The History Makers From The Faroe Islands
We’ve all heard of David against Goliath, well this story focuses on David’s younger brother and how he accepted a challenge to compete with the rest of the European Continent. This is the story of Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag (KÍ). A small Faroese fishing town with a passion for football and a desire to mix it with the best Europe has to offer.
The town of Klaksvík is located on Borðoy, one of the northernmost islands in the archipelago of the Faroe Islands, it is the second largest town in the country with a population of around 5,000 people. A town with a population 100 times less than Manchester and with a population roughly equivalent to Windermere. So, what has happened in this isolated part of the world to allow a place like this to make such an impact on football in recent times?
Let’s start with a bit of background about the club, KÍ are a club founded in 1904 and are one of the most successful sides in Faroese football history, winning 21 Faroe Islands Premier League titles thus far, and pairing these with the Faroese Islands Cup of which they have won six times. The club currently play at the Við Djúpumýrar with an approximate capacity of 2500, just over 500 of which are seated, that’s right, half the population of the town can go watch the teams play if they desired. The ground is made of artificial turf to combat the weather conditions in the Faroe Islands, too many occasions would the ground be frozen and unplayable if it was not for this renovation, with some of the funding for these changes arriving from UEFA’s HatTrick programme which helped install over two dozen artificial playing surfaces to enable the sport to grow on the Islands.
The islands may have improved their footballing infrastructure over the years, this though still is not enough for the town of Klaksvík to host European football. Instead for all European games that KÍ participate in they have to travel to the capital of Tórshavn to play in the state-of-the-art Tórsvøllur Stadium (home to the national side), with an all seated 6,500 capacity. Giving fans from all over the Faroe Islands the opportunity to see European football in their own archipelago, with Tórshavn offering the best transport links on the islands.
Domestically KÍ have been dominating the league in recent years with the last 4 league titles going back to the small northern town of Klaksvík. Can this small fishing town then transform their domestic success onto the European stage? The story starts here, a look at the past European KÍ results leading up to the historic season they have just endured.
How then has a team this small, managed to make their mark on European football. Eager eyed followers of the qualifying rounds of the Champions League, Europa League and the Conference League may have heard this story over the last 18 months. The start of this European journey in fact started several years before, with KÍ first participating in European Qualifiers back in the 1992/93 season where they unfortunately were second best to Skonto of Latvia in the Preliminary round. Ever since this first appearance KÍ have sporadically entered the Qualifying rounds with limited success, you may think from the outside looking in then that this club is one you wish for your team to draw for an easy advance to the next round. Turn the clock forward though because from the 2017/18 season onwards KÍ have competed every year in European Qualifiers with levels of increasing success.
2018/19 became the first season the club jumped over the hurdle of progressing through a round of Qualifying, beating Maltese outfit Birkirkara 3-2 over two legs, this may seem a small and meaningless achievement to many but for KÍ this was a historic moment. 114 years on from their formation as a club they have progressed through a European stage, and let us not forget this is a miniscule town with a population incomparable to any other club in European competition. The fairy tale was short lived this year though as KÍ were eliminated in the next round, but not to be deterred they came back the following year.
How could KÍ build on the successes of the previous year? The obvious answer is to progress further than the year before, right? When KÍ were drawn in the Preliminary round against Sammarinese side Tre Fiori then, hopes of progression soared through the roof, and with good reason to. KÍ made light work of the tie, sweeping aside their opponents in a 9-1 aggregate win, by far the clubs biggest winning margin in Europe to this date. So, this is now two years running KÍ have progressed into the 1st Qualifying Round, will they receive the same fate? After a 0-0 draw at home to Lithuanian side Riteriai many must have been thinking this is the end of the road for another year, however, keeping in mind the away goals rule was still in place during this season, the KÍ players understood there was a real opportunity for an upset knowing even a draw with goals would see them through, miraculously the small outfit from the northern islands of the Faroes rocked up and walked away with a 1-1 draw in Lithuania, besting last year’s heroics and once again making Faroese history. Again, this was the end of the fairy tale for another year.
