Tuesday 28 June 2016

Icelandic Victory - The Scottish Connection


The most surprising team in the UEFA European Championship currently being played in France is Iceland. They are in the finals for the first time in their history. They qualified from the group stage with draws against Portugal and Hungary and a last minute victory over Austria. This is remarkable for a country of only 330,000 with no professional football league. In their first game of the knock-out stage they defeated England 2-1 to set up a quarterfinal match against the hosts, France. Another remarkable fact is that an estimated 8% of the Icelandic population travelled to France for the Championships.

So what's the Scottish connection?

Well the Icelandic fans have a distinctive synchronised chant. They clap & shout Hoo! at an increasingly rapid rate. Some ancient Viking war cry? - maybe not. It is thought that the chant was borrowed from the Scottish side Motherwell when Icelandic team Stjarnan met them in the qualifying rounds of the Europa League in 2014.



This commentator seems happy!

2 comments:

  1. Iceland Air took out a newspaper advert asking Scots (who didn't qualify for tournament) to give Iceland their support. Reckon more than a few were backing them against England :)

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  2. Well, we always support the underdog!

    ReplyDelete