Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag
Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag (Faroese for Sports Club of Klaksvík), commonly known as KÍ, is a Faroese professional football club 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 18 times and the Faroe Islands Cup 6 times. The club wears blue and white and plays matches at the Við Djúpumýrar stadium.
Full name | Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag | ||
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Short name | KÍ | ||
Founded | 24 August 1904 | ||
Ground | Við Djúpumýrar | ||
Capacity | 2,600 (530 seated) | ||
Chairman | Tummas Lervig | ||
Manager | Mikkjal Thomassen[1] | ||
League | Betri deildin | ||
2020 | Betri deildin, 3rd | ||
Website | Club website | ||
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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 17 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 has managed the team until the present.[6] 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]
Stadium
KÍ Klaksvík plays its games in Við Djúpumýrar, a stadium with a capacity of 530 (2600 with standing places).[9] 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 3 January 2021
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Notable former players
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Managers
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Honours
- Faroe Islands Super Cup
- Winners (1): 2020
- Runners-up (1): 2017
European record
Overview
Competition | Matches | W | D | L | GF | GA |
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UEFA Champions League | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 14 |
UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League | 21 | 4 | 6 | 11 | 25 | 42 |
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
TOTAL | 29 | 6 | 6 | 17 | 33 | 62 |
Matches
Season | Competition | Round | Club | Home | Away | Aggregate |
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1992–93 | UEFA Champions League | PR | Skonto | 1–3 | 0–3 | 1–6 |
1995–96 | UEFA Cup Winners' Cup | QR | Maccabi Haifa | 3–2 | 0–4 | 3–6 |
1997–98 | UEFA Cup | 1QR | Újpest | 2–3 | 0–6 | 2–9 |
1999–2000 | UEFA Cup | QR | Grazer AK | 0–5 | 0–4 | 0–9 |
2000–01 | UEFA Champions League | 1QR | Crvena Zvezda | 0–3 | 0–2 | 0–5 |
2002–03 | UEFA Cup | QR | Újpest | 2–2 | 0–1 | 2–3 |
2003–04 | UEFA Cup | QR | Molde | 0–2 | 0–4 | 0–6 |
2017–18 | UEFA Europa League | 1QR | AIK | 0–0 | 0–5 | 0–5 |
2018–19 | UEFA Europa League | PR | Birkirkara | 2–1 | 1–1 | 3–2 |
1QR | Žalgiris | 1–2 | 1–1 | 2–3 | ||
2019–20 | UEFA Europa League | PR | Tre Fiori | 5–1 | 4–0 | 9–1 |
1QR | Riteriai | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 (a) | ||
2QR | Luzern | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 | ||
2020–21 | UEFA Champions League | 1QR | Slovan Bratislava | 3–0 (awd.) |
N/A | N/A |
2QR | Young Boys | N/A | 1–3 | N/A | ||
UEFA Europa League | 3QR | Dinamo Tbilisi | 6−1 | N/A | N/A | |
PO | Dundalk | N/A | 1–3 | N/A | ||
2021–22 | UEFA Europa Conference League | 1QR |
- Notes
- PR: Preliminary round
- QR: Qualifying round
- 1QR: First qualifying round
- 2QR: Second qualifying round
- 3QR: Third qualifying round
- PO: Playoff round
References
- "portal.fo". Archived from the original on June 18, 2013. Retrieved June 12, 2013.
- Joensen, Hans Pauli (April 7, 2011). "Survival the key as KÍ resume Faroese fight". UEFA. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
- Johannesen, Páll Holm (August 14, 2002). "Olgar Danielsen framvegis besti málskjútti" (in Faroese). in.fo. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
- "Champions' Cup 1992–93". RSSSF. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
- Joensen, Hans Pauli (July 9, 2012). "KÍ faring well again in Faroe Islands". UEFA. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
- Vrablik, Lucas (September 30, 2020). "Klasvik, the Faroe Islands team on brink of Europa League".
- "KÍ advance to second round of Europa League". flashscores.com. July 16, 2019.
- "KÍ 6–1 Dinamo Tbilisi". UEFA. September 24, 2020.
- "Cup final moved again – date and venue!". soccerandequipment.com. May 28, 2010. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
- "Tony Paris vs. KÍ Klaksvík reaches verdict". Soccer and Equipment. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to KÍ Klaksvík. |