Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag ("Klaksvík Sports Club"), commonly abbreviated to KÍ and also known as KÍ Klaksvík, is a Faroese professional football club based in Klaksvík. The club was founded in 1904 and is one of the most successful Faroese football clubs, having won the Faroe Islands Premier League twenty-one times and the Faroe Islands Cup six times. The club wears blue and white and plays matches at the Við Djúpumýrar stadium.
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| Full name | Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag | ||
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| Short name | KÍ | ||
| Founded | 24 August 1904 | ||
| Ground | Við Djúpumýrar | ||
| Capacity | 2,600 (1300 seated) | ||
| Chairman | Tummas Lervig | ||
| Manager | Espen Haug[1] | ||
| League | Faroe Islands Premier League | ||
| 2024 | Faroe Islands Premier League, 2nd of 10 | ||
| Website | http://www.ki.fo/ | ||
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KÍ Klaksvík notably became the first Faroese football club to play in the group stage of a major UEFA-organised European competition, qualifying for this phase in the 2023–24 edition of the UEFA Europa Conference League.
History
editKÍ won the inaugural edition of Faroese top-tier football in 1942.[2] In 1992, KÍ Klaksvík participated for the first time on a European stage,[3] competing in the Champions League preliminary round against Skonto Riga of Latvia, where they lost 6–1 on aggregate.[4]
By winning the double in 1999, KÍ reached a total of 21 league titles, a record at the time.[5] KÍ didn't win the league title again until 2019, and although it held the honour of having won the most league titles since the 1950s, it was surpassed by HB in 2004.[2][5] Although the team signed former great Todi Jónsson and local Atli Danielsen in July 2009 for the remainder of the season, KÍ was relegated for the first time in the club's 105 year-long history at the time.[5] Despite a slow start, they managed to return to the top league for 2011, when they finished fifth under the guidance of manager Aleksandar Đorđević.
In 2012, KÍ did one better than the previous year, and finished in 4th position. The team was the most potent attacking side, scoring 59 goals in 27 matches; Páll Klettskarð scored 22 goals and was the joint top-scorer. In the buildup to the 2013 season, Atli Danielsen and Meinhardt Joensen were signed, helping KÍ to reach the semi-final of the cup. However, they finished the league season in a disappointing 8th place. Ndende Adama Guéye was signed after the season, and the team hired a new manager, Mikkjal Thomassen, who managed the team until 2022. The new manager implemented a new system, foreign to most of the players, and so KÍ experienced a difficult start to the season. Later in the first half of the season, the team had implemented the style, playing attractive, free-flowing attacking football, eventually finishing fifth. In 2016, they missed out on their first league title since 1999 by just one point to Víkingur Gøta, although they did win the Faroe Islands Cup.[6] The next year, they lost the title to the same team by an even closer margin, only having a slightly worse goal difference. While the next season was a disappointment, with the team only finishing fifth, the following years, starting with the 2019 season would prove remarkable ones.[6]
That year, KÍ not only won their first title in twenty years, but they managed to reach the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League for the first time, defeating Riteriai from Lithuania on away goals.[7] In 2020, KÍ went one better, becoming the first Faroese team to qualify for the Europa League playoff round by beating Dinamo Tbilisi 6–1 in the third qualifying round, which KÍ had reached for the first time.[8] This shock result, against a much larger and more prestigious European club, was watched by seventy percent of the Klaksvík population, and set up what was labelled 'the biggest game in their history' against the Irish club Dundalk F.C, which they lost 3–1.[6]
In 2023, KÍ advanced to the second qualifying round of the Champions League for only the second time in their history by defeating 34-time Hungarian champions Ferencváros 3–0 on aggregate, consisting of a 0–0 draw in Klaksvík and a 3–0 win in Budapest, rivalling their win over Dinamo Tbilisi as the biggest result in the history of the club. The Faroese club faced Swedish side BK Häcken in the second qualifying round, beating them 4–3 on penalties after drawing 3–3 on aggregate. This historic result meant that KÍ became the first ever Faroese side to reach the third qualifying round of the Champions League. This result guaranteed the club's continental football path/route until at least December 2023 and meant they would also become the first ever Faroese side to play in the group stages of a European competition.[9] Klaksvík played Norwegian club Molde in the third qualifying round, defeating them with a scoreline of 2–1 in the home leg; however, this was overturned in the away leg with a 2–0 defeat in extra time. During the run, striker Árni Frederiksberg scored 6 goals.[10] Klaksvík then played the Moldovan club Sheriff Tiraspol in the Europa League play-off round, tying the home game 1–1 before losing 1–2 in the away match. The Faroese team got drawn into Group A of the Europa Conference League 2023-24 season, along with Lille, Slovan Bratislava and Olimpija Ljubljana. In their first game, they lost 2–1 to Slovan Bratislava, with Deni Pavlovic becoming KI's inaugural scorer in the group stages. They made history on October 5 by drawing 0–0 with Lille, becoming the first Faroese team to score a point in the group stages of a European competition, and on October 26, when they won against Olimpija Ljubljana 3–0, they became the first team from the Faroe Islands to win a game in the group stages of a European competition. After the season, manager Magne Hoseth left to manage Danish Superliga side Lyngby Boldklub,[11] and the club hired Haakon Lunov to replace him.
