November 12, 2020
On May 9, the Faroe Islands Premier League ( FIPL ) was the first European league to resume playing after the global shutdown as a result of the Covid pandemic, and so joined Belarus, Nicaragua, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkmenistan as the only places on the planet where football could be seen.
Naturally the league drew a lot more attention than usual and Norwegian TV Channel TV2 even signed an agreement to show live matches from the first 12 rounds of the competition, the first time the FIPL had ever conclude an overseas TV rights agreement.
Viewers were treated to another world ; stunning scenery of hills, rugged mountains, boats in harbours, the sea, pretty villages, unusual grounds often with wooden benches randomly planted into the hills, sometimes gale force winds or sleet, or as Barry Town found out, fog ! Another oddity was usually the presence of spectators ! Throw in attacking football, dodgy defending, suspect goalkeeping, and a fat referee, what is there not to like about Faroese football ?!!
The 2020 regular season has now just concluded, with Havnar Boltfelag ( HB ) being crowned champions.
History
The Faroe Islands Championship was first competed for in 1942 and for sponsorship reasons is currently known as the Betri deildin.
HB have been the most successful club, with this year’s title being their 24th, and they have also finished as runners-up 25 times. A writer on Twitter described Real Madrid as the HB of La Liga, although he did concede that the description works both ways !
Klaksvikar Itrottarfelag ( KI ) are the next most successful club with 18 titles. Next come B36 Torshavn with 11 titles, followed by Tvoroyar Boltfelag ( TB ) with 7 championships.
The Betri deildin is currently ranked 47th by UEFA, a rise of 6 places this year following the good performances of its sides in European Competitions this season.
The National Side
Thanks to the recent good results in their Nations League matches the national side have risen to 107th in the FIFA world rankings, making them 42nd best in Europe, just below Cyprus and Armenia, but above Estonia, Azerbaijan and Kosovo. They did get as high as 74th in 2016, although in the late 2000’s they hovered around 180th.
In 1990 the Faroes famously won their first ever competitive international, beating an Austrian side including Toni Polster and Andi Herzog 1-0. The match was played in Landskrona, Sweden as at that time there were no grass pitches in the Faroe Islands and bobble-hatted goal-keeper Jens Martin Knudsen became an overnight sensation. Although a 1-1 with Northern Ireland in Belfast was also obtained in that campaign subsequently the Faroes were regular whipping boys in most matches, although they twice drew 2-2 at home to Scotland ( famously leading 2-0 in one match ) and were denied a draw in the last minute in Germany when a shot came back from the post. Perhaps their most notable results were the home and away wins over Greece in the Euro 2016 qualifiers.
The qualifiers for Euro 2020 saw the Faroes lose 9 out of 10 matches, with the solitary win coming at home to Malta ( 1-0 ). However, in the current Nations League competition the Faroes have beaten Malta ( 3-2 at home ), Andorra twice ( 1-0, 2-0 ) and drawn with Latvia ( 1-1 at home ) to sit at the top of the group and with matches in Latvia and Malta to come looking good for promotion to League C. One win from those two matches will guarantee top place in the group. Klaement Olsen, the FIPL’s record goal scorer with over 200 goals for NSI Runavik, has scored 4 of the 7 goals in the campaign.
The squad for the upcoming Nations League matches and Friendly with Lithuania contains 6 players from HB, 4 from KI, 2 from B36 , 2 from Vikingur and 1 from NSI Runavik. The rest of the squad play in Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Perhaps the most well-known of the squad to UK football supporters is 34 year old goal keeper Gunnar Nielsen who is the only Faroese to have played in the English Premier League, making one substitute appearance in 2010 for Manchester City against Arsenal as a replacement for the injured Shay Given. He subsequently had spells at Wrexham, Tranmere and Motherwell and is now playing for FH Hafnarfjardur in Iceland. The only other notable spell in English football was by midfielder Claus Jorgensen who played over 300 times during a career with Blackpool, Bournemouth, Coventry, Bradford City and Port Vale.
Perhaps the most distinguished of the current crop of Faroese footballers is Joan Edmundsson who is currently playing in the Bundesliga with Arminia Bielefeld, and previously had short spells at Newcastle and Gateshead. He has 61 caps but has pulled out of the current squad.
League Structure
Due to the harsh winter climate the Betri deildin is typically played between March and October, but due to the Covid pandemic started this season on May 9th and the regular league games finished on November 7th. The league consists of 10 sides who play each other three times.
