Sport tends to throw up plenty of instances of David vs Goliath. In football terms, Iceland fit nicely into the profile of David, especially after defeating the odds to book their passage to the Euro 2016. Small but mighty, Iceland’s Vikings have entered Europe’s football arena.
Iceland made it through the Euro 2015/16 qualifiers and will be contending for the title starting in June. In a country of only 325,000 inhabitants, it is quite a feat to get together a squad of 23 players who can not only compete, but succeed in the tough European qualifiers. Iceland is officially the smallest nation to have ever qualified for the Euro 2016 finals. For comparison, England has a population of over 53 million, Spain around 47 million and Germany more than 80 million. Iceland’s population, and pool of potential footballers, is closer to nations like Belize and the Maldives, or even the district of Wakefield, so one has to wonder: how have the Icelandic Vikings managed it and how high can they be expected to soar?
Iceland can’t exactly lay claim to a rich football heritage thus far. They’ve never before qualified for an international tournament, having missed out on a spot in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers. Despite getting as far as the play-offs, Iceland bowed out to Croatia with a 2-0 loss. Before that, the Iceland national football team were probably most famous for being the first team to play father and son, Eiður and Arnór Guðjohnsen, in the same international match, rather than performance on the pitch.
The infrastructure behind the national team has been in place since the mid 1950s, with the country’s Football Association a member of FIFA and UEFA for a long time. The team is, however, still woefully underfunded. Stories of first class flights and luxury hotels might be familiar to football nations like England and Germany, but the state of affairs is different in Iceland, where it’s not uncommon for the team to take economy flights with multiple stopovers.
A sign of change came on September 6th, when Iceland qualified for the Euro 2016 with a draw against Kazakhstan in Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavik. Though the match itself was fairly uneventful, the Iceland team’s celebration after the final whistle was testament to the significance of their achievement. Their coach, Lars Lagerbäck, was characteristically unemotional and keen to credit his team’s success to hard work and determination rather than luck.
It’s no coincidence that Iceland’s success has grown since the Swede joined their ranks back in October 2011. Despite being pretty unknown, Lagerbäck’s credentials bear close scrutiny and his reputation for turning around teams is arguably far better. When he took over, Iceland were lower in the ranking than teams as small as Lichtenstein but have since grown to challenge teams like Croatia and the Netherlands in big tournaments. His success on the pitch has boosted national pride in Iceland to fever pitch, seeing the amount of fans taking advantage of sports betting to show support for their team grow exponentially.
Lagerbäck has experience behind him as the Swedish national coach and a short stint coaching Nigeria. He saw Sweden into two World Cup tournaments and two European Championships, making Swedish history in taking the team to five consecutive competitions. In short, Lagerbäck is an undeniably experienced coach when it comes to approaching international tournaments; he knows exactly what it takes to qualify and has been working that magic in Iceland.
Since Iceland’s performance has been on the up, the country’s FA have responded in securing more funding and providing even better facilities for youth development, something the team is already proud of. Not so long ago training was limited to five months in a year, but Iceland now boasts more than seven indoor pitches and a total of 130 outdoors around the island and in schools.
Iceland’s women’s team are also doing their bit for the country’s reputation as a football nation on the rise. Having qualified for the Women’s 2009 UEFA Championship and earned their first major point in the 2013 tournament, they are ranked as 19th in the FIFA Women’s World Rankings, making them a team to watch in the female football arena. Considering the promise of their male counterparts, who currently only hold 96th position in their own list, the Iceland women’s national team should be expected to be just as surprising.
