World Footy News

In the second of our series of articles looking at the preparation and prospects of the various nations competing at this year’s Axios Euro Cup in Bordeaux, we look at the story of the Iceland Ravens. Solvi Fannar, General Manager of AFL Iceland, gives us his insights.

The Journey:

“In September 2012 [we] went with the rest of the boys in the national team to Edinburgh for the Euro Cup. “As for the team we will almost certainly have for this year’s Euro Cup, we will also have a couple of the girls join us, so there will likely be some Icelandic players in the Crusaders squad.”

The Preparation:

“This year we've been training since January, and I've been going to a local university to have [offer] introductory lessons in their gym classes. Now [almost a year later] our squad has grown significantly. ”

“Over the past twelve months, we've managed to build a female squad here in Iceland, but as most of them are under 18, only one of them will be joining us in France. Our aim is to have a full female squad in contention by 2015. Over the next twelve months we will be looking into the possibility of starting a youth club.”

The Squad:

“I am extremely proud to say that there are three players from the small club in Akureyri joining the squad going to France, one of whom is female. The amount of progress we've made in a relatively short time is magnificent. I was pleasantly surprised by the interest we got for a female squad this spring, and we'll be building on that for the future.”

The full list of players was not available at the time of writing, but Solvi has assured us that we will be the first to know. The selection of Leifur Bjarnason in last year’s All-Tournament Team certainly showed that the Icelandic playing group can produce high quality. The Goal: “This year we'll be sure to do a lot better. We aim do better this year.”

The Final Word:

“I feel like we disappointed ourselves last year, even though we had a lot of players with little to no experience. We could have done a lot better. Two of the games we lost were due to poor finishing of our chances.”

After two relatively close losses in the pool games to Wales and Italy at last year’s Euro Cup, they followed this with a win against the Czech team in their semi-final for the Euro Plate. Their loss to Norway in the Plate final gave them an overall 14th place, and certainly the motivation to build on last year’s successes. A year of preparation stands them in good stead. They have come a long way since their Euro Cup debut in Croatia in 2010.