The winners qualify for the first qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League with the runners-up and the winner of the Faroes Cup qualifying for the UEFA Conference League. If the winners of the Cup finish in the top two places then the side finishing third will qualify. With the improved results in Europe this season an additional Europa Conference place will be awarded for the 2022/23 season.
The side finishing bottom of the league is automatically relegated, whilst the 9th placed team has a one-off play-off if there is an eligible side from the Second Division.
The Second Division is known as 1. deild and this season consisted of 10 teams, six of whom were reserve teams of clubs in the Betri deildin. Only non-reserve sides are entitled to be promoted, and have to finish in the top 4 in the league table to be eligible. The bottom two sides are relegated to the third level of football, unless a side relegated from the Betri deildin has a reserve side in 1.deild, in which case their second XI will be relegated regardless of where they finished in the league.
Attendances
Such is the popularity of football in the islands ( or perhaps the absence of anything else to do ! ), the Faroes was identified as the country that attracts the highest percentage of its population to its matches. This statistic might take a bit of a beating in 2020 though……
The first round of fixtures in 2020 were played behind closed doors, but from round two onwards spectators were allowed in but with restrictions on the numbers of people who could attend in each ground. These limits were gradually increased so that 2,500 watched the B36 vs Vikingur Gota match at the end of July. Unfortunately, a new outbreak of Covid cases led to matches again being played behind closed doors for 3 weeks in August, before crowds were again permitted on a limited basis. 1,200 attended the KI vs HB duel on the final day of the season. The average attendance for the season was 375 compared with 489 in 2019. B36 were the best supported side with an average of 642 ( 960 in 2019 ), followed by KI with 582 ( 727 in 2019 ). Champions HB saw a modest increase from 523 to 533.
How To Watch
All Betri deildin matches are streamed live on Bet365.
Highlights of each weekend’s matches can be found on the website of the State Broadcaster, which has an hour long Sport programme named 3-2 ( www.kvf.fo ).
Highlights are hard to find on YouTube. Until mid-August, weekly highlights and some full games were posted on the Nord Fodbold channel, but this has stopped and all content removed !
Summary Of The Season
HB were worthy champions and were in pole position are winning their first 7 matches of the season. After a two game wobble they strengthened their side, performed consistently and clinched the title with a game to spare.
NSI Runavik were virtually out of contention after 3 defeats in 4 matches in late July/early August, but after exiting the Europa League went on a run of 9 wins and a draw in their last 10 matches to snatch second place.
Champions KI were HB’s closest challengers for much of the season, although an opening day home defeat to B36 meant they were playing catch-up all season. Ultimately a 0-1 defeat at NSI in their third last game, and a 1-1 draw at home to HB in the final game, losing the lead in added on time when failing to deal with a long throw, meant they slipped into third place below NSI.
After 15 matches, B36 lay in second three points off HB but a loss to the leaders in Round 18 saw them fall off the pace a little and a final day 3-4 defeat at home to NSI meant they finished fourth instead of second.
There was a dramatic final day finish at the bottom of the table. Argja Boltfelag ( AB ) went into their last game without a league win all season but knowing if they could better Skala’s result on the last day they would avoid automatic relegation and instead face a relegation play-off. Despite going down to 10 men in the first half when they led EB/Streymur 2-0, they went on to win 4-0. Realising they now had to win, Skala fought back from 0-2 to level their match against TB in the 90th minute. However, instead of grabbing a potential life saving winner in injury time, it was TB who scored again to relegate Skala with a 2-3 defeat.
07 Vestur replace Skala after finishing second in 1.deild, whilst AB now face a play-off against B68 Toftir, who finished fourth in 1.deild.
The uneven level of sides in the league did lead to some one-sided matches. There was a clear top 4 who are likely to again be the contenders for the title and European places ( HB, KI, NSI & B36 ) and these sides were also the top 4 in 2019. Vikingur were in the middle and capable of occasionally surprising the Big 4, and as in 2019 finished 5th again. Itrottarfelag Fuglafjardar ( IF ), EB/Streymur and TB were in the lower regions and AB and Skala were well adrift at the bottom.
Performances In Europe This Season
Champions KI were drawn at home to Slovan Bratislava in the First Qualifying Round of the Champions League and were fortunate to be awarded the tie when members of the Slovan staff were diagnosed with Covid on arrival in the Faroes and the whole squad were placed in 14 day quarantine. With Slovan unable to assemble another squad in the required timeframe KI progressed to face Young Boys in Switzerland, where despite a respectable performance they went down 1-3.
