Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag

(Redirected from KÍ Klaksvík)

Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag ("Klaksvík Sports Club"), commonly abbreviated to or KÍ Klaksvik, is a Faroese professional football organisation based in Klaksvík. The club was founded in 1904 and is one of the most successful Faroese football clubs, having won the Faroe Islands Premier League twenty-one times and the Faroe Islands Cup six times. The club wears blue and white and plays matches at the Við Djúpumýrar stadium.

Full nameKlaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag
Short name
Founded24 August 1904; 119 years ago (1904-08-24)
GroundVið Djúpumýrar
Capacity2,600 (1300 seated)
ChairmanTummas Lervig
ManagerHaakon Lunov[1]
LeagueFaroe Islands Premier League
2023Faroe Islands Premier League, 1st of 10 (champions)
WebsiteClub website
KÍ Klaksvík (in white) v.s FC Suðuroy (in light blue) in Effodeildin on 30 June 2012.

KÍ Klaksvik notably became the first Faroese football club to play in the group stage of a major UEFA-organised European competition, qualfiying for this phase in the 2023–24 edition of the UEFA Europa Conference League.

History

KÍ won the inaugural edition of Faroese top-tier football in 1942.[2] In 1992, KÍ Klaksvík participated for the first time on a European stage,[3] competing in the Champions League preliminary round against Skonto Riga of Latvia, where they lost 6–1 on aggregate.[4]

By winning the double in 1999, KÍ reached a total of 21 league titles, a record at the time.[5] KÍ didn't win the league title again until 2019, and although it held the honour of having won the most league titles since the 1950s, it was surpassed by HB in 2004.[2][5] Although the team signed former great Todi Jónsson and local Atli Danielsen in July 2009 for the remainder of the season, KÍ was relegated for the first time in the club's 105 year-long history at the time.[5] Despite a slow start, they managed to return to the top league for 2011, when they finished fifth under the guidance of manager Aleksandar Đorđević.

In 2012, KÍ did one better than the previous year, and finished in 4th position. The team was the most potent attacking side, scoring 59 goals in 27 matches; Páll Klettskarð scored 22 goals and was the joint top-scorer. In the buildup to the 2013 season, Atli Danielsen and Meinhardt Joensen were signed, helping KÍ to reach the semi-final of the cup. However, they finished the league season in a disappointing 8th place. Ndende Adama Guéye was signed after the season, and the team hired a new manager, Mikkjal Thomassen, who managed the team until 2022. The new manager implemented a new system, foreign to most of the players, and so KÍ experienced a difficult start to the season. Later in the first half of the season, the team had implemented the style, playing attractive, free-flowing attacking football, eventually finishing fifth. In 2016, they missed out on their first league title since 1999 by just one point to Víkingur Gøta, although they did win the Faroe Islands Cup.[6] The next year, they lost the title to the same team by an even closer margin, only having a slightly worse goal difference. While the next season was a disappointment, with the team only finishing fifth, the following years, starting with the 2019 season would prove remarkable ones.[6]

That year, KÍ not only won their first title in twenty years, but they managed to reach the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League for the first time, defeating Riteriai from Lithuania on away goals.[7] In 2020, KÍ went one better, becoming the first Faroese team to qualify for the Europa League playoff round by beating Dinamo Tbilisi 6–1 in the third qualifying round, which KÍ had reached for the first time.[8] This shock result, against a much larger and more prestigious European club, was watched by seventy percent of the Klaksvik population, and set up what was labelled 'the biggest game in their history' against the Irish club Dundalk F.C, which they lost 3–1.[6]

