IB Akureyri (Iceland)
We are going to
start with Knattspyrnufelag and their history. The club Knattspyrnufelag
Akureyrar or commonly known as KA, were founded in 1928. A football club from
the North of Iceland based in Akureyri. They play their games at the
Akureyrarvollur, a small multipurpose stadium that only holds 1645 spectators
at most, with only 715 seats. The club itself is a multi-sports organisation,
with Volleyball, Judo and Handball all sports that it has teams represented in.
Their home colours are yellow while their away kit consists of blue.
The club itself
competed in various football tournaments in Iceland, mainly down south in Reykjavik.
They competed on three separate occasions, in their own name of KA, in the
Islandsmot, a tournament that was held down south. Other clubs, mainly from
Reykjavik that competed were Fram, KR, Valur and Vikingur. Another club from
Vestmannaeys also competed. KA weren’t very successful in their first attempt
to win the tournament, having been knocked out after losing two of their three
games and drawing the other 0-0. In fact, KA failed to score in any of the
games they played in and it resulted in the media giving them the unfortunate
nickname of ‘KA-Null’.
But not to be
put off by their bad experience, the club travelled down south once again in
1929, this time better prepared and with more experience. They competed this
time around, however, it wasn’t until 1932 when they finally broke the mould.
After losing to Val in their first game, played in particularly harsh
conditions, 1-0, KA went on to win their next two, beating Fram 2-0 and Viking
3-0. It meant they became Icelandic champions for the first time in their
history. But it wouldn’t be until a decade later, that KA would compete in the
Islandsmot again.
1941, and the
club decided to play in the Islandsmot for the third time in their history.
Hoping to emulate their triumph ten years previously, hopes where high for the
Akureyri club. However, those hopes were quickly dashed when the club failed to
win one of their four games in the competition, drawing one and losing three.
KA went back up north, but were determined to prove themselves to be the best
football club in Iceland. And so, they invited the then champions, KR, up to
Akureyri to play in a best of three matches. KR won two while KA won one. Two
players from another Akureyri club, pors, played for KA in the second match,
and with that, the idea of merging the two clubs started to become somewhat of
a realistic idea. It made sense that the two clubs should put together their
resources and best players, so that they could compete against the bigger clubs
down south. The first match that this happened in was in July 1942, when the two
clubs, under the name Akureyri’s Sports Council, played against the Icelandic
champions, Vals. Two games were played with both winning one each. This
solidified the idea that the two clubs were in much better hape if they stayed
together, and so, in 1943, the club entered the Islandsmot as Akureyri Sports
Council for the first time, and thus, IB Akureyri were founded, officially in
1946.
Initially, the
southern clubs from Reykjavik were not happy that Akureyri has merged it’s two
clubs together and thought it to be unfair. So much so that they made a
complaint to the IBA, Iceland’s Football Association, but these complaints had
fallen on deaf ears. However, despite all the drama, Akureyri failed to make an
impression in their first Islandsmot as a new club, failing to win any of their
five games, only drawing two and losing five. It wasn’t until eight years later
that the club would compete in the Islandsmot once again.
From then on
they continued to play in the Icelandic championships, with a different format
being brought in for the 1958 season, having two divisions in place instead of
the one. Akureyri were placed in the second division, and it took them two
years to gain promotion, when in 1960, the first ever topflight match took
place in Akureyri. It was a huge deal in Akureyri and for IBA. The chairman at
the time, Armann Dalmannsson addressed the home crowd before the game, to
explain to them what a huge moment this was in the club’s history. Their
opponents that day were Keflviking, a club who were from a town called
Reykjanesbaer. IBA won the game 3-1.
Despite it’s
bright start, the club found itself back in the second division, in 1964 but
didn’t stay long, and gained promotion to the First Division in 1965. After
that, the club found themselves challenging for the Icelandic title, without
winning it. In both 1965 and 1966m IBA were only two points short of bringing
the title up north. 1968 was also a near miss for the club, despite starting
off the season well, the second half saw their title challenge somewhat derail
and it meant they finished up in third place. This though was to be the height
of their success for some years. While the club were never in danger of
relegation, they never really challenged at the top either and so mediocrity
crept in for almost a decade. However, 1970 came and it was a disastrous year
for the club as IBA were relegated to the second division. Talks began to
emerge as to whether the sports organisation should continue to have a football
section, and maybe it would be better off putting it’s resources into other
sports and area in the organisation. Luckily, they decided to give it a little
bit longer, and the football club re-acted by gaining promotion after only one
season in the second division. But once again, in 1974, the club found themselves
to be relegated and this time it would make changes. The original merger would
end and the two original clubs of KA and por would revert back to what they
were, two separate clubs in Akureyri. This was done at the request of por,
whose representatives made the decision only a few days before the new season
had started, On January 27th, 1975, a meeting was held with all whom
it concerned and por decided that they would be sending their own team down to
the KSI competition. IBA had already registered for the new season, so things
became complicated for KA as they had not registered as themselves. In the end,
KA were able to compete in the third division of the Islandsmot and from 1975,
the two clubs had been formally separated, meaning IBA were now more.