Dropping down to the Europa League, KI stunned Georgian Champions Dinamo Tbilisi ( and most of the watching world ) with a 6-1 victory, achieved with a reported only 29% of the possession. Four goals in a 15 minute spell mid way through the second half decided the tie, including a hat-trick for Johannes Bjartalid.
Hopes of becoming the first Faroese side to reach the group stages of a European competition though were dashed by a 1-3 loss in Ireland to Dundalk, not helped by some poor defending for all three of the Dundalk goals.
Due to the low UEFA coefficient of the Faroe Islands, the three representatives in the Europa League all started in the preliminary round. NSI Runavik thumped Barry Town 5-1, although given the thick fog the game was played in we have to take the reported score on trust as it is impossible to tell from the TV pictures ! NSI’s reward was a 0-6 hammering at Aberdeen……
B36 overcame St Joseph’s in Gibraltar 2-1 and then knocked out Levadia Tallinn 4-3 after extra time, coming from behind in extra time.
Next came another thrilling encounter, with The New Saints in Torshavn, with B36 forcing a 2-2 draw in the last minute of extra time thanks to Stefan Radosavljevic’s thumping strike, and then going on win the penalty shoot-out 5-4 after TNS had missed a penalty to win the tie. Keeper Hentze made consecutive saves to deny TNS a place in the next round. B36’s run came to an end though in the third qualifying round with a 1-3 defeat to CSKA Sofia in Bulgaria.
HB were eliminated at the first hurdle by Glentoran 0-1 in an even game on a rain sodden pitch in Belfast, Mikkel Dahl hit the post with HB’s best chance.
Club By Club Guide
Havnar Boltfelag ( HB ) – located in the capital Torshavn and normally play at the 5,000 capacity Gundadalar, although matches have been played at Torsvollur, the national stadium since mid July.
Current members of National Squad : Keeper Teitur Gestsson ( 10 caps ), defender Bartal Wardum ( nil caps ), midfielders Dan i Soylu ( 2 caps ) & Hedin Hansen ( 2 caps ) and forwards Hilmar Jakobsen and Adrian Justinussen ( both uncapped )
HB won 23 out of 27 matches and scored three goals or more 16 times, including an 11-0 triumph over AB. They suffered just two defeats, both away ( NSI 0-2, KI 1-2 ) and drew twice ( NSI 2-2 & KI 3-3 – both at home ).
Hilmar Jakobsen and Adrian Justinussen have emerged as the two bright young stars in the Betri deildin this season. Justinussen started impressively but then missed two months of the season through injury. This coincided with a drop in HB’s form leading to the signing of 27 year old shaven headed Danish striker Mikkel Dahl and the introduction of Jakobsen from the reserves. The impact was tremendous. Dahl scored 14 times in 12 matches and Jakobsen netted 12 goals in 16 games. On his return to the side Justinussen played in midfield, but still ended the season with 12 goals from 14 matches. Earlier in the year Jakobsen had represented the Faroe Isles at Handball and has now become a dual international after switching sports when an injury put a temporary halt to his Handball career.
Keeper Gestsson was ever present and made a string of impressive saves throughout the season and to me easily looked to be the best keeper in the league. Soylu also appeared in every match and Danish midfielder Mathias Nygaard missed only one match. In defence, in the last half of the season the back 4 was regularly captain Jogvan Roi Davidsen, Wardum, Delphin Tshiembe ( from DR Congo and ex Hamilton Accies ) and Daniel Johansen.
Nes Soknar Itrottarfelag ( NSI Runavik ) – located in Runavik on the island of Eysturoy. Currently over an hour’s drive to Torshavn although this is expected to be reduced to 35 minutes when the new tunnel is opened. Home matches are played at the 2,000 Vio Lokin, although European matches have to be played at Torsvollur. NSI have won the league once, in 2007.
Record breaking goal scorer and one-club man Klamint Olsen is the only current member of the national squad. Olsen was the league’s joint top goal scorer with 17 goals, the 6th time he has been the leading scorer in the division. Under 21 International Peter Knudsen closely followed with 16 goals, between them contributing 57% of NSI’s goals for the season.
