Without our call on Tuesday, Olivier Brochard planned to take his place this Thursday (6:45 p.m.) at the Djupumyra stadium in Klaksvik. This 59-year-old from Lille, who is one of the 70 northern supporters embarked on a strange journey to the Faroe Islands, owes us a debt of gratitude. He was unaware that this venue is not approved by UEFA for a group stage. The most improbable meeting in the European history of Losc will therefore take place at the Torsvollur stadium in Torshavn, the capital of this archipelago of 18 volcanic rock islands located between Iceland, Scotland and Norway. “I’m on the lookout for these enigmatic trips,” smiles the man who had booked his plane tickets for Rijeka during the Europa Conference League play-off, even before the Croatian club qualified. Thanks to football, I will see one of the wonders of the world. »
Namely a land of escape of only 53,000 inhabitants (and more sheep) in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, perceived as even wilder than sublime Iceland. This is why some Losc followers jumped at this opportunity to travel to the 125th nation in the Fifa ranking, even if it was necessary to pay between 300 and 500 euros just for a flight to Vagar, the only airport of the Faroe Islands. The landing, on “a very specific runway” (meaning very short), pushed the Lille club to change its usual plans by opting for a charter flight with Atlantic Airways and a pilot accustomed to atypical maneuvers.
“It’s folkloric on takeoff and downright scary on landing”
The first well-established memory in France concerning the Faroe Islands remains the epic pre-match of a qualifying match for Euro 2008 in Torshavn. Eight Blues players had already had to wait a day longer than expected to be able to leave the archipelago in September 2004 (0-2), due to infernal fog. But there, in October 2007, the whole team had to go through eleven hours on the planewith stopovers on the menu in Aberdeen (Scotland) then in Bergen (Norway), due to freezing rain, wind and fog delaying the landing several times.
The “muscular” outcome, a few hours before the match kicked off, did not prevent Raymond Domenech’s players from clearly winning (0-6). But he had made a big mark on the French team, as François Manardo, press manager for the FFF, told us during the trip to the Faroe Islands in August 2009, with a short success (0-1).
Even when things go well, it’s awkward on takeoff and downright scary on landing. I have traveled a lot without fear by plane but I will never be able to forget this moment: I could not see the runway at all and I had the feeling that we were going to crash into the mountain. As everyone had 2007 in mind, I can tell you that no one dared to make the slightest joke, there was not a sound in the plane. »
A town of 5,000 inhabitants defeats the champion of Hungary and then Sweden
His current counterpart at the Klaksvik club, Solby Christiansdottir, wants to reassure the curious considering a Faroese getaway: “There have since been many improvements at the airport and the landing strip which has been extended . But a flight to the Faroe Islands always remains a unique experience, between the wind and the mountains. We always warn our adversaries that the weather conditions are very unstable here and that the flight may be postponed due to fog. But that didn’t happen this summer.” A summer during which neither Ferencvaros (AS Monaco’s winner in the Europa League last season), nor BK Häken, nor Molde, nor Sheriff Tiraspol managed to win in the Faroe Islands in the various European preliminary rounds . A stunning invincibility which allowed the players of Norwegian Magne Hoseth to glimpse the crazy dream of joining the Champions League groups.
“Eliminating the champion of Hungary and then Sweden was the most unexpected result in the history of C1 qualifying, and our players were the first to be surprised,” says Solby Christiansdottir. The club of a town of 5,000 inhabitants in the middle of the ocean should never have experienced this, it was totally insane. We had media requests from all over the world, from India, China, Brazil, the BBC, Der Spiegel… » Because yes, while the Saudi championship made the headlines this summer with salaries ridiculing the standards of the major European championships, the guarantee of the freshness of football was held in this mysterious territory attached to Denmark, which snatched its first participation in the group stage of a European Cup.
A goalkeeper used in the Faroese D1… at 49 years old!
A feat worthy of the success of the national team against Greece (0-1 and 2-1) in 2014-2015 and against Turkey (2-1) in 2022. Especially since the squad of KI Klaksvik has only eight professional players. Even the current top scorer in the Champions League, Arni Frederiksberg (6 goals in the 6 qualifying matches played this summer) is most of his time CEO of a food import company. There are also electricians, carpenters and childcare assistants in this team where salaries through football range from 1,000 to 2,000 euros.