Not the be down beaten by so many nearly moments KÍ returned for another crack at European football the following year and this time entered the stage with the big boys of Europe, the Champions League 1st Qualifying Round, a step above the Europa League qualifiers they had been playing. How then would a team who kept on failing to progress through Europa League qualifying games going to compete with teams with Champions League ambitions? As it happens, they had no need to, KÍ were poised to play Slovakian powerhouses Slovan Bratislava in their first game, this never occurred though as the Slovakians were deemed to have broken some Covid-19 regulations and a 3-0 victory was awarded to KÍ, which I am sure they were absolutely thrilled to receive. With this being a Covid-19 season, qualifying games were one legged games as opposed to the traditional two legs. But again, KÍ were to lose in the next round, a respectable 3-1 defeat to Young Boys of Switzerland, this was not the end of the story though because that defeat in the second round dropped KÍ into the third round of the Europa League Qualifiers. With a monumental task in front of them, a one-legged game against the Georgians, Dinamo Tbilisi, a team who have actually claimed a European Cup Winners Cup trophy back in the 1980/81 season. The Georgians rolled up to the Tórsvøllur Stadium expecting an easy win, the Faroese though had other plans, romping to victory over their Georgian counterparts 6-1 in, what was at the time, the greatest victory in the club’s history. An unbelievable achievement leaving KÍ one game away from playing in the group stages of the Europa League. Once again though the dreams were shattered after a humbling 3-1 defeat away to Irish side Dundalk had halted their journey once again.
Another 2 years of heartbreak and near misses came and went, particularly losing on penalties to Kosovan side Ballkani in the new UEFA Conference League third qualifying round. This brings us to the part of the story in which people may have heard of and possibly been introduced to Faroese football and the KÍ story, the journey of 2023/24. This year was like no other, it appeared to be the year where KÍ invested and recruited talent to really compete and give themselves the best opportunity to make Faroese history and qualify for the group stages of European football. The standout acquisition was of central defender and former Norwegian international Vegard Forren on a free transfer from Træff (Norwegian 4th division side). Forren has previously been contracted to Southampton, Brighton and Molde FK, accumulating total transfer fees of 5.5 Million Euros. The second major coup for the club was the free transfer of Luc Kassi, an Ivorian who had recently departed Stabæk also in Norway. With a whole host of other transfers, in total KÍ recruited 10 new players along with promoting a few from their second and third teams.
Under the guidance of Magne Hoseth a former Norwegian professional footballer, appointed in 2022, everything was in place to give this campaign a real push and make history. Once again entering into the Champions League qualifying stages KÍ were faced with possibly the hardest draw imaginable, Hungarians, Ferencváros. Post the Covid-19 era of sport, this was to be a two-legged affair, meaning one obscure result wouldn’t be enough to put them through, especially with the removal of the away goal rule a couple years earlier. Could the miracle be achieved though? Well, a goalless draw in Tórshavn made the mountain that ever so taller to climb as an away day in the Hungarian capital Budapest, playing in front of the famous Eastern European fans was something KÍ hadn’t really experienced before, especially on this scale. However, on a night where the stars must have aligned for KÍ they came away with a famous 3-0 victory, with a goal from new signing Luc Kassi and two goals from the now idolised Árni Frederiksberg, KÍ had Europe looking over their shoulders.
An almighty scalp for the Faroese club, but can they do it again, facing Swedish champions BK Häcken in the next round, a goalless draw in the first leg sounds familiar, leading to an exciting and enthralling 3-3 draw in the second leg the match went to penalties with KÍ prevailing 4-3 and making the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League. This was the game that made history, having made the 3rd round KÍ were guaranteed group stage football for the first time, all that was left was to decide was which competition they would enter. A defeat after extra time to Norwegians Molde dropped KÍ into the Europa League Play-off game but again defeat here to Moldovans, Sheriff Tiraspol, KÍ would enter the group stages of the UEFA Conference League.
KÍ, the history makers of Faroese football, the first club from the islands to make a group stage of European football. A win against Slovenians Olimpija Ljubljana and a draw against the giants of France Lille, left KÍ with 4 points in their debut campaign, in arguably one of the more difficult groups, rounded out with past Covid-19 victims Slovan Bratislava. A respectful achievement which will have the rest of Europe looking at the humble islands for years to come. Future years where KÍ can attract bigger players with the prospect of European football which in turn might bring with it the regular participation of group stage competition football, and who knows one day the small club from Klaksvík might even make the knockout stages of European football.
This was the story of a small fishing town in the north of the Faroe Islands, a small town that have left a massive dent on the armour of the European game of football. An old Nordic settlement once invaded by the Vikings who are now on a mission to invade the continents mainland. The story of David’s little brother who thought Goliath himself and came through the other side with marks of success. Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag, the first and only team ever from the Faroe Islands to play European group stage football, quite possibly not for the last time, and with the success of this club perhaps more from the region will go on to gain similar accolades along the way.
Written and Researched by BSc Cavan Campbell