NSI surprisingly lost 0-1 at Vikingur in Round 3 but the run of three losses in four from mid-July ended any hopes of winning the league ( KI 0-2 ( H ), HB 0-2 ( A ), Vikingur 1-2 ( H ) ). Despite this, an amazing run in of 28 points from the last 10 matches including 7 points from the top three in the last three games ( HB away 2-2, KI home 1-0, B36 away 4-3 ) to secure an unlikely second place.
Klaksvikar Itrottarfelag ( KI ) – located in Klaksvik on Borooy, one of the most northerly of the Faroe Islands, connected by tunnels to Torshavn and currently just over an hour’s drive away. Home matches are played at the 2,600 capacity Vid Djupumyar.
Current members of National Squad : keeper Kristian Joensen ( nil caps ), defender Odmar Faero ( 32 caps ), and midfielders Joannes Danielsen ( 6 caps ) and Joannes Bjartlid ( 11 caps ). Defender Heini Vatnsdal ( 21 caps ) and midfielder Patrik Johannsen were selected but have withdrawn.
KI were defending champions but the defence of their crown started badly with a 0-2 defeat at home to B36. They then went on an unbeaten run of 10 matches, with 8 wins and draws at home to NSI ( 1-1 ) and at HB ( 3-3 ), before another defeat to B36 ( 2-6 ). Another 7 consecutive wins were recorded until a disappointing and costly 0-0 draw at TB. Ultimately though a poor run-in, with another failure to beat B36 ( 1-1 ) and a loss to NSI ( 0-1 ) meant a win over HB on the final day was required to secure second place. They were on course to achieve this until sloppy defending enable HB to grab a 1-1 draw in added on time. As KI have already been eliminated on penalties by HB, they will be hoping either HB or NSI win the Faroese Cup in order for them to play in Europe next season.
Forward Joannes Bjartlid scored 15 times in 27 appearance, whilst fellow striker Pall Kletiskard notched up 12 in 27 games. Norwegian attacker Ole Midtskogen was on target 8 times. KI’s line-ups were pretty consistent, with 9 players making over 20 starts.
B36 Torshavn - located in the capital Torshavn and normally play at the 5,000 capacity Gundadalar, which they share with HB, although matches have been played at Torsvollur, the national stadium since mid July.
Current members of National Squad : defender Sonni Nattestad ( 30 caps ) and midfielder Magnus Jacobsen ( nil caps ).
After an opening day victory at KI, hopes were high at B36. However, after four consecutive wins, defeats to HB and Vikingur and a home draw with NSI left them trailing HB. Despite their impressive results in Europe, further defeats to HB ( twice ) and NSI left them needing to beat NSI on the final day to finish second or third. Unfortunately, a 3-4 home defeat left them finishing fourth, and leaving B36 requiring to win the Cup in order to be playing European football again next season.
Danish striker Sebastien Pingel was the leading goal scorer with 13 goals, whilst Polish midfielder Mikhal Przybylski was on target 9 times. These were the only two foreign players to appear during the season for B36.
Vikingur Gota – located on the island of Eysturoy and play in the Serpugerdi Stadium in Nororagata ( capacity 1,600 ).
Current members of National Squad :midfielders Solvi Vatnhamar ( 41 caps ) and Gunnar Vatnhamar ( 6 caps ).
Vikingur were the model of inconsistency, capable of twice beating NSI and B36 once, yet also drawing with AB and TB and losing to IF to finish 12 points off fourth but 21 points clear of sixth place IF
Striker Finnur Justinussen scored 13 times and Solvi Vatnhamar fund the net 12 times. The squad were entirely from the Faroe Islands apart from Polish forward Lukasz Cieslewicz, who made 12 appearances.
Itrottarfelag Fuglafjaroar ( IF ) - located on the island of Eysturoy and play in the 3,000 capacity I Flotugeroi. They have one league title, in 1979.
There were not many highlights to IF’s season although Serbian forward Uros Stojanov did end up as the league’s joint top scorer with 17 goals, and Ari Ellingsgaard was on target 12 times in 19 matches. Defender Andy Olsen was the only ever present.
Generally IF lost to sides above them and beat the sides below them, with the exceptions being one win over Vikingur, offset by two draws with TB and one draw each with AB, Skala and EB/Streymur. They were also knocked out of the Cup by TB.
EB/Streymur – located in Streymnes on the island of Streymoy ( the same as Torshavn ) and the club play at the 2,000 capacity Vid Margair stadium. They have won the title twice, in 2008 and 2012.
