Just over fifty thousand people live on the Faroe Islands, a small archipelago in the Atlantic. A part of the Kingdom of Denmark, these small islands are surrounded by the cold ocean and often hammered by strong winds. Let’s be honest – you wouldn’t ever hear about them if they didn’t have their own national football team. Football in these parts has been highly amateur for ages. After World War II, there were no organized clubs for youth players, facilities were nearly non-existent and the local sort-of national team only played occasional friendlies against Shetland, a nearby archipelago belonging to Scotland. But the sport changed in the late 1980s when the Faroese Football Association became a member of FIFA, giving them a chance to play qualifying matches for World Cups and European Championships. Not that they’ll ever qualify – but hey!Just a couple of years after becoming an ‘official’ national team, the Faroese played their first-ever official match – one that will forever be remembered by football fans in these parts. On 12 September 1992, the Faroese hosted Austria in a qualifying match for the 1992 European Championship. They were forced to play their home matches in Sweden because there were still no suitable venues on neither of their islands. Still, they didn’t care much because they were happy just to appear in a real competition.Torsvollur stadium in the Faroese capital of Torshavn. Yes, the national team plays here (©Shutterstock)The Austrians were a good team who had just played at the World Cup a couple of months earlier. Few could predict what was to come – one of the biggest upsets in the world of international football. The Faroe Islanders will always remember that September night when their amateurs beat the professional football team from Austria.After 61 minutes of goalless football, Torkil Nielsen scored the most important goal of Faroese football. The Faroe Islands hold on to the lead and win a world-famous 1-0 victory. This win has been the catalyst for everything that came later. The win was so unexpected that the Austrian manager Josef Hickersberger was fired the next day. The entire population celebrated and the players were welcomed back as heroes.Tomorrow we take on Austria in the @FIFAWorldCup qualifiers 👀In 1990 #FaroeIslands beat Austria 1-0 in our very first competitive international, after becoming a member of #UEFA earlier that year 🇫🇴 A small nation doing the impossible.#FaroeOlympichttps://t.co/zrOS0mGJjx— Faroe Olympic (@FaroeOlympic) October 8, 2021 Three decades later, the Faroese have a nice little stadium in their main town of Torshavn. Their combined record in qualifying matches for World Cups and EUROs reads: 148 games, 14 wins, 13 draws and 121 defeats, but football is on a much higher level than in the old days. Most players are members of local clubs, but there are those who turn out for Danish and Norwegian professional teams.Tonight, many older fans in Torshavn will remember the joy of 1990 as Austria arrive to the Islands. Although the visitors will be without some of their biggest stars like Marko Arnautovic, Christoph Baumgartner, Valentino Lazaro and Aleksandar Dragovic, they will still be led by Real Madrid’s David Alaba, Marcel Sabitzer of Bayern Munich and Martin Hinteregger of Eintracht Frankfurt. It will be a tough task for the proud Faroes.The home team is fifth in the Group F table and only harbours slim chances of squeezing into the play-offs, while the Austrians sit just one place higher and are desperate to get a win and get nearer to Scotland and Israel. They can still hope with that glorious night in 1990 still vivid in everyone’s mind.WORLD CUP 2022 QUALIFIERS EUROPESaturday19.00: (3.80) Azerbaijan (3.05) R.Ireland (2.30)19.00: (3.45) Finland (3.05) Ukraine (2.45)19.00: (1.90) Scotland (3.60) Israel (4.50)19.00: (3.80) Georgia (3.05) Greece (2.30)19.00: (1.43) Sweden (4.60) Kosovo (9.00)21.45: (8.50) Luxembourg (4.50) Serbia (1.45)21.45: (1.38) Switzerland (4.60) N.Ireland (12.0)21.45: (14.0) Faroe I. (6.00) Austria (1.27)21.45: (30.0) Moldova (12.0) Denmark (1.10)21.45: (2.60) Hungary (2.85) Albania (3.40)21.45: (50.0) Andorra (20.0) England (1.02)21.45: (1.01) Poland (30.0) San Marino (60.0)***odds are subject to change
