I am not a liar to say I follow Asian football much. I follow the qualifiers, watch most TM matches, and try to watch as many Asian Cup games (of other teams) as possible, and the qualifiers of other teams in TM matches. Having said that, I have an unhealthy obsession with European football, especially international and I follow every single qualifier very close and for years have done so.
I used to remember there was an island with population of 300,000 who used to defend with 10 men behind the ball and hoof the ball to Eidur Gudjansson in hope of some magic. They'd almost always crash out with 4/6 points they'd get from a shit team like San Marino and such and this was a vicious loop in their football with bare exceptions (Like the 2004 qualifying campaign in which they almost made the play offs). Their club teams would barely produce any thing in Europe and would get mauled by Estonian/Kazakhstan/Moldovan teams. Their players? what players? it's a population of 300,000 and Handball was the national sport. There weren't even many playable pitches in Iceland during the cold winter.
Last year this time, I went to watch Iceland play Croatia with Icelandic Toronto community and that's how far they had come. Many dismissed it because they said it was an easy group, and they got lucky. They narrowly lost to Croatia and missed out on ticket to Brazil. Today, they are topping the group A of Euro qualifiers having won 3 out of 3, 8 goals scored and 0 conceded and have beaten Turkey and Netherlands.
During the Euro 2008 qualifiers, Iceland lost 4-0 to Latvia in Riga, 3 days ago they played in the exact same venue and Iceland won 3-0.
So what happened? How come a nation which has less population than Luxambourg who nearly announced national bankruptcy in 2008 grow in football ? What is behind their progress and they'll be cracking FIFA's top 30 list in the new rankings after today's win (And before someone says it doesn't matter, IT DOES. In July, FIFA will draw groups for WC2018 qualifiers and seeding is determined based on FIFA rankings).
This process started in early 2000s. and is reaping awards NOW..and even if you look at their team, it's a very young core. So here is how a proper FA managed to produce the most over-achieving footballing nation in the world at the moment (based on population) .
STEP 1) INCOMPETENT HEAD OF FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION WAS REPLACED
STEP 2) COACHES ACTUALLY ATTEND CLASSES BEFORE MANAGING PLAYERS
Even youth coaches nowadays have to have at least UEFA B license to be able to operate in Iceland. They focused on first sending their coaches abroad to obtain degrees, attend practices and seminars of more developed footballing nations, and put a lot of emphasis on coaching. They even imported German coaches for the youth team (Iceland first made an impact in European football 4-5 years ago in u-21 tournaments and now most of those guys are doing the same for the main NT).
in 2010 when 630 people attended coaching courses in the country. 0,2% of the ENTIRE population
STEP 3) CHANGE OF STRUCTURE IN CLUBS AND LEAGUE
the KSI (Iceland's IFF) made mandatory changes to structure of management for all Icelandic clubs in all divisions and put in some strict rules about how qualified coaches of teams should be. As a result of those changes, this year an Icelandic club Stjarnan (With stadium capacity of 1000) made it to the play-off round of the Europa League vs. Intermilan after they had beaten clubs from Wales, Motherwell of Scotland, and Lech Poznan of Poland all over 2 legs. Here are the required qualifications imposed:
First team:
Head coach: At least a UEFA A degree.
Assistant coach: At least a UEFA B degree.
Youth teams:
Head of youth coaching/youth developement: At least a UEFA A degree.
Youth team coaches:
-From 12 years and up: At least a UEFA B degree.
-From 11 years and down: At least finished the two first courses of UEFA B. 2
STEP 4) IMPROVING FACILITIEShttp://sportbloggid.net/?p=613 and my interactions with a few Icelanders I met in Reykjavik and Selfoss in May when we discussed football.
I used to remember there was an island with population of 300,000 who used to defend with 10 men behind the ball and hoof the ball to Eidur Gudjansson in hope of some magic. They'd almost always crash out with 4/6 points they'd get from a shit team like San Marino and such and this was a vicious loop in their football with bare exceptions (Like the 2004 qualifying campaign in which they almost made the play offs). Their club teams would barely produce any thing in Europe and would get mauled by Estonian/Kazakhstan/Moldovan teams. Their players? what players? it's a population of 300,000 and Handball was the national sport. There weren't even many playable pitches in Iceland during the cold winter.
Last year this time, I went to watch Iceland play Croatia with Icelandic Toronto community and that's how far they had come. Many dismissed it because they said it was an easy group, and they got lucky. They narrowly lost to Croatia and missed out on ticket to Brazil. Today, they are topping the group A of Euro qualifiers having won 3 out of 3, 8 goals scored and 0 conceded and have beaten Turkey and Netherlands.
During the Euro 2008 qualifiers, Iceland lost 4-0 to Latvia in Riga, 3 days ago they played in the exact same venue and Iceland won 3-0.
So what happened? How come a nation which has less population than Luxambourg who nearly announced national bankruptcy in 2008 grow in football ? What is behind their progress and they'll be cracking FIFA's top 30 list in the new rankings after today's win (And before someone says it doesn't matter, IT DOES. In July, FIFA will draw groups for WC2018 qualifiers and seeding is determined based on FIFA rankings).
This process started in early 2000s. and is reaping awards NOW..and even if you look at their team, it's a very young core. So here is how a proper FA managed to produce the most over-achieving footballing nation in the world at the moment (based on population) .
STEP 1) INCOMPETENT HEAD OF FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION WAS REPLACED
STEP 2) COACHES ACTUALLY ATTEND CLASSES BEFORE MANAGING PLAYERS
Even youth coaches nowadays have to have at least UEFA B license to be able to operate in Iceland. They focused on first sending their coaches abroad to obtain degrees, attend practices and seminars of more developed footballing nations, and put a lot of emphasis on coaching. They even imported German coaches for the youth team (Iceland first made an impact in European football 4-5 years ago in u-21 tournaments and now most of those guys are doing the same for the main NT).
in 2010 when 630 people attended coaching courses in the country. 0,2% of the ENTIRE population
STEP 3) CHANGE OF STRUCTURE IN CLUBS AND LEAGUE
the KSI (Iceland's IFF) made mandatory changes to structure of management for all Icelandic clubs in all divisions and put in some strict rules about how qualified coaches of teams should be. As a result of those changes, this year an Icelandic club Stjarnan (With stadium capacity of 1000) made it to the play-off round of the Europa League vs. Intermilan after they had beaten clubs from Wales, Motherwell of Scotland, and Lech Poznan of Poland all over 2 legs. Here are the required qualifications imposed:
First team:
Head coach: At least a UEFA A degree.
Assistant coach: At least a UEFA B degree.
Youth teams:
Head of youth coaching/youth developement: At least a UEFA A degree.
Youth team coaches:
-From 12 years and up: At least a UEFA B degree.
-From 11 years and down: At least finished the two first courses of UEFA B. 2
STEP 4) IMPROVING FACILITIEShttp://sportbloggid.net/?p=613 and my interactions with a few Icelanders I met in Reykjavik and Selfoss in May when we discussed football.
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