In 2023, KÍ advanced to the second qualifying round of the Champions League for only the second time in their history by defeating 34-time Hungarian champions Ferencváros 3–0 on aggregate, consisting of a 0–0 draw in Klaksvik and a 3–0 win in Budapest, rivalling their win over Dinamo Tbilisi as the biggest result in the history of the club. The Faroese club faced Swedish side BK Häcken in the second qualifying round, beating them 4–3 on penalties after drawing 3–3 on aggregate. This historic result meant that KÍ became the first ever Faroese side to reach the third qualifying round of the Champions League. This result guaranteed the club's continental football path/route until at least December 2023. They will also be the first ever Faroese side to play in the group stages of a European competition.[9] Klaksvik played Norwegian club Molde in the third qualifying round, defeating them with a scoreline of 2–1 in the home leg; however, this was overturned in the away leg with a 2–0 defeat in extra time. During the run, striker Árni Frederiksberg scored 6 goals.[10]Klaksvik then played the Moldovan club Sheriff Tiraspol in the Europa League play-off round, tying the home game 1–1 before losing 1–2 in the away match. The Faroese team got drawn into Group A of the Europa Conference League 2023-24 season, along with Lille, Slovan Bratislava and Olimpija Ljubljana. In their first game, they lost 2–1 to Slovan Bratislava, with Deni Pavlovic becoming KI's inaugural scorer in the group stages.They made history on October 5 by drawing 0–0 with Lille, becoming the first Faroese team to score a point in the group stages of a European competition, and on October 26, when they won against Olimpija Ljubljana 3–0, they became the first team from the Faroe Islands to win a game in the group stages of a European competition. After the season, manager Magne Hoseth left to manage Danish Superliga side Lyngby Boldklub,[11] and the club hired Haakon Lunov to replace him.

Stadium

KÍ Klaksvík plays its games in Við Djúpumýrar, a stadium with a seating capacity of 530 (2600 with standing places).[12] For the team's 2020 European qualification, the Tórsvøllur stadium, which normally hosts the national team was used, since the Við Djúpumýrar stadium did not meet UEFA requirements for the third qualifying round and above.[6]

Current squad

As of 27 February 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.Pos. NationPlayer
19MF  FRODávid Andreasen
20DF  FROBørge Petersen
21FW  FROPætur Petersen
22DF  FROOdmar Færø
23MF  FROHeini Vatnsdal
24FW  FROSilas Gaard
25MF  FROÓli Poulsen
26MF  FROHallur Hansson
27DF  GHALatif Ahmed
28DF  FROSølvi Johannessen
29DF  FROJákup Norðoy Vilhelmsen
30FW  FROJóhan Josephsen
32MF  DENClaes Kronberg
96GK  DENMark Jensen

Notable former players

Manni Waag Högnesen and Petur Simonsen. 1989= Managers ==

Honours

European record

Overview

CompetitionMatchesWDLGFGA
UEFA Champions League134361622
UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League2246122645
UEFA Europa Conference League124261519
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup210136
TOTAL491311256092

Matches

Notes
  • PR: Preliminary round
  • QR: Qualifying round
  • 1QR: First qualifying round
  • 2QR: Second qualifying round
  • 3QR: Third qualifying round
  • PO: Playoff round
SeasonCompetitionRoundClubHomeAwayAggregate
1992–93UEFA Champions LeaguePR Skonto1–30–31–6
1995–96UEFA Cup Winners' CupQR Maccabi Haifa3–20–43–6
1997–98UEFA Cup1QR Újpest2–30–62–9
1999–2000UEFA CupQR Grazer AK0–50–40–9
2000–01UEFA Champions League1QR Crvena Zvezda0–30–20–5
2002–03UEFA CupQR Újpest2–20–12–3
2003–04UEFA CupQR Molde0–20–40–6
2017–18UEFA Europa League1QR AIK0–00–50–5
2018–19UEFA Europa LeaguePR Birkirkara2–11–13–2
1QR Žalgiris1–21–12–3
2019–20UEFA Europa LeaguePR Tre Fiori5–14–09–1
1QR Riteriai0–01–11–1 (a)
2QR Luzern0–10–10–2
2020–21UEFA Champions League1QR Slovan Bratislava3–0
(awd.)
2QR Young Boys1–3
UEFA Europa League3QR Dinamo Tbilisi6−1
PO Dundalk1–3
2021–22UEFA Europa Conference League1QR RFS2–4 (a.e.t.)3−25–6
2022–23UEFA Champions League1QR Bodø/Glimt3–10–33–4
UEFA Europa Conference League2QR Sutjeska Nikšić1–00–01–0
3QR Ballkani2–1 (a.e.t.)2–34–4 (3–4 p)
2023–24UEFA Champions League1QR Ferencváros0–03–03–0
2QR BK Häcken0–03–3 (a.e.t.)3–3 (4–3 p)
3QR Molde2–10–2 (a.e.t.)2–3
UEFA Europa LeaguePO Sheriff Tiraspol1–11–22–3
UEFA Europa Conference LeagueGS Lille0–00–34th
Slovan Bratislava1–21–2
Olimpija Ljubljana3–00–2
2024–25UEFA Champions League1QR

See also

References

External links