Icelandic football

Iceland is a country of just over 300000 people. Football might be a passion, and physical shape is needed to live in the North Atlantic, but Brazil has 6-700 times the quantity of talent to draw from. And the Icelandic winter is not friendly to football.

But with an investment in training infrastructure and lifting the standards of coaching, then Icelandic football has gone from a small and irrelevant football nation to a team, which can equal any opposition, and that has happened in the matter of a decade.

Danish football is the imported game, Swedish football is the traditional major power, who play the Nordic game, but the Icelandic game is purity of the Nordic game. This means Iceland always play a variant of 4-4-2, and then they make it work with grit, will, determination, and fight. You are not going to see Icelandic plays whining the game away, instead you are going to see a controlling unit of players, who are just willing to work that much harder for their follow man.

In the qualification for the 2014 World Cup, Iceland was seeded last in their group. They shocked the football world by finishing second. In the playoff round they drew 0-0 at home, but lost 0-2 in Zagreb to Croatia. Great things were in store.

Many did however not pick up on 2014 qualification surprise, and in 2016 Icelandic football was ready to convince any doubters. The UEFA 2016 was started against Portugal with a chocking 1-1 draw. Portugal would eventually go onto win the tournament. Iceland would draw Hungary as well, and then beat Austria. Just qualifying for the tournament was massive for Icelandic football, and now in they were in a quarterfinal against England. There was surely no way they could beat the home of football… Iceland won 2-1. To many Iceland started to look like a potential new Greece, who in 2004 through a similar tight structure and fight ended up winning the tournament. Quarterfinal was against France, another of the major European powers. And here the adventure ended for now.

Was Iceland a one-hit-wonder? Well, now they are in the 2018 World Cup after winning their qualification group ahead of Croatia (qualified through play-off), Ukraine, and Turkey.

To characterise Icelandic football is they can get 1-1 against any other team. Not because the individual 11 Icelandic players are better. They simply are not. Many positions are filled with players, who any other European country would never consider bringing to a World Cup. But Iceland works hard, and they earn every single point they get.

Where do the Icelanders play?

Iceland are viking warriors. They used to mostly play in Scandinavian football, all 3 keepers play in Denmark, where one even plays in the second level of Danish football. However, only 2 non-keeper play in Scandinavia, 1 in Sweden, 1 in Norway.

Today most of the Icelandic players play in England and Wales 6 (though only 2 in the Premier League). 3 play in Rostov in Russia, 2 in Germany, and 2 back home in Iceland. The rest are one playing in each of Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey, and Bulgaria.

Note how the majority are still focused in the physical Germanic football leagues, which fit the Icelandic play-style. And then the 3 players in Rostov is a bit of an odd one out, where the Icelandic players are slowly becoming the stars of the team, after all joining before or during last season.

Political influence and national narrative

Iceland gained independence from Denmark during the Second World War. Following the German invasion of mainland Denmark the British invaded and took control of Iceland (later transferred to the Americans). The Americans build an airbase, which later also became Iceland’s only international airport. This airbase was Iceland’s ticket into NATO, as Iceland did not want to maintain a military. However, they do have a civilian coast guard to patrol their sovereign sea-borders.

Iceland was and is so important to NATO, because they are at the centre of the GIUK gap. Greenland-Iceland-UK form the narrowest point, where Soviet Northern Fleet nuclear ballistic missile submarines would have to pass in order to get into the North Atlantic. From the North Atlantic though would be able to approach the US Eastern Seaboard and rain down death and destruction, while remaining undetected. Therefore, Iceland was and is of critical strategic importance.

Iceland are hard-working people somewhat isolated in the North Atlantic. Only recently has it become a tourist spot for the nature interested. For a long time Danish was the foreign language the youth would learn, and only recently was this changed to English. Icelandic youth would often go to Copenhagen to do university studies.

