One is an independent nation of 315,000. The other is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark with less than 50,000.
This weekend, Iceland and the Faroe Islands have struck for the little guys of football and provided a much-needed respite from the goings-on at the highest level of the game, a restoration of faith. The expansion of the Euro 2016 tournament to 24 teams, the first since 1996, mirrors the expansion of the World Cup over the years, first to 24 teams in 1982 and then 32 in 1998. For some, such expansion dilutes quality and rewards mediocrity, for others it reflects a changed football environment globally. But the reason Europe still gets the biggest share of teams in any World Cup has been underlined by the weekend’s results, as much as it had been by the performances of last year’s tournament in Brasil.
It is true that Iceland have exported players for decades, much like other Scandinavian nations, and since the 1980s have been a rather competitive side (or perhaps as far back as the 70s when they defeated East Germany). Rarely, if ever disgraced in the way you would expect minnows to be, and sometimes notching up very credible results which on occasion proved costly to their opponents. Such players as Asgeir Sigurvinsson, the Edvaldsson brothers, Eidur Gudjohnsen and his father Arnor (who made history in 1996 when they became the first father and son on to play in the same game), Thordur Gudjohnsson, Gudni Bergsson and many others carved out credible careers in top-flight European football. Per capita, Iceland would not rank badly at all.
With such players, it might not be all that surprising that Iceland have indeed come close to qualifying for major tournaments, competing well in the Euro 2000 and 2004 qualifiers and only missing out in the final game of each. It took another decade before a new generation of players plying their trade would capture the imagination of European football. In the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, Iceland stunned football by finishing second in their group which qualified them for the play-offs, although they would lose that to Croatia.
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That this is not a fluke has been emphatically proven by the current round of qualifiers. Whereas in World Cup qualifying Iceland finished behind Switzerland, but ahead of Norway, Slovenia and Albania, in Euro 2016 qualifying they were handed what might look like an even tougher draw with the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Turkey. But such ‘toughness’ is proven by results so far – a 3-0 win over Turkey, a 2-0 win over the Netherlands, and now 2-1 over the Czech Republic. With 3-0 wins on the road to Kazakhstan and Latvia, they have won five from the first six and are within sight of a dream qualification. Turkey are enduring a lean period, and the Netherlands have not quite kept up the form they showed in last year’s World Cup.
The team contains exports to the world’s top competitions, such as Gylfi Sigurdsson (Swansea City), Johann Gudmundsson (Charlton Athletic), Kari Arnason (Rotherham United) and Aron Gunnarsson (Cardiff City) in England, Emil Hallfredsson (Verona) and Birkir Bjarnason (Pescara) in Italy, and Alfred Finbogason (Real Sociedad) in Spain, while Kolbeinn Sigdorsson (Ajax) has scored 17 goals in 29 internationals. The country’s domestic league also serves as a nursery from which capable players are produced and also called up to the grand stages.
Closer to the genuine minnow status, but never beyond hope, the Faroe Islands have had some fine moments in 25 years of competitive international football. In 1990, they caused a sensation by defeating Austria 1-0 in Euro ’92 qualifiers, and have drawn twice at home to Scotland, in the Euro 2000 and 2004 qualifiers. Fellow underdogs like Malta, San Marino and Luxembourg have been their primary source of competitive wins.
Until now. In the Euro 2016 qualifiers, some tables have been turned spectacularly. The Faroe Islands were not at all uncompetitive in their losses, and have completed a double over a still-winless Greece that look a long way away from the side that made the last 16 of the World Cup, with a historic 1-0 away victory followed up with a 2-1 win at home. Most of the squad either plays at home (and even there, like Iceland, one can find foreign imports plying their trade) or has not ventured beyond Scandinavian leagues, although Joan Simun Edmundsson was once on the books of Newcastle United. The result puts them above Finland and Greece but behind Hungary, who may yet end their long exile from major tournaments, as Northern Ireland and Wales look on course to do. But in a year where Bournemouth has captured the imagination in club football, it is Iceland and the Faroe Islands who have been doing the same.
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And while it may seem reasonable to question the prudential wisdom of expanding tournaments, in light of recent developments, the 2016 qualifiers if nothing else showcases the depth of quality in European football that remains unrivalled, except perhaps by South America. The increase in member nations of UEFA after 1991 was caused by the dissolution of the USSR and Yugoslavia, with newly independent countries inheriting assets and infrastructure, and thus can hardly be seen as ‘new’ nations in a football (or other, for that matter) sense.
This applies to Australia’s first 2018 World Cup qualifying opponent, Kyrgyzstan, which is one of five of the Central Asian states that gained independence in 1991. One of those, Kazakhstan, migrated from the AFC to UEFA in 2002, partly because they believed they were more “European” than “Asian” in a footballing sense (but so are the other Central Asian states), whereas Uzbekistan is more or less a consistent presence in the upper echelon of the AFC elite albeit behind Australia, Japan and South Korea. So what are Kyrgyzstan like then? They are not a strong side, although by no means no-hopers. The same is the case for Tajikistan. While Asian football is characterised by the broadest of disparities between its elite teams and the rest, it may be wrong to write off these teams altogether.
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