The Greatest Story In European Football Nobody Is Talking About - KÍ Klaksvík
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00:00Ask any child growing up where they'd like to play football one day and you'll
00:07get largely the same responses. England, Spain, Italy, all of the trendy and
00:11prestigious locations of the game's global appeal. One place they're not
00:15likely to say is the Faroe Islands. An archipelago of 18 rocky islands in the
00:20North Atlantic Ocean sees an average of 300 days of rain per year and 13 degrees
00:25Celsius is regarded as a hot summer's day. The island's 50,000 inhabitants are
00:30comfortably outnumbered by its 80,000 sheep. But none of this has stopped the
00:35Faroese adopting football as their national obsession. Statistically one of
00:39the most football mad populations on earth, roughly 10% of the entire country
00:44plays regularly, it's about to embark upon the next stage of what's already
00:47been an incredible, implausible, arguably impossible European journey. This is the
00:54amazing story in European football that nobody's talking about. This is Keioi
01:00Klakschrik. Hailing from a town of just 5,000 people in a valley perched between
01:04two fjords and with a stadium that holds only 2,500, Keioi have become the first
01:09Faroese team ever to qualify for a European group stage, thanks to not one
01:14but two shock victories. Historically a giant of the Faroe Islands Premier League,
01:20the 20-time champions became their country's first ever invincibles last
01:24year. In 27 matches they won 25 times, drew just twice and conceded only seven
01:31goals. But with their domestic season running from March to October they had
01:35to wait fully nine months for their crack at this season's Champions League.
01:38They'd lost narrowly to Norwegian's Bodo Glimt in the first qualifying round of
01:42last year's competition and after being given a COVID-enforced first-round bye
01:46against Slovenian Bratislava were dumped out by young boys of Bern the year prior.
01:51In short they'd never technically won a Champions League tie so few gave Keioi
01:56any chance when they prepared to face Hungary's French Varos in the first
02:00qualifying round this July. Yet after a tense nil-nil home leg they stunned
02:05their more illustrious opponents on away soil running out three nil victors. It
02:11was a result that was met with disbelief in Hungary and the Faroe Islands alike. A
02:16day later the squad received a hero's welcome when they arrived back in
02:20Klaksvik and a significant proportion of the town lined the streets. There were
02:25flares, there were fireworks, it was a huge huge deal. In the second round Keioi
02:30took on Swedish champions BK Haken. Again they managed a goalless draw at home
02:34prompting their opponents official social media account to declare that
02:38they would return to Sweden to win the tie. The second leg was a classic, a topsy
02:43turvy match that ended 3-3 with Keioi winning out on penalties. The
02:49celebrations among the sizable travelling contingent were not just for
02:52another giant killing but the fact that by winning this tie they'd made history.
02:57Not only had they become the first Faroe side ever to reach the third
03:01qualifying round of the Champions League but they were now guaranteed to become
03:05the first team from the islands to play in some sort of European group stage.
03:09This is by far the best time to be a fan of Keioi or of Faroese football as a
03:15whole. Tormundur Danielsson, chairman of the club's blue wave fan club tells 442
03:20in this month's issue. This European run has already been incredible. Even if Keioi
03:26lost their next qualifying round of the Champions League against Norwegian
03:29title holders Mold they'd then drop into the final qualifying round for the
03:33Europa League. If they lost that they'd still go directly into the group stage
03:38of the Europa Conference League. Now if that feels like weak criteria for an
03:43incredible European story keep in mind the fact that the Faroese club's players
03:47are all semi-professionals. They all hold down proper jobs elsewhere. Striker Arne
03:54Friedrichsberg who downed French Varos with a brilliant brace runs a food import
03:58business by day. Two other players work for the local electricity company with
04:02Keioi's social media posting pictures of them installing power lines the day
04:06after their historical European triumph. Keioi astoundingly defeated Mold 2-1 in
04:12the first leg of their third qualifying round tie. By that stage of the
04:16competition though UEFA staging regulations meant they could no longer
04:19even play at their home ground in Klaksvik. Instead they hosted the
04:23Norwegians at the Faroes cozy but smart national stadium in Torshavn. Two
04:27islands further to the west accessible via sea tunnels one of which even
04:31contains an underwater roundabout. You've seen this stadium before of course. It was
04:36the subject of Richard Key's famous daft little ground silly game f*** off
04:40comment during Sky's coverage of the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Granted it wasn't
04:45the worst off-air incident that was leaked during his time at the
04:48broadcaster but it's certainly the one that set the biggest impact in the Faroe
04:52Islands. The return leg wasn't to give them the fairy tale outcome. They lost
04:56albeit bravely in Norway but not before taking another Champions League tie to
05:01extra time before going out to a 112th minute winner. This set up a
05:06Europa League playoff against Sheriff Taraspol. After a 1-1 draw in the first
05:10leg in Torshavn, KOI fans were advised not to travel to Taraspol, the capital
05:15of the unrecognized state of Transnistria within Moldova due to
05:19tensions that have grown since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Instead KOI fans
05:23gathered together in front of a big screen to watch their side play the
05:26second leg which Sheriff narrowly won 2-1 thanks to a 76 minute goal from
05:32Armel Zohuri. Given that the Moldovan champions stunned Real Madrid at the
05:36Bernabeu just two seasons ago there was no shame in this defeat and KOI knew a
05:41place in the Conference League group stage was waiting for them in any case. When the
05:45draw was made on September the 1st they were placed into Group A alongside Lille,
05:49Slovan Bratislava and Olympia Ljubljana. They started the group in typical
05:54fashion taking a shock 1-0 lead against the Slovakian champions before former
05:59Manchester City winger Wladimir Weiss broke their hearts with a late winner.
06:02Regardless though with one of the trickier away ties now out of the way
06:06their hopes of progression remain high. KOI are already set to reap the
06:11financial rewards of this season's European exploits. Their earnings for
06:15their summer's work will be vast by fairway standards and have opened a
06:18debate in the country about how they best spend their spoils. One area that
06:22may need to be addressed is that of their home stadium to allow them to play
06:26all of their future European games in Klatschwick. It's also been suggested
06:30that the club may buy some of their semi-professional players out of their
06:33day jobs. It's a move that everyone agrees would smash a ceiling preventing
06:38further progress but which could lead to further imbalances in the domestic league
06:42where most other clubs are understandably miles away from being
06:45able to make players professional. Investing in their homegrown players and
06:49their new academy system which was set up two years ago could be a further
06:52boost to the Faroe Islands national team who are already creating their own
06:56shockwaves beating Turkey in the Nations League last year when they took an
07:00impressive eight points from six games. They'd of course previously created
07:04headlines during qualifying for Euro 2016 when they defeated 2004 champions
07:08Greece home and away. That loss to the Faroes at home saw Claudio Ranieri
07:13sacked, fatefully leaving him free to take the Leicester City job. And while
07:18KOI Klatschwick might not be on the verge of doing a Leicester themselves
07:22they've already been the shock story of European football this summer. It's taken
07:26a whole heap of courage and a talented squad but they've made history for
07:30Faroese football. The club are writing a story that will be told in Klatschwick
07:35for generations and if they get their wish it's a journey that won't stop here.
07:40If you'd like to read more about the incredible story of KOI Klatschwick
07:44you'll find a full feature on them in this month's issue of 442. Written by
07:48Paul Watson and including contributions from several people connected to the
07:51club it's available now from all good retailers.