EB/Streymur lost every match against sides above them except for a win and a draw with IF, and beat the sides below, including three wins over TB, except for one draw a piece with AB and Skala, and the final day capitulation at AB. Every player who appeared during the season was a Faroese citizen, with 21 year old Niklas Kruse being the most prolific marksman on 5. The ever presents were 19 year old midfielder Simun Solheim and 22 year old keeper Roi Zachariasen.
Tvoroyar Boltfelag ( TB ) – located on the island of Suouroy which is not connected to any other island and requires a two hour ferry journey. 15 seat helicopters also fly from the island to Torshavn and Vagar Airport. The club play at the 4,000 capacity Vid Stora.
TB were only able to register wins over AB and Skala, although they did achieve a 1-0 Cup win at home to IF. TB’s squad had a cosmopolitan nature to it, Danish keeper Frederik Mehder made 19 appearances and fellow Danes, defenders Sebastian Kroner and Rasmus Moller made 20 and 27 appearances respectively. Veteran defender Ndende Gueye from Senegal appeared in 25 matches, Serbian forward Filip Obadovic scored 4 times in 9 matches to be the top scorer, and 19 year old forward Ghanaian Sumudeen Musah played in 24 games. Three other players from Denmark as well as a Swede and another Ghanaian all wore the Black and White stripes during the season. All this goes to show that having a number of foreigners doesn’t necessarily mean the team will be successful……..
Argja Boltfelag ( AB ) – located in Argir, a village with has now merged with the municipality of Torshavn. The club play at the 2,000 capacity Skansi Arena.
Going into their last match there was still the possibility that AB could avoid relegation without winning a match all season if they drew their last match against EB/Streymur and Skala lost, and then went on to win the play-off via a penalty shoot-out. Unfortunately for all the stattos, they beat EB/Streymur 4-0 ! They did manage 7 draws ( Skala and TB twice, Vikingur, EB/Streymur and IF ) but were humiliated 0-11 in one match against HB. The season started promisingly with a 0-0 draw at home to Vikingur, and they managed 4 draws in the first 9 matches of the season. After 17 matches AB had chalked up 7 draws but a run of ten successive defeats, including losing at Skala and then being deprived of a point against HB by a 91st minute winner, looked to have condemned AB to relegation, until the final day heroics.
Belgian winger Jasper van der Heyden, ex Lierse and Geel and son of Belgian World Cup player Stephane van der Heyden, played 23 times and scored twice, both in the last day 4-0 win. Veteran Nigerian forward Adeshina Lawal, ex a number of clubs in Denmark and the Faroes played 26 matched for 2 goals. Bjarki Nielsen finished as top scorer with 7.
Skala IF - located in the municipality of Runavik on the island of Eysturoy and play at the 2,000 capacity Skala stadium.
A 2-3 defeat at TB on the final weekend saw Skala relegated after a season in which they only won once ( against AB ), and drew only four other matches ( AB twice, 4-4 at home to IF, and at EB/Streymur ). After 23 matches both Skala and AB had yet to win a match, the two games previously between them being draws, but the 2-0 win for Skala, in front of 600 spectators, ended this record and brought them to within one point of AB. In the last but one match of the season, a 1-1 draw at EB/Streymur thanks to a 90th minute penalty, took Skala off the bottom for the first time in the season, ahead of AB on the better head to head record and goal difference, only for them to fall back on the final day.
The Skala squad were all Faroese apart from Danish forward Ronni Moller-Iversen, who scored twice in 24 appearances. Jan Hansen top scored with 5 goals.
Team Colours
HB Red & Black Stripes
NSI Runavik Yellow and Black
KI Klaksvik Blue
B36 White
Vikingur Light Blue
IF Red
EB/Streymur Blue and Black Stripes
TB Black and White Stripes
AB Claret and Blue
Skala Orange Shirts, Black Shorts
Next Matches :
Relegation Play-off – Sunday 29th November
AB vs B68 Toftir ( kick-off 19.00 at Torsvollur )
Faroe Islands Cup Quarter Finals –
Saturday 21st November ( kick-offs tba )
Vikingur Gota vs TB
07 Vestur vs HB Torshavn
B36 Torshavn vs AB
NSI Runavik vs Skala
The semi-finals are scheduled for November 28th, with the Final to be played on December 5th. If AB manage to overcome B36 then either the relegation play-off or their Cup Semi-Final will need to be rescheduled !
No comments:
Post a Comment