mikkelsen has played in the Danish Superliga where he helped Herfřlge win the Danish title in 2000. He later played for Molde in Norway for 2 seasons and had a short spell with Partick Thistle in the Scotish Premier League before he returned home to the Faroes in 2004.

Julian Johnson, who retired in 2006, played for 4 years in Norway, and also had a short spell with Hull in the English 3rd division in 1993. He also played in Iceland, where he won the Icelandic Cup with Akranes in 2003

Several other players have played in Iceland, but really, it's questionable how much better the Icelandic league is than the Faroese. – Maybe a fraction, but that's all.

Many players have also played – and still play – in the Danish 1st division.

But so far, no Faroese player has played in on of the big European leagues. However, a few players have had trainee contracts with some of the clubs in the English Premier League.

Ingi Hřjsted had a trainee contract with Arsenal, but he was back in the Faroes with B36 Tórshavn in 2005. But at the end of the season he signed a contract with Birmingham, who then was in the Premier League, but he never appeared for the first team in the league however. He rejoined B36 in 2006, but received a nasty knee injury early in the season which has kept him out for almost a year.

Jóhan Troest Davidsen signed a trainee contract with Everton in 2004, but he returned to the Faroes in 2006 and now plays for NSÍ Runavík.

In 2005 Christian R. Mouritsen signed a trainee contract with Manchester City where he still is.

Conclusion: Why you should be interested in Faroese soccer!

Because it is the most exciting league in Europe! – Yes, I can prove that :-)

Let's compare some of the leagues in Europe with the Faroese League in a 20 year period from 1981 to 2000:

In that period, no less than 11 different clubs won the national championship in the Faroe Islands. Not many leagues can compete with that. They're just too easy to predict. In Portugal for example, only 3 clubs have managed to win the title in that same period. That's no fun! In Scotland and Holland, only 4 clubs divided those 20 titles between them. Yawn! In Germany and Spain, that number was 6. Nothing to get excited about! In Belgium it was 7. France, Italy and England come closest, where the titles have been won by 8 different clubs in the 20 year period from 1981-2000.

Granted, maybe you'll see better soccer in the England, Spain and Italy, but it is a bit boring when only 2 or 3 clubs ever win the title. So, when it comes to variation and unpredictability, those high profile leagues cannot compete with the Faroese soccer league.

And hereby I have proven that the Faroese soccer league is the most exciting league in Europe:-)

However, the trend is now, unfortunately, that the two big Tórshavn clubs, HB and B36, are taking a stronghold on the championship, as these two clubs have won all the championships from 2001 (HB 4 and B36 2).

But that doesn't mean it hasn't been exciting, though. Last season (2006), EB/Streymur were just minutes away from taking the title, and the year before, Skála also had the chance to secure the title on the last day of the season, but also they missed out.

So, yes, you should definitely still follow Faroese soccer! Choose one of the clubs below as your favourite and be sure to visit www.SoccerAndEquipment.com on a regular basis to get the latest news and results from the Faroese soccer league.

The clubs below are those who play in the "Formula Division" 2007:
HB Tórshavn (19), KÍ Klaksvík (17), B36 Tórshavn (8), GÍ Gřta (6), VB/Sumba (1), B71 Sandoy (1), NSÍ Runavík, Skála, AB Argir and EB/Streymur.

Numbers in parenthesis refers to number of championships.

TB Tvřroyri in the 1st division have won 7 championship titles and SÍ Sřrvágur and ÍF Fuglafjřrđur, likewise in the 1st division, have won 1 each.

Correct as of March 2007