The is the national
Football team of
Faroe Islands and is controlled by the
Faroe Islands Football Association . It is one of the weakest members of
UEFA and has never advanced to the finals of any major international competition.
The Faroe Islands gained membership of
FIFA and
UEFA in
1988 . Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Faroe Islands are the only non-sovereign countries who are allowed to be members in UEFA due to historical rights.
Although the national team has been in existence since
1930 , neither FIFA nor the
Faroese FA considers matches before 1988 as official. Faroe Islands pulled one of the biggest upsets in footballing history, when they beat
Austria 1-0 in their first ever competitive international on
12 September ,
1990 . The game, a
Euro 92 qualifier, was played in
Landskrona ,
Sweden because there were no grass fields on the Islands. (Their only other point of the campaign was from a draw against
Northern Ireland .) During both the
Euro 2000 Qualifiers and
Euro 2004 Qualifiers , they also held
Scotland to a draw at home (they also drew with
Lithuania and
Bosnia in 2000, while the draw against the Scots was their only point of the 2004 campaign). However they were beaten 6-0 by Scotland in the
Euro 2008 Qualifiers . As of 2004, their only other wins in the qualification rounds for the European Championship were in the qualifying for the
1996 Tournament , both against fellow minnows
San Marino .
On June 2, 2007, in a Euro 2008 qualifier against
Italy , the Faroes surprisingly took the sluggish world champions to the limit after netting a 77th-minute goal - only their second score overall in qualifying - in a 2-1 loss.
The team also participates in the
FIFA World Cup qualifying since 1992 and the qualification rounds for the
1994 Finals , which they finished without scoring any points and having 1-38 goal difference from 10 matches. In the following World Cup qualifying, for the
1998 Finals , they improved their record with two victories against
Malta , beating them 2-1 in both matches. Their most successful World Cup qualifying so far was the one for the
2002 Finals , where they held
Slovenia to a 2-2 draw at home and beat
Luxembourg twice, 2-0 on road and 1-0 at home. The
2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying was, however, not really successful for them and they only scored one point from a 2-2 away draw against
Cyprus .
1.
Óli Johannesen
1.
Todi Jónsson (9)
2.
John Petersen (8)
2.
Rógvi Jacobsen (8)
2.
Uni Arge (8)
The following players have all been called up to the
Faroese squad for the
Italy and
Scotland matches on the 2nd and 6th June.
