How Iceland (population: 330,000) qualified for the World Cup

By T.A.W.

IT HAS become a familiar ritual. A drum beats twice. A wall of blue-shirted fans grunts and lets rip a thundering clap. The pace quickens, like a Viking horde charging into battle. After every victory—and there have been many in recent years—Iceland’s football players and fans unite in performing the clap, which has become one of the sport’s most loved traditions. Last month it boomed out once again. After a 2-0 win against Kosovo on October 9th, Iceland, with a population of just 330,000 and a manager who doubles as a part-time dentist, became the smallest ever country to reach the 32-team finals of the men’s World Cup. They will be one of 14 European sides to compete in the 21st edition, hosted by Russia next year. “It means the world,” says Gudni Bergsson, a former national captain who is now president of the Icelandic Football Association. “For years we have watched the major tournaments on television. People would choose their sides and which countries to support. Now we are actually going there.”

To the outside world, strakarnir okkar (“our boys”) must seem like the most improbable qualifiers in World Cup history. The sparsely-inhabited volcanic territory is home to a quarter as many people as Trinidad and Tobago, which previously held the record for the puniest finalist. Of the 54 European countries to have entered this year’s qualifiers, only five are smaller: Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, the Faroe Islands, Andorra and San Marino. Together, they scored just 12 goals between them in their 50 games while conceding 176. Nor can Iceland boast a long history of footballing prowess. Six years ago they were ranked outside the top 100 sides by the World Football Elo Ratings, which uses the Elo formula and is a better predictor of match outcomes than the official rankings published by FIFA, football’s global governing body.