Faroe Islands national football team in March 2013Faroe Islands playing against Italy on 2 September 2011. The match ended in a 1–0 defeat.
TheFaroe Islands national football team (Faroese:Føroyska fótbóltsmanslandsliðið) represents theFaroe Islands in men's internationalfootball, and is governed by theFaroe Islands Football Association (FSF). The FSF became a member ofFIFA in 1988 andUEFA in 1990 and represents the fourth-smallest UEFA country by population.[3]
The team has never advanced to the finals of theFIFA World Cup orUEFA European Championship. They took part in theIsland Games in 1989 and 1991 and won both tournaments. The team also took part in theNordic Football Championship for the first time in2000–01, the last time the competition was played. In 2024, they made their debut in theBaltic Cup as a guest entrant and placed fourth. In the Faroe Islands, the team is known as thelandsliðið. Home matches are played atTórsvøllur.
The FSF gainedFIFA membership on 2 July 1988 and the team's first official victory was a 1–0 win in a friendly match againstCanada the next year. The next year, the FSF joined theUEFA on 18 April 1990.[7]
The Faroe Islands participated in twoIsland Games, winning both tournaments in1989 and1991. They never entered the tournament again, as the opponent teams were considered too weak a match for the Faroese side.
The Faroe Islands made football history on 12 September 1990 when they beatAustria1–0 in their first-ever competitive international.[8] The game, aEuro 92 qualifier, was played inLandskrona,Sweden because there were no grass pitches on the Faroe Islands at the time.Torkil Nielsen—a chess player and salesman for his local building company—scored the lone game-winning goal.[9] 32-year-old national coachPáll Guðlaugsson became a folk hero overnight and is today remembered by his players as a fearless character who believed, against the odds, that the Faroe Islands could get a result against their bigger nation opponents. In his autobiography, national goalkeeperJens Martin Knudsen revealed that Guðlaugsson gave a stirring pre-match speech that boosted the team's confidence prior to the match against the Austrians. Guðlaugsson told the players, "Think of the Faroese flag. Your flag. Take it with you on that field. Throw yourself into the tackles against those arrogant Austrians with one mission—to win the game for your nation. Tonight you pay back your childhood home. You have the opportunity now and it is an irreparable blow if you don't seize it!"[10] The team's underdog win remains the story most often retold about Faroese football and sports in the Faroe Islands. The Faroese victory was rated number 10 of all-time football greatest upsets by American sports magazine Soccerphile.[11]
One month later, the Faroe Islands lost 4–1 toDenmark atParken, Copenhagen. The same team got another good result in the qualifying tournament on 1 May 1991, when they drew 1–1 against Northern Ireland atWindsor Park. However, the Faroe Islands subsequently lost the remaining five matches of the tournament.
Since Landskrona, Faroese football continued its upward trajectory, regularly getting good results against stronger teams. However, it was a surprise to many around Europe when—in 1994—Allan Simonsen was appointed the new coach for the Faroese national team. Many thought that after a shining playing career atBorussia Mönchengladbach andF.C. Barcelona, the European footballer of the year in1977 was too big a name for such a small nation. Allan Simonsen spent seven years at the team's helm and is remembered as the coach who lifted the Faroese amateurs to a more professional level of play.
As a coach, he asked the FSF to lengthen the season and the Faroese clubs to screen players for talent. Both requests were granted and have become an essential part of the Faroese national team's success at the highest level of the sport.
When looking for a new coach, it was important for the Football Association to secure a well-known and respected name in Europe. They found that in former Danish international andUEFA Euro 1992-winning player,Henrik Larsen, who succeeded his countrymanAllan Simonsen as head coach of the Faroe Islands national team.
On 7 September 2002, in the first match with Larsen as a coach, an experienced Faroese team played Scotland at home in aEuro 2004 qualifier. Though the Faroe Islands led Scotland 2–0 at halftime, the game ended in a 2–2 draw.
In the same qualifying tournament on 16 October 2002 at theHDI-Arena inHannover, the Faroe Islands were close to a big upset againstGermany. Unfortunately for the Faroese, the post denied them a draw in the dying seconds of the match, and the game ended 2–1 for the German side. However, the Faroe Islands managed one more draw againstCyprus on 9 October 2004 in the2006 World Cup Qualifying match.[10]
In 2006, the Faroe Islands finally got their first Faroese coach inJógvan Martin Olsen fromToftir, who had served as an assistant coach for the Faroese national team for nine years prior to his appointment. That same year, many experienced players who had been regulars on the national squad for years retired from the team, giving Olsen's the task of building a new squad with a new generation of players. The team's turnover and inexperience affected their results, and the Faroe Islands got zero points in theEuro 2008 qualifier, their first qualification match under Olsen as head coach.
