The Greatest Story In European Football Nobody Is Talking About - KÍ Klaksvík
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00:00 Ask any child growing up where they'd like to play football one day and you'll get largely
00:08 the same responses. England, Spain, Italy, all of the trendy and prestigious locations
00:13 of the game's global appeal. One place they're not likely to say is the Faroe Islands. An
00:18 archipelago of 18 rocky islands in the North Atlantic Ocean sees an average of 300 days
00:23 of rain per year and 13 degrees Celsius is regarded as a hot summer's day. The island's
00:29 50,000 inhabitants are comfortably outnumbered by its 80,000 sheep. But none of this has
00:34 stopped the Faroese adopting football as their national obsession. Statistically, one of
00:39 the most football-mad populations on Earth, roughly 10% of the entire country plays regularly,
00:45 it's about to embark upon the next stage of what's already been an incredible, implausible,
00:50 arguably impossible European journey. This is the amazing story in European football that
00:56 nobody's talking about. This is Keioi Klakschrik. Hailing from a town
01:02 of just 5,000 people in a valley perched between two fjords, and with a stadium that holds
01:06 only 2,500, Keioi have become the first Faroese team ever to qualify for a European group
01:13 stage, thanks to not one, but two shock victories. Historically a giant of the Faroe Islands
01:19 Premier League, the 20-time champions became their country's first ever invincibles last
01:24 year. In 27 matches, they won 25 times, drew just twice and conceded only seven goals.
01:31 But with their domestic season running from March to October, they had to wait fully nine
01:35 months for their crack at this season's Champions League. They'd lost narrowly to
01:39 Norwegian's Bodo Glimt in the first qualifying round of last year's competition, and after
01:44 being given a COVID-enforced first round bye against Slovenian Bratislava, were dumped
01:49 out by Young Boys of Bern the year prior. In short, they'd never technically won a
01:54 Champions League tie, so few gave Keioi any chance when they prepared to face Hungary's
01:58 French Varos in the first qualifying round this July. Yet after a tense 0-0 home leg,
02:05 they stunned their more illustrious opponents on away soil, running out 3-0 victors. It
02:11 was a result that was met with disbelief in Hungary and the Faroe Islands alike. A day
02:16 later, the squad received a hero's welcome when they arrived back in Klaksvik, and a
02:21 significant proportion of the town lined the streets. There were flares, there were fireworks,
02:26 it was a huge, huge deal. In the second round, Keioi took on Swedish
02:31 champion BK Haken. Again, they managed a goalless draw at home, prompting their opponent's
02:36 official social media account to declare that they would return to Sweden to win the tie.
02:41 The second leg was a classic, a topsy-turvy match that ended 3-3, with Keioi winning out
02:47 on penalties. The celebrations among the sizeable travelling
02:51 contingent were not just for another giant killing, but the fact that by winning this
02:55 tie, they'd made history. Not only had they become the first Faroe side ever to reach
03:01 the third qualifying round of the Champions League, but they were now guaranteed to become
03:05 the first team from the islands to play in some sort of European group stage. This is
03:10 by far the best time to be a fan of Keioi, or of Faroe's football as a whole.
03:16 Tormund Danielsen, chairman of the club's Blue Wave fan club, tells 442 in this month's
03:21 issue, "This European run has already been incredible."
03:26 Even if Keioi lost their next qualifying round of the Champions League against Norwegian
03:29 title holders Mold, they'd then drop into the final qualifying round for the Europa
03:34 League. If they lost that, they'd still go directly into the group stage of the Europa
03:39 Conference League. Now if that feels like weak criteria for
03:42 an incredible European story, keep in mind the fact that the Faroe's club's players
03:47 are all semi-professionals. They all hold down proper jobs elsewhere.
