‘We have to be together’: football on the Faroe Islands
The tiny archipelago of the Faroe Islands rises above the North Atlantic, almost precisely between Scotland and Nordic neighbours Iceland.
The Faroes are 53,000 strong, a population that would fit into Celtic’s own Parkhead, and they have been fighting above their weight division on the football field since joining FIFA in 1988.
The Landsliðið reached an all-time high of 74 in the FIFA rankings in 2015 after home and away wins against Greece and since the Faroese have had a handful of impressive results including their biggest ever victory, a 5–1 win against Liechtenstein on the way to being promoted to the third tier of the UEFA Nations League.
The Faroes have played three World Cup qualifiers in the just-completed international window with the side recovering from a 4–0 defeat to an Eran Zahavi-inspired Isreal to go within five minutes of a point against Euro 2020 semi-finalists (and bureaucratic overseers) Denmark.
The 1–0 defeat to the Danes was played at Tórsvøllur, a newly-renovated 5,000-seat stadium with an artificial pitch in the capital Tórshavn, and Faroe Islands football reporter Tróndur Arge tweeted the sell-out crowd made up close to 10 per cent of the Faroese population.
The Faroes’ efforts were rewarded in the third match of the window with Håkan Ericson’s side beating Moldova 2–1
The Faroe Islanders sit 114th in the world, ahead of recent World Cup finals participants New Zealand (119), Angola (126) and Togo (131) and Arge explained the national side is in a positive moment with Ericson building on the work of former coach and Danish legend Lars Olsen who was in charge from 2011 to 2019.
“We play with an identity,” Arge, who writes from Sosialurin, said.
“We have to fight, we have to be together and everyone has to give 100 per cent. It doesn’t work always because sometimes the opposition is too good.
“We had a big problem here in the Faroe Islands. We are a two-hour flight from Europe so coming here costs a lot… so we played very few friendlies while teams in Europe are next to each other and you could drive a bus and play a friendly.
“The Nations League has changed that because they are friendlies, but they are also a different competition so we are playing six or eight games that we were not playing before and we get to play against teams who are of the same strength which is really important.
“We won the League D and now we move up to the League C which is the first time the Faroese national team has won anything other than a single game which is fantastic in many aspects.”
The win against Moldova wasn’t the only highlight for Faroese football during the last week with the nation’s under-21s achieving a remarkable 1–1 draw with France in a Euro Under-21 Championship qualifier just 24 hours earlier.
Faroe football fan account Færøsk fodbold tweeted the value of the Faroe Islands side (according to Transfermarkt) was €685,000, compared to the French who, with the likes of Real Madrid’s Eduardo Camavinga and Leeds United’s Illan Meslier, were valued in excess of €270,000,000.
Nice forward Amine Gouiri scored five minutes into the match before Steffan Løkin capitalised on an error from Meslier in the 55th minute to level the score with the point moving Sámal Erik Hentze’s side into second in Group H.
“It was an amazing feeling, the biggest goal of my life,” Løkin said in an interview over Instagram.
“[After a shot] I started to run and then I just froze because I thought it wouldn’t make it to the goal and I was thinking, ‘Okay, that was the one chance I will get in the match,’ but happily it did cross the line.
“Eight million people were watching the game around the world so that’s by far the biggest crowd I have had in my life and it’s the best experience in my life on the football pitch.
“We were not nervous [before the match], more excited. [Hentze] was very happy and proud [after the game]. He is a very good coach and knows how to get good results against big teams and this was one of the biggest results ever for Faroese football.”
Løkin comes from Faroese footballing royalty with his father, Abraham, bestowed the title of the nation’s ‘golden player’ by the Faroe Islands Football Association in 2003 for being their best player in the preceding 50 years.
Abraham played 36 times for the national team and was a part of what is seen by many as the Faroe Islands’ greatest ever win, a 1–0 victory against Austria in a European Championship qualifier in 1990 in a match dubbed the miracle of Landskrona.
“My family is a real football family,” the 20-year-old Løkin explained.