That was the
story from KA’s point of view. por Akureyri or por as they are commonly known
have their own history. Founded in 1915, the club is also a sports organisation
that has different sporting departments in it like Handball, Judo and
Basketball to name a few. Their full official name in Iceland is iprottafelagio
por and their nickname is Porsarar. Their home colours are white while their
away jerseys are usually red. They play their games at the porsvollur stadium,
which has a capacity of only 984.
From reading
the reports of the merger, it would seem KA were the dominate team in Akereyri
or would seem to be the bigger club of the two, with only a few of por players
really representing the IBA club throughout it’s history in any one side that
was fielded for a match. It is no surprise that it was them who ended the
merger with KA, to go it alone and attempt to compete in the Islandsmot under
their own name, as they feared they would be swallowed up completely in time by
their rivals. And too be honest, it seems like they made the right move,
because as of the time I am writing this, the small club from Akureyri is still
in existence today, despite them only competing in Iceland second division, the
Inkasso-Deildin.
Their history
as the club they are now is one of highs and lows, with the club winning the
second division twice, both in 2001 and more recently in 2012, only to be
relegated many times. The 2011 season is probably one that sums up por as a
club with the side making it to the Icelandic cup final that year, only to lose
out to KR in the final. 2-0. That season was a mixed one for the club, as they
enjoyed a cup run, they saw their league form collapse and they were relegated
from the top-flight.
To really get
some insight into Icelandic football I spoke to author of many books about
Icelandic football, including Sixty Four Degrees North and Lava Bol, Marc Boal.
His knowledge on the subject was amazing, considering he isn’t even from the
country itself and is Scottish. However, this hasn’t stopped him from becoming
one of the leading influential figures when it comes to Icelandic football. So
much so that he was awarded the Silver badge, an honorary medal presented to
those who have promoted Icelandic football. He became the third Scotsman to be
awarded it. Whilst he has written many books on the subject, he also runs a
Twitter account, Icelandic Football UK, and that is where I was directed to
find him.
Marc, cheers
for answering my questions on Icelandic football. You were one of the first
people that I was directed to when searching for someone who was a bit of an
expert on the subject. You run the Icelandic Football UK Twitter account. Can i
ask, why Icelandic football? What is the connection?
Marc: Plenty of information on the links below, regarding my association with
Icelandic football,
(He doesn’t answer the question, but
instead sends me a link to an article that pretty much tells me what I need to
know and why he is connected to Icelandic football)
I click on the link and read about
how Marc was awarded the Silver Medal from the Icelandic FA and why he has
dedicated so much of his life to promting Icelandic football. It had all
started when he played amateur football himself and had visited Iceland to play
in a tournament there back in 1986. After his return, he kept in close contact
with those he had made friends with over there. In the interview Marc says, ‘
“I’ve spent most of my life at sea, but I always come back to
football and my connections in Iceland gave me a chance to experience the game
as it grew in a different country.”
The interview continues to tell us how Marc has written and
edited his own Icelandic football magazine, and he tells us what he hopes to
achieve from his dedicated work.
“In the future I am hopeful of
encouraging even closer ties between the two nations through football …There
are some plans already in the pipeline regarding youth development and learning
from the Icelandic grassroots concept.”
The club
that I am writing about from Iceland, IB Akureyri are one of the few clubs that
I could find that could be deemed a 'Forgotten Club'. in fact, on the list of
Defunct Football CLubs from Iceland, they are the only club there. Are
Icelandic clubs that well run? Should the rest of the world be taking note?
Marc: There are actually a few clubs that have
went out of existence or have become defunct, many clubs from rural areas have
now had put arrange mergers in the modern day. Leiftur were one of the biggest
clubs in recent years to fold, but they ended up merging with KS Siglufjordur
to the now KF Fjallabyggd. Tyr from Vestmannaeyjar were also a reasonable size
club.