However, in the 2 June 2007 game againstItaly, the Faroes netted a 77th-minute goal and surprisingly took the sluggish world champions to the limit after a 2–1 loss. Overall, the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign was disastrous for the young team, as they conceded 43 goals and scored only four (all of which were scored by the same player,Rógvi Jacobsen), and half of which were against Italy en route to losing all twelve matches, of which three of were 6–0 defeats.
During the summer of 2008, the Faroese side played two friendlies. In the 4–3 loss toEstonia on 1 June 2008, and the team is credited with their only official international match in which they scored 3 goals but lost. Later they lost 5–0 toPortugal.
Olsen remained as a coach for the first four qualification matches in the2010 World Cup Qualifiers. After announcing the squad against the Austrian national team, Olsen announced that he was stepping down after three years in charge. Before this departure, he finally managed to get a big result with the team on 11 October 2008 against Austria. The game ended 1–1, giving the Faroe Islands their first qualifying point in four years.
The Brian Kerr years and the new generation (2009–2011)
On 22 March 2009, the Faroese people got a glimpse of their future national team—a new generation of more technical and peaceful players— when they beat theIcelandic national team 2–1 in a friendly match, their first-ever victory over Iceland. Caretaker Heðin Askham managed the Faroese side in this match.
On 5 April 2009, formerRepublic of Ireland managerBrian Kerr was appointed as head coach of the team.[12] With his charisma and Irish humour, he soon became a favourite among the Faroese football fans.
On 11 August 2010, the Faroe Islands came close to an away win againstEstonia during theUEFA Euro 2012 qualifiers. The Faroes took the lead in the first half with a goal byJóan Símun Edmundsson, but Estonia managed to turn the match around with two goals in stoppage time.
Two months later, on 12 October 2010, the Faroe Islands drew 1–1 against higher-rankedNorthern Ireland at Svangaskarð Stadion,Toftir. MidfielderChristian Holst scored for the Faroes in the 60th minute beforeKyle Lafferty equalised 16 minutes later, earning a point for both teams.
On 7 June 2011, the Faroe Islands defeatedEstonia 2–0 atSvangaskarð. CaptainFróði Benjaminsen opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 43rd minute beforeArnbjørn Hansen secured the win with a follow-up after another Benjaminsen penalty. It was the Faroe Islands' firstUEFA Euro qualification win since1995.
The players liked the Irishman and they described him as a very motivating figure. His pre-match speeches were full of passion and gave the players confidence to go out and play against the very best in Europe.[10] However, on 26 October 2011, theFaroe Islands Football Association (FSF) announced that "it was not possible to agree on a new contract with Brian Kerr".[14] Brian Kerr stepped down as coach after unsuccessful negotiations with the FSF.
The Lars Olsen years and double Greek victory (2011–2019)
Faroe Islands defeated Greece 2–1 on 13 June 2015.
On 8 November 2011, the Faroese Football Association announced that an agreement had been reached with the 50-year-old formerDenmark captain and European Champion from 1992,Lars Olsen, to become the next coach of the Faroe Islands and the third Dane at the helm, afterAllan Simonsen andHenrik Larsen.[15]
On 1 March 2014, for the first time in the Faroe Islands' history, the team scored four goals in a match. In what was onlyGibraltar's second match as an official UEFA member, the hosts lost their first-ever home match by the score of 1–4. Faroe midfielder Christian Holst scored twice. On 11 October 2013, Olsen got his first point as the Faroe Islands head coach in a 1–1 draw againstKazakhstan.
On 25 September 2014, Faroese football lost one of its most promising football players, when 22-year-oldGunnar Zachariasen died in a tragic accident on board a Greenlandic fishing trawler, which had docked in Tórshavn in order to unload its cargo. The accident happened when a EUR-pallet stacked with frozen fish fell on top of Gunnar Zachariasen who died instantly. According to Rúni Nolsøe, Zachariasen's coach at EB/Streymur, Faroese football had lost a very good football player. He played 11 caps and scored 4 goals for the U21 Faroe Islands team.[16]
On 14 November 2014, the Faroe Islands caused a major international football upset by defeating hostGreece0–1 during theEuro 2016 qualifiers.[17][18]The Guardian reckoned the win as the biggest upset ever in terms ofFIFA Rankings; Greece were ranked 18th, the Faroe Islands 187th, a 169-place difference.[19]
On 13 June 2015, the Faroe Islands stunned the world yet again by defeating the same Greek side in their second meeting of the Euro 2016 qualifying tournamentby a score of 2–1.[20][21] These two wins saw the national team moving from 187th place to 74th place in the FIFA rankings. The team eventually finished fifth in their group with six points, without conceding more than three goals in a match.