Iceland does a lot of fishing and have displayed their viking blood in the face of massively superior Royal Navy ship trying to protect British fishers in water claimed by Iceland. Iceland threatened to leave NATO and expel the American presence, which in all cases eventually let to Iceland getting their way. But not without livefire ammunition being fired and significant numbers of rammings, which became the diplomatic way for fighting between two countries seemingly NATO allies.

It is not unreasonable to consider Iceland a newcomer on the international stage. Both in football and in politics. But one should never underestimate them, as the English did both on the football pitch and during the Cod Wars. Iceland never gives up, no matter the odds.

Group and expectations

Iceland started the 2018 World Cup like Euro 2016. 1-1 against a potential favourite. This time Argentina. Just as in 2016 a hard fought draw, against a technically superior team. There is no limit to what this Icelandic football team can do this time around.

The second game is against Nigeria. They lost 2-0 to Croatia and did not impress. This is likely at least another point for Iceland if they can keep their organisation as well as they usually do.

The final game is against Croatia. During the qualification both teams won at home, so this could likely be yet another 1-1 for Iceland. Especially after Argentina where destroyed by Croatia 3-0.

Croatia are already though, and they are certain to finish top of the group unless they lose to Iceland. Argentina play Nigeria in their last game, and need to win, and then rely on other results.

If Iceland beat Nigeria, then Iceland need a point or more against a Croatia (who are likely field reserves from the start) to be through. If it is a draw, then Iceland need to be beat Croatia to be through (2x drawn in round three also has Iceland through, but that is too much of a gamble). However, if Iceland lose, and then beat Croatia, then you have the potential for goal-difference and all such other confusion.

Hopefully with Iceland and Croatia through, then they face (hopefully) Denmark and France of group C.

At this point the only European teams to really struggle are Germany and Poland, however, both have only played a single game. This while neither Argentina or Brazil have beaten a European team yet, something only Senegal and Mexico have done. This tournament is playing out really nicely for our small continent.

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The best results for the country are two second places in 1999 with Selma and in 2009 with Yohanna. Iceland, in fact, is the only Northern European country that has yet to win the Eurovision Song Contest.

This year, the choice of Iceland is the song Our choice, singed by the young Ari Ólafsson, a 19 year old Icelandic classically trained singer.

He started singing at a very early age and his angelic voice has conquered everyone.

In 2015, Ari competed in The Voice of Island and he has been accepted into the Royal Academy of music in London where he will continue his singing studies.

Did you enjoy this article? You may also like  Finland: Road to Eurovision and  Macedonia: Road to Eurovision

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Icelandic Electoral System

The Althingi has 63 members, which are elected every four years through closed-list proportional representation. That means that citizens in each constituency are presented a list of candidates by parties, without the possibility of indicating preferred candidates.

54 of those 63 members of the Althingi are directly elected in the 6 multi-member constituencies of the country. Seat allocation is then determined through the d’Hondt method, which aims to achieve proportional representation of the citizens’ preferences. The remaining 9 seats are known as ‘adjustment seats’. These are awarded to parties who have won at least 5% of the national vote share, in order to ensure an even fairer representation between the votes on a district level and the national share of votes.

Main Parties

The Icelandic microstate has a surprising array of political parties, considering it counts only 300 thousand inhabitants. The party with the most seats is currently the Independence Party, arguably the most successful right-wing party in the Nordic countries. Thanks to its platform of economic liberalism, conservatism and opposition to interventionism, it has garnered the support of Iceland’s large fishing community and businesses.

On the centre-right we can find the Progressive Party. Founded to represent the farmer class, its agrarian and self-defined libertarian positions still resonate the most with the rural areas of the country. Leadership disputes within the party led to the creation of a splinter group called Centre Party, which will be running in the upcoming elections on a very similar platform.

On the left end of the spectrum the biggest party is the Left-Green Movement, a left-wing and green party. Its focus is on democratic socialism, environmentalism, feminism and pacifism. Unlike most of the other left-leaning parties in the country, it opposes EU membership. The other main left-wing party is the Social Democratic Alliance, a centre-left party which is the largest pro-EU party in the country.