What is the
culture like with Icelandic football fans? We saw how they can create an
atmosphere when following the national team, with the 'Thunderclap' as it was
known here in Ireland, becoming rather famous during the Euro 2016 campaign.
But what are they like at the club level? Is everything very peaceful and
respectful or are their fierce derbies played in Iceland and, to your
knowledge, were IB Akureyri part of any of these derbies?
Marc: The domestic leagues fans can be noisy
at times, but whenever its is an important match, the fans can be very
boisterous. You can expect to see drums, cowbells and even fans with trumpets
at Derby games. The crowds in Iceland are family orientated at domestic game,
very different from the UK and central Europe. There has been a trend in recent
years of supporter’s clubs emerging in Iceland.
Icelandic
clubs seem to be well run, there is a lack of existence with them when it comes
to European competition. The newly created Europa Conference League may open
the door to the rest of Europe to see more Icelandic clubs play. But
beforehand, they really have underachieved in European competition. Is there a
reason, in your opinion, as to why that is?
Marc: This is a major conundrum for Icelandic
clubs, there is a number of factors why they have struggled in Europe, most
teams are semi-pro, the financial aspect is one of the issues, the league
format has changed this season, so there will be more meaningful games which
will also help with progression. The conference League will help smaller clubs
in the current money driven market. Vikingur Reykjavik were very unlucky not to
make the play-offs this year after losing out to Lech Poznan. Hopefully in the
next 2/3 years we will see teams from Iceland in the Conference League group
stages.
At the
moment, who is the best player playing in the Icelandic league? And are there
any up-and-coming youngsters that we should know about?
Marc: The best player in the Icelandic league
is Kristall Mani Ingason who played with Vikingur Reykjavik (a fantastic
talent) he has recently signed for Norwegian giants Rosenborg BK.
Countries
like Iceland, which have small populations, yet can still compete on the world
stage of football, always fascinate me. Coming from a small island nation
myself here in Ireland, Iceland has been a bit of an inspiration of late,
especially when they beat England at Euro 2016. In your opinion, what have they
got right over there recently and why is it all coming together now?
Marc: Youth
Development is the major key factor along with competent coaching, Iceland has
fell behind in recent years, the national team was an aging squad, there is a
huge rebuild on at the moment, however, it could take another 2-3 years before
we see them light up the international stage once again, the building blocks
are all being pieced together especially at U18 and U21 level.
A question I
usually ask everyone I interview, and sometimes the toughest one to answer for
some, but who has been the best player to ever play for Iceland, and who has
been your favourite player to ever come from Iceland?
Marc: The best player to come out of Iceland
was Siggi Jonsson in my opinion, however, he was plagued with injuries after a
horrendous tackle by Graeme Souness in a World Cup Qualifier. Asgeir
Sigurvinsson was also a formidable player who starred with VFB Stuttgart in the
1980’s, he also had a spell at Bayern Munich.
And so that is
story of IB Akureyri, a small Northern Icelandic town that thought having one
big club, rather than two small clubs would help the progress of football in
that part of the world. And, for a time, they were right. In all honesty, IBA
have won the same amount of titles as the two original clubs have done between
them. IBA won four titles in their history while they existed, while both KA
and por have two each, although both are currently still playing, they may one
day add to that. It does pose an interesting question as to whether small
towns, or even cities, are better off having one big club represent it rather
than having a number of clubs compete for resources and fans. In this case, one
of the clubs, por felt their identity was being lost and that is the main
reason why the merger was reversed, and as I said before, with the two clubs
still playing in their original forms to this day, they have been vindicated in
their decision. It also creates a rivalry in the town of Akureyri, which in my
opinion, makes football special. Derby games are something that helps football
create atmospheres and moments and I’m sure supporters of both those clubs will
tell you they love nothing more than beating the other team on derby day, and
gaining bragging rights, so in that sense, maybe having two small clubs instead
of one big club was the right way to go. Will IBA ever be back? I don’t think
so. I think both clubs are fine the way they are. Maybe if one of them gets
into financial trouble, then maybe the idea might be brought up once again,
however, Icelandic clubs seem to have their houses in order, and any club that
does seem to struggle seems to turn to the ‘merger idea’. While IBA still kind
of exist, they still qualify as a ‘Forgotten Club’. Kind of.