KI Klaksvik (less than €1 million budget) also offers free stadium admission for under-16s, some of the thousand supporters on average who sit along the handrail, and a Hungarian goalkeeper (Geza Turi) who played a D1 match in May… at 49 years old, a record in Europe. How do you say “real football” in Faroese? Finally, does this historic Europa Conference League match have everything of the famous trap match, such as the 32nd final of the Coupe de France on an amateur pitch?
“I was so cold that I couldn’t feel my body”
Listening to Paulo Fonseca, this dimension is mainly due to the presence in Torshavn of a synthetic pitch, which pushes him to consider an important turnover in its squad, three days before the derby in Lens. Given the harsh weather in the archipelago, all Faroese clubs have opted for this surface banned by the LFP since 2017. “These synthetics are worn out and it is complicated to adapt to control the ball well,” warns the Ivorian Luc Kassi, who should play in attack this Thursday with Klaksvik. But our main advantage is that we are at the end of our season here. We felt that we were much stronger than our opponents this summer. »
Officially champion on Sunday for the 21st time in its history with three days to go, KI Klaksvik also knows how to take advantage of its habit of this famous climate where wind and rain offer a delicious cocktail, with a tradition of “four seasons in the same day “. The Lille residents have just suffered a -12°C when arriving in the Faroe Islands on Wednesday compared to France.
I experienced a lot of matches stopped due to the wind because the goalkeeper could not, for example, shoot his six meters as the ball was moving, says former Senegalese defender Ndende Adama Gueye, who has just finished a fifteen-year career. in Faroese D1. For my first friendly match against Klaksvik, in January 2008, I asked to go out after 15 minutes of play. I was so cold that I couldn’t feel my body, I was shocked. »
“The players spent the entire crossing vomiting”
Present only for eight months at Klaksvik, after ten seasons at Stabaek, Luc Kassi adds: “This climate does not encourage me to go out outside of training. I go to the gym and that’s it. There’s not much to do here and I’m bored because life is so quiet. We are a bit at the end of the world in the Faroe Islands.” Solby Christiansdottir recognizes “a climatic shock” for each visiting club: “When we get 15°C in the summer, it’s already a party”. The Faroe Islands, the last impregnable bastion against global warming? Listening to all our witnesses living there, this Klaksvik-Losc will nevertheless not be able to fight with THE absolute reference of traps in a spot with puffins and northern lights.
We will also have to hold on to one day overcome the scenario of the few hours preceding the preliminary round of the European Handball Cup (EHF) between IVB Vestmannaeyjar and Pays d’Aix UC, in October 2018. Five years later, the former captain of the “Experts” Jérôme Fernandez, then coach of PAUC, forgot nothing of this incredible trip to the Vestmann Islands, off the coast of Iceland: “The morning of the match, the Vestmannaeyjar club We were advised to take a bus to reach a port and take a ferry for a 40-minute crossing. But as the ocean was rough, we had to go to another port for a crossing which this time would last more than three hours. After five minutes, I saw around ten players have a livid face, and spent the entire crossing vomiting. »
Aix-en-Provence took revenge on the return
The Aix group arrived as best they could, 1h30 before the kick-off of this key match. And obviously with no player 100% at the end of this struggle. “I tried to coach to manage the gap, and not necessarily to win, given that there was a return match in France,” says Jérôme Fernandez. I had to make a lot of changes because the guys were so lacking in energy. » Finally beaten 24-23, the PAUC will easily make up for this delay on the return leg against this modest opponent (36-25), not without a well-felt revenge.
“The worst thing is that at the end of the match in Iceland, our manager learned that there was a plane that could take you back to Reykjavik in twenty minutes, which the leaders opposite had carefully avoided to tell us. So on the way back, we asked this team to land in Lyon and not in Marseille, then the bus driver was instructed to only take small roads, for a transport of five hours ultimately to Aix. laughs Jérôme Fernandez. So even Aix-en-Provence can feel like the “end of the world”.