There are then the centrist Reform Party, which has a strong Europeanist approach and focuses on green liberalism, and the People’s Party. This last is a populist party the main focus of which is fighting against poverty and corruption, as well as focusing on disabled people’s rights. The party has been accused of xenophobia and anti-refugee sentiment, although its leader denies being against immigration. Peculiarly, Icelandic politics also include the Pirate Party in Parliament, which is an outlier in the usual distinction between left and right wing. Ever since its foundation in 2012, it has overhauled Iceland’s political scene with its spectral syncretic politics. The party stands for direct democracy, freedom of information, and civil rights.

Main Issues

The economy is, as always, at the centre of debate during these elections. In particular, the left-wing parties are proposing to increase spending for healthcare and education. Moreover, they plan on hiking corporate taxes, introducing a carbon tax, and cracking down on speculative investments. Worried about putting off businesses from investing in Iceland, as well as about the impact such an expansionary fiscal policy would have on interest rates, centre and right-wing party have been vehemently opposing such measures.

Job creation is also another hot topic at the moment in the country. Right and centre wing parties are aiming to support companies by promoting the traditional Icelandic professions – i.e. fishing, agriculture, and other domestic food industries. On the other hand, a priority of the left-wing is diversifying industry investments and increasing funding for start-up businesses.

The housing market in the country, and especially in the capital Reykjavík, is also undergoing a severe crisis, with prices higher than they have been in last 50 years. To face it, the Independence Party has proposed to tax subsidies for young people to buy their first home.  Moreover, it supports the introduction of an active rental market in the country, which is currently missing. The Left-Greens, instead, are proposing a communal mortgage bank to guarantee loans to citizens to buy houses, and to increase housing subsidies.

Another topic which is always discussed in the country is the environment. Considering the country’s reliance on fishing and fossil fuels, it comes to no surprise that centre and right-wing parties have been very hesitant about adopting heavy green policies, which left-wing parties have not been afraid to do. For example, the Independence party supports a reduction of carbon emissions by planting more trees and cutting carbon emission. However, that is a shallow objective if compared with the Left-Greens’ policies on the matter. These include the objective of making Iceland a carbon neutral country by 2050, eliminating plans for oil production and replacing fossil fuels with renewable resources, and introducing a Constitutional guarantee that natural resources are publicly owned by the nation.

Polls

Icelandic citizens go against the flow compared to the majority of other Europeans when it comes to political sympathies, according to the polls. Contrarily to the trend in Germany, Austria or the Czech Republic (to name a few), the left is actually witnessing a rise in popularity. The Left-Green movement is leading ahead of the vote with 23.3% of the preferences, although closely followed by the Independence Party with 22.6%. The Social Democratic Alliance, the Pirate Party, and the Centre Party are all around the 10% mark, while the Progressive Party stops at 7.5%.

This situation of extreme fragmentation is not unusual in the Icelandic political panorama. In the countries modern’s history, non-coalition governments have been the exception, rather than the rule. However, it does give rise to the question of which parties will form a coalition goverment.

At the moment, it looks likely that the Left-Green Movement together with the Socialist Democratic Alliance will be leading a left-wing government together with Bright Future, and the Reform Party. The Left-Greens have also not excluded an alliance with the agrarian Progressive Party, and possibly with the Centre Party. They have only ruled out a coalition with the Independence Party, due to it being on the complete opposite side of the political spectrum.

Another potential kingmaker is the Pirate Party. Just last year, it was on the cusp of becoming the first Pirate Party in history to become part of a national government in Europe. While its popularity has declined since then, it is still prospected a good result in this election. However, whether the left-wing parties will be able to convince it to join a coalition is uncertain, considering the party’s preference for spectral-syncretic politics. If they did, it would assure them a comfortable majority in the Althingi.

A final option is for the Left-Green Movement and the Socialist Democratic Alliance to form a minority government. Considering the efficiency of consensus politics in Nordic countries, it might be a viable option should they be unable to get a working majority. However, a majority government would obviously be a preferable option in order to be sure to pass reforms.

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