On 29 March 2016, the Faroe Islands beatLiechtenstein 3–2 in a friendly match inMarbella,Spain. The opposition scored two late goals in stoppage time, but this was the Faroe Islands' fourth victory over Liechtenstein since 2000.[22]
On 3 September 2017, the Faroe Islands defeated Andorra 1–0 in a2018 World Cup Qualifying match on home soil, beating their own record which was 7 points in a Euro or World Cup qualification; after the victory over Andorra the Faroe Islands reached a record nine points in all competitions.[24]
On 18 November 2019, Lars Olsen led his team to a 0–3 loss againstSweden, in his last international match as the manager for the Faroe Islands. He's regarded as the most successful manager in the nation's 29-year history, as members ofUEFA andFIFA. In the same match, captainAtli Gregersen retired from international duties as well, after winning 59 caps for the national team.[25][26]
On 3 September 2020, in what would be his first match in charge, Håkan Ericson's side won 3–2 againstMalta[28] in a2020-21 UEFA Nations League match. Only three days later, in what would be the 200th competitive match for Faroe Islands since joining FIFA and UEFA back in 1988, they recorded their second win in a row with a 1–0 win overAndorra,[29] their first double victory since a 2–1 win againstMalta on 8 June 1997.[30]
On 17 November 2020, Ericson's side won their first-ever competitive tournament, after a 1–1 draw againstMalta secured them the top spot and promotion from the2020–21 UEFA Nations League D, followed by a new record of 12 points in all competitions, beating the previous2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) record at 9 points.[31]
On 7 June 2021, the Faroese national team recorded their biggest win ever in a 5–1 friendly againstLiechtenstein[32] inTórshavn.
On 26 September 2022, the Faroese national team defied all odds when beating Turkey 2–1 in the last game of the2022–23 UEFA Nations League campaign. The win pushed their unbeaten record to four games, the longest streak in their history, and the result was arguably their best since the Greek Double victories of 2014 and 2015 respectively, although unlike the double Greek victories, the win against Turkey proved meaningless as Turkey had already won promotion earlier.[33]
As of 26 September 2022, the Faroese national team has thirteen full-time professionals playing inBelgian,Norwegian,Danish,Swedish andIcelandic leagues, compared to the 1990 team who won the Austria game in Landskrona, which was entirely made up of amateurs.
The Faroe Islands played in the2024 Baltic Cup and on 8 June 2024, they lost their semi-final match 4–1 againstEstonia. They then lost 1–0 in the third place playoff againstLatvia on 11 June. Ericson was fired on October 16, 2024;Eyðun Klakstein took over as interim manager. During Ericson's time as manager, the Faroe Islands were able to secure points in almost half of the matches played, which makes him the most successful manager in the nation's history.[34]
In Eyðun Klakstein's first 2 matches as manager, the Faroes beatArmenia 1-0 and lost 1-0 toNorth Macedonia, securing their spot in theNations League C for another season. Klakstein was named permanent manager on February 5, 2025, making him the first Faroese manager of the team sinceJógvan Martin Olsen.[35] Under Klakstein, the Faroe Islands had their best qualifying campaign for a major football tournament to date, finishing their2026 World Cup qualifying group with 12 points from eight games and only missing out on a play-off berth due to a defeat on their final match to group leadersCroatia.
Between 1999 and 2011, the Faroe Islands rotated its home matches between two different stadiums,Tórsvøllur andSvangaskarð. Their latest match in Svangaskarð was a 2–0 victory in aUEFA Euro 2012 qualifying match againstEstonia on 7 June 2011.[36]
Tórsvøllur has since undergone comprehensive renovation, transforming it into a multifunctional venue for concerts and sports in general, although it is primarily used for football. Floodlights were introduced in 2011, and 6,000 new seats were installed, all under roof. The stadium has been resurfaced with artificial grass and now meets all UEFA and FIFA demands.[37]
Skansin, Faroese football supporters at the Faroe Islands vs Greece match at Tórsvøllur 2015.
Faroe Islands have a main stand for their supporters atTórsvøllur, which is known as "Skansin", meaningfort in English. Skansin was formed in 2014, following their 1–0 away victory againstGreece inPireaus and the opening of their newly renovated stadium.
As of September 2021, Skansin has 600 members domestically, and stand tickets are sold out every home match. FollowingNorthern Ireland's 3–1 victory against Faroe Islands during theEuro 2016 qualifiers on 4 September 2015, Northern Ireland forwardKyle Lafferty stated that he was particularly impressed with the Faroese supporters, as they cheered for their players throughout the entire match, even when the Faroes threw away a likely 1–1 result.
Drums, trumpets and folksongs are an essential part of their support.[38]
^"Fantastiskur sigur á Andorra" (in Faroese). Faroese Football Association. 3 September 2017.Archived from the original on 5 September 2017. Retrieved5 September 2017.
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