The Greatest Story In European Football Nobody Is Talking About - KÍ Klaksvík - video Dailymotion

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00:00Ask any child growing up where they'd like to play football one day and you'll

00:07get largely the same responses. England, Spain, Italy, all of the trendy and

00:11prestigious locations of the game's global appeal. One place they're not

00:15likely to say is the Faroe Islands. An archipelago of 18 rocky islands in the

00:20North Atlantic Ocean sees an average of 300 days of rain per year and 13 degrees

00:25Celsius is regarded as a hot summer's day. The island's 50,000 inhabitants are

00:30comfortably outnumbered by its 80,000 sheep. But none of this has stopped the

00:35Faroe's adopting football as their national obsession. Statistically one of

00:39the most football-mad populations on earth, roughly 10% of the entire country plays

00:44regularly, it's about to embark upon the next stage of what's already been an

00:48incredible, implausible, arguably impossible European journey. This is the

00:53amazing story in European football that nobody's talking about. This is Kaoi

01:00Clackstrick. Hailing from a town of just 5,000 people in a valley perched between

01:04two fjords and with a stadium that holds only 2,500, Kaoi have become the first

01:09Faroeese team ever to qualify for a European group stage, thanks to not one

01:14but two shock victories. Historically a giant of the Faroe Islands Premier League,

01:20the 20-time champions became their country's first ever invincibles last

01:24year. In 27 matches they won 25 times, drew just twice and conceded only seven goals.

01:31But with their domestic season running from March to October they had to wait

01:35fully nine months for their crack at this season's Champions League. They'd lost

01:39narrowly to Norwegian's Bodo Glimt in the first qualifying round of last year's

01:43competition and after being given a COVID-enforced first round bye against

01:47Slovy and Bratislava were dumped out by young boys of Bern the year prior. In

01:51short they'd never technically won a Champions League tie so few gave Kaoi any

01:56chance when they prepared to face Hungary's French Varos in the first

02:00qualifying round this July. Yet after a tense 0-0 home leg they stunned their more

02:06illustrious opponents on away soil running out 3-0 victors. It was a result

02:11that was met with disbelief in Hungary and the Faroe Islands alike. A day later the

02:17squad received a hero's welcome when they arrived back in Klaksvik and a

02:21significant proportion of the town lined the streets. There were flares, there were

02:26fireworks, it was a huge huge deal. In the second round Kaoi took on Swedish

02:31champions BK Haken. Again they managed a goal destroy at home prompting their

02:35opponent's official social media account to declare that they would return to

02:39Sweden to win the tie. The second leg was a classic, a topsy-turvy match that ended

02:453-3 with Kaoi winning out on penalties. The celebrations among the sizeable

02:50travelling contingent were not just for another giant killing but the fact that by

02:55winning this tie they'd made history. Not only had they become the first Faroe

02:59side ever to reach the third qualifying round of the Champions League but they

03:03were now guaranteed to become the first team from the islands to play in some sort of

03:08European group stage. This is by far the best time to be a fan of Kaoi or a

03:14Faroe's football as a whole. Tormund de Danielsson, chairman of the club's

03:18Blue Wave fan club tells 442 in this month's issue. This European run has already

03:24been incredible. Even if Kaoi lost their next qualifying round of the Champions

03:28League against Norwegian title holders Molde, they'd then drop into the final

03:32qualifying round for the Europa League. If they lost that they'd still go directly

03:37into the group stage of the Europa Conference League. Now if that feels like

03:41weak criteria for an incredible European story, keep in mind the fact that the

03:45Faroe's club's players are all semi-professionals. They all hold down

03:50proper jobs elsewhere. Striker Arnie Friedrichsberg who downed French Varos

03:55with a brilliant brace runs a food import business by day. Two other players work

04:00for the local electricity company with Kaoi's social media posting pictures of them

04:04installing power lines the day after their historical European triumph.

04:09Kaoi astoundingly defeated Molde 2-1 in the first leg of their third qualifying

04:14round tie. By that stage of the competition though, UEFA staging regulations

04:18meant they could no longer even play at their home ground in Klaksvik. Instead they

04:22hosted the Norwegians at the Faroe's cosy but smart national stadium in Torshaan.

04:27Two islands further to the west accessible via sea tunnels, one of which even

04:31contains an underwater roundabout. You've seen this staging before of course. It was

04:36the subject of Richard Key's famous daft little ground silly game f**k off

04:40comment during Sky's coverage of the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Granted it wasn't the

04:46worst off-air incident that was leaked during his time at the broadcaster but

04:49it's certainly the one that set the biggest impact in the Faroe Islands. The

04:53return leg wasn't to give them the fairy tale outcome. They lost albeit bravely in

04:57Norway. But not before taking another Champions League tie to extra time before

05:02going out to a 112th minute winner. This set up a Europa League playoff against

05:07Sheriff Tarasbol. After a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Torshaan, Kaoi fans were

05:12advised not to travel to Tarasbol, the capital of the unrecognised state of

05:16Transnistria within Moldova due to tensions that have grown since Russia's

05:20invasion of Ukraine. Instead Kaoi fans gathered together in front of a big screen

05:25to watch their side play the second leg, which Sheriff narrowly won 2-1 thanks to

05:30a 76-minute goal from Armel Zahuri. Given that the Moldovan champions stunned

05:35Real Madrid at the Bernabeu just two seasons ago, there was no shame in this

05:39defeat and Kaoi knew a place in the conference league group stage was waiting

05:43for them in any case. When the draw was made on September the 1st they were placed

05:47into Group A alongside Lille, Slovan Bratislava and Olympia Ljubljana. They

05:52started the group in typical fashion taking a shock 1-0 lead against the

05:56Slovakian champions before former Manchester City winger Vladimir Weiss

06:00broke their hearts with a late winner. Regardless though with one of the

06:04trickier away ties now out of the way their hopes of progression remain high.

06:08Kaoi are already set to reap the financial rewards of this season's

06:13European exploits. Their earnings for their summer's work will be vast by Faroe

06:17standards and have opened a debate in the country about how they best spend their

06:21spoils. One area that may need to be addressed is that of their home stadium

06:25to allow them to play all of their future European games in Klachvik. It's

06:29also been suggested that the club may buy some of their semi-professional players

06:32out of their day jobs. It's a move that everyone agrees would smash a ceiling

06:37preventing further progress but which could lead to further imbalances in the

06:41domestic league where most other clubs are understandably miles away from being

06:45able to make players professional. Investing in their homegrown players and

06:49their new academy system which was set up two years ago could be a further boost to

06:53the Faroe Islands national team who are already creating their own shockwaves

06:57beating Turkey in the Nations League last year when they took an impressive eight

07:01points from six games. They'd of course previously created headlines during

07:04qualifying for Euro 2016 when they defeated 2004 champions Greece home and away.

07:10That loss to the Faroes at home saw Claudio Ranieri sacked fatefully leaving him free

07:15to take the Leicester City job. And while Kaoi Klachvik might not be on the verge of

07:20doing a Leicester themselves they've already been the shock story of European

07:24football this summer. It's taken a whole heap of courage and a talented squad but

07:29they've made history for Faroes football. The club are writing a story that

07:34will be told in Klachvik for generations and if they get their wish it's a

07:38journey that won't stop here. If you'd like to read more about the

07:42incredible story of Kaoi Klachvik you'll find a full feature on them in this

07:45month's issue of 442. Written by Paul Watson and including contributions from

07:49several people connected to the club it's available now from all good retailers.

The Greatest Story In European Football Nobody Is Talking About - KÍ Klaksvík

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