“First of all my father played for the national team and was part of the team that won against Austria in 1990 and in 2003 he was chosen as the best Faroese player ever. Both my brothers, Bogi and Karl, have played as well for the Faroese national team.
Løkin has played for Faroese first division club B68 Toftir since January after signing from his boyhood club NSÍ Runavík where, in 2020, he scored a goal in a Europa League qualifier against Welsh team Barry Town United.
The Faroese striker said he may follow in his father’s footsteps and play abroad one day, but he believes he is at the right club at this stage of his career.
“Sometimes people underestimate the Faroese football league,” he said.
“The truth is that we have many good players here. If the right offer comes, of course, I will try to go abroad to one of the bigger leagues in Europe but now I feel good in B68 Toftir.”
The Faroe Islands under-21 squad have performed well in recent times, beating Isreal, Montenegro, Kazakhstan and Armenia since the turn of the decade, with a side dominated by players in the local 10-team Premier League with only Peter Hansen, Hanus Sørensen (both Middelfart in Denmark) and Gullbrandur Øregaard (Sandnes Ulf) playing abroad.
Arge explained how the relative success of the age-capped sides is due to the obligation, and necessity, of Faroes clubs to promote youth.
“There are maybe four clubs who focus a lot on winning, but we have very few players so you have to develop your players,” Arge said.
“If you look at our under-21 results, they are doing very well. [That’s because] if you are under 18 and you are good you are starting in the Faroese league.
“You are getting a lot of playing time which is good because it matures you, but maybe a little bit too fast because you should probably still be learning rather than delivering.”
The attendance against Denmark shows there is a passion for football in the country, though while that enthusiasm can be seen in the local leagues, the real drawcard is the behemoth of the English Premier League.
“People here are absolutely crazy for the Premier League here,” Arge said.
“When Faroese players play in Denmark we do follow them… but I have to say the big one is the Premier League, it’s bigger than the Champions League and all the others. The Liverpool Faroese fan group has like 6,000 fans on Facebook which again we only have [a population of] 50,000 and it’s probably the same with Manchester United.
“There is a big tele company who bought the rights [to the Faroe Islands Premier League] a few years ago. We haven’t found a way of doing it right until now. Now we are beginning to watch games at home and it’s actually an acceptable product.
“It’s catching on and it’s going to be good I hope in the long run, but there is also the aspect with Faroese football that we want people to go to the game otherwise it’s not a good product and we saw that during the corona times [when there weren’t spectators].
European football, including the new UEFA Conference League, promises glory and riches for Faroese clubs with the likes of Turkish giants Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş and the Premier League’s Fulham coming to the islands in the last 15 years.
Clubs from the Faroe Islands compete in preliminary rounds for the European competitions every season, however, a Faroese team is yet to reach the group stage. Arge, who also played in the Faroese second tier, said it will be a joyous occasion when a side from the Faroe Islands makes a group stage, but he is concerned it could lead to further stratification of the FIPL which he describes as being just below a semi-professional competition.
“The league has come into two,” he said.
“You have the top five who can buy the players, win the league and play in Europe and you have the bottom five who have to deal with everything they have. That’s not just the men’s team but the club because they have to be sustainable while the top clubs find it difficult not to get caught up in the fight for Europe.
“I wish every Faroese club in Europe the best, everyone does, but when that day comes, when one club gets to the group stages, there is a downside and that is that one team is going to get so much money and you don’t know if it’s going to change the league.
“You look at the Scottish league for the last 10 years except for last year, it’s been all Celtic after Rangers had their downfall. I don’t think anyone wants that kind of league here, but you want the best for all clubs when they go to play in Europe.”
The FIPL has six rounds remaining in the 2021 championship with Klaksvík side KÍ 12-points clear in pursuit of their 19th league title, while on the international front, Ericson will be aiming to create more history when the Landsliðið host Austria and Scotland in the next set of World Cup qualifiers in October.
Listen to the full interview with Tróndur Arge below.
Since you’re here, I would appreciate it if you clapped, shared and followed. Thanks!