03:53 Striker Arne Friedrichsberg, who downed French Varos with a brilliant brace, runs a food
03:58 import business by day. Two other players work for the local electricity company, with
04:02 Keioi's social media posting pictures of them installing power lines the day after
04:06 their historical European triumph. Keioi astoundingly defeated Mold 2-1 in the
04:12 first leg of their third qualifying round tie. By that stage of the competition though,
04:16 UEFA stadium regulations meant they could no longer even play at their home ground in
04:21 Klaksvik. Instead, they hosted the Norwegians at the Faroe's cosy but smart national stadium
04:26 in Torshavn, two islands further to the west accessible via sea tunnels, one of which even
04:31 contains an underwater roundabout. You've seen this stadium before, of course.
04:36 It was the subject of Richard Key's famous "daft little ground, silly game, f*** off"
04:40 comment during Sky's coverage of the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Granted, it wasn't the worst
04:46 off-air incident that was leaked during his time at the broadcaster, but it's certainly
04:50 the one that set the biggest impact in the Faroe Islands.
04:53 The return leg wasn't to give them the fairy tale outcome. They lost, albeit bravely, in
04:58 Norway. But not before taking another Champions League tie to extra time before going out
05:03 to a 112th-minute winner. This set up a Europa League playoff against
05:07 Sheriff Tiraspol. After a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Torshavn, K.O.I fans were advised
05:12 not to travel to Tiraspol, the capital of the unrecognised state of Transnistria within
05:18 Moldova, due to tensions that have grown since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Instead, K.O.I
05:23 fans gathered together in front of a big screen to watch their side play the second leg, which
05:27 Sheriff narrowly won 2-1, thanks to a 76-minute goal from Armel Zohuri.
05:33 Given that the Moldovan champions stunned Real Madrid at the Bernabeu just two seasons
05:37 ago, there was no shame in this defeat, and K.O.I knew a place in the Conference League
05:42 group stage was waiting for them in any case. When the draw was made on September 1st, they
05:47 were placed into Group A alongside Lille, Slovan, Bratislava and Olympia Ljubljana. They
05:52 were the group in typical fashion, taking a shock 1-0 lead against the Slovakian champions,
05:58 before former Manchester City winger Wladimir Weiss broke their hearts with a late winner.
06:03 Regardless though, with one of the trickier away ties now out of the way, their hopes
06:07 of progression remain high. K.O.I are already set to reap the financial
06:11 rewards of this season's European exploits. Their earnings for their summer's work will
06:16 be vast by fairway standards, and have opened a debate in the country about how they best
06:20 spend their spoils. One area that may need to be addressed is that of their home stadium,
06:25 to allow them to play all of their future European games in Klatschwick. It's also
06:29 been suggested that the club may buy some of their semi-professional players out of
06:33 their day jobs. It's a move that everyone agrees would smash a ceiling preventing further
06:38 progress, but which could lead to further imbalances in the domestic league, where most
06:43 other clubs are understandably miles away from being able to make players professional.
06:48 Investing in their homegrown players and their new academy system which was set up two years
06:51 ago could be a further boost to the Faroe Islands national team, who are already creating
06:56 their own shockwaves, beating Turkey in the Nations League last year when they took an
07:00 impressive 8 points from 6 games. They'd of course previously created headlines during
07:05 qualifying for Euro 2016 when they defeated 2004 champions Greece home and away. That
07:11 loss to the Faroes at home saw Claudio Ranieri sacked, fatefully leaving him free to take
07:16 the Leicester City job. And while Keoil Klatschwick might not be on the verge of doing a Leicester
07:21 themselves, they've already been the shock story of European football this summer. It's
07:26 taken a whole heap of courage and a talented squad, but they've made history for Faroese
07:31 football. The club are writing a story that will be told in Klatschwick for generations,
07:37 and if they get their wish, it's a journey that won't stop here.
07:40 If you'd like to read more about the incredible story of Keoil Klatschwick, you'll find a
07:44 full feature on them in this month's issue of 442. Written by Paul Watson and including
07:49 contributions from several people connected to the club, it's available now from all good
07:53 retailers.
07:53 .
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