Stadium
editKÍ Klaksvík plays its games in Við Djúpumýrar, a stadium with a seating capacity of 530 (2600 with standing places).[12] For the team's 2020 European qualification, the Tórsvøllur stadium, which normally hosts the national team was used, since the Við Djúpumýrar stadium did not meet UEFA requirements for the third qualifying round and above.[6]
Current squad
edit- As of 1 September 2024
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Out on loan
editNote: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Notable former players
editRógvi Jacobsen, played 53 matches for the Faroe Islands national team, scored 10 goals.
Mayowa Alli[13][14]
Albert Adu[13]
Manni Waag Högnesen and Petur Simonsen. 1989
Managers
editSölvi Óskarsson (1972)
Tony Paris (1977–1978)[16]
Peter Kordt (1980)
Tomislav Sivić (2000–2001)
Aleksandar Đorđević &
Magne Hoseth (2022–2024)
Honours
edit- Faroe Islands Premier League
- Faroe Islands Cup
- Faroe Islands Super Cup
- Winners (3): 2020, 2022, 2023
- Runners-up (1): 2017
European record
editOverview
edit| Competition | Matches | W | D | L | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UEFA Champions League | 16 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 18 | 26 |
| UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League | 25 | 5 | 7 | 13 | 30 | 49 |
| UEFA Europa Conference League | 14 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 18 | 23 |
| UEFA Cup Winners' Cup | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| TOTAL | 57 | 15 | 14 | 28 | 69 | 104 |
Matches
edit- Notes
- PR: Preliminary round
- QR: Qualifying round
- 1QR: First qualifying round
- 2QR: Second qualifying round
- 3QR: Third qualifying round
- PO: Playoff round
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "portal.fo". Archived from the original on June 18, 2013. Retrieved June 12, 2013.
- ^ a b Joensen, Hans Pauli (April 7, 2011). "Survival the key as KÍ resume Faroese fight". UEFA. Archived from the original on April 19, 2016. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
- ^ Johannesen, Páll Holm (August 14, 2002). "Olgar Danielsen framvegis besti málskjútti" (in Faroese). in.fo. Archived from the original on August 10, 2017. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
- ^ "Champions' Cup 1992–93". RSSSF. Archived from the original on March 14, 2023. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
- ^ a b c Joensen, Hans Pauli (July 9, 2012). "KÍ faring well again in Faroe Islands". UEFA. Archived from the original on November 5, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
- ^ a b c d Vrablik, Lucas (September 30, 2020). "Klasvik, the Faroe Islands team on brink of Europa League". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
- ^ "KÍ advance to second round of Europa League". flashscores.com. July 16, 2019. Archived from the original on April 1, 2023. Retrieved July 16, 2019.
- ^ "KÍ 6–1 Dinamo Tbilisi". UEFA. September 24, 2020. Archived from the original on September 25, 2022. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- ^ "KI Klaksvik: The Faroese team making history in Champions League qualifiers". BBC Sport. August 8, 2023. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
- ^ Filardi, Eric (August 24, 2023). "Klaksvík: time das Ilhas Faroé faz história com brasileiro". www.minhatorcida.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved August 25, 2023.
- ^ Wehlast, Af Mads Glenn; bold.dk (January 17, 2024). "Så lidt tjener ny Superliga-boss". ekstrabladet.dk (in Danish). Retrieved January 30, 2024.
- ^ "Cup final moved again – date and venue!". soccerandequipment.com. May 28, 2010. Archived from the original on January 27, 2016. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
- ^ a b "Faroe Islands: Why foreigners play in Europe's most remote league". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
- ^ "Football on the fringes: life as a US pro in Azerbaijan and the Faroes". theguardian.com. September 28, 2016. Archived from the original on November 19, 2022. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
- ^ "'The Serbian Viking': Filip Đorđević talks about his career so far". Archived from the original on November 19, 2022.
- ^ a b c "Tony Paris vs. KÍ Klaksvík reaches verdict". Soccer and Equipment. Archived from the original on March 3, 2012. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
External links
edit- Official website
of KÍ Klaksvík
- Official KÍ supporter club site (archived 7 February 2011)