January 31, 2006: January Round-up:

Cup draw, Transfers, Signings, Retirements and other News

The silly season is now drawing to a close and the start of the 2006 league and cup tournaments are approaching. The league –the Formula Division (Formula is the sponsor) - will start on April 4 and the last round (27) will be played on October 21, 2006. The Cup competition will start on March 18. The draw for the Cup has been made and looks like this:

Round 1 - March 18, 2006:
TB Tvørouri vs. Royn Hvalba
Fram Tórshavn vs. NÍF Nólsoy
FS Vágar 2004 vs. AB Argir
SÍ Sørvágur vs. MB Miðvágur

Round 2 - March 23, 2006:
HB Tórshavn vs. VB/Sumba
GÍ Gøta vs. LÍF Leirvík
EB/Streymur vs. B71 Sandoy
B36 Tórshavn vs. TB Tvøroyri or Royn Hvalba
KÍ Klaksvík vs. Fram Tórshavn or NÍF Nólsoy
SÍ Sørvágur or. MB Miðvágur vs. NSÍ Runavík
Skála vs. FS Vágar 2004 or AB Argir
B68 Toftir vs. ÍF Fuglafjørður

Quarterfinals - May 25, 2006

Semifinals:
Leg 1 - July 5, 2006 Leg 2 - July 23, 2006

Final: July 29, 2006 (the National Day)

Note:
The highest division is now called only the Formula Division (not 1st division), and what was before called 2nd division is now called 1st division, and former 3rd division is now called 2nd division and former 4th division is now called 3rd division. (But to call the second best division for first division is outright stupid, if you ask me, but I'm afraid that I don't make those decisions :-)

Transfers, Signings
and Retirements

HB Tórshavn's defense has been weakened by the retirement of Hans á Lag, who had to call it a day because of a recurring knee injury. Hans á Lag has played 181 games for HB and scored 32 goals. Those have contributed to 4 league titles and 3 cup titles.

Pól Thorsteinsson, captain of title-winners 2005, B36 Tórshavn, has signed for NSÍ Runavík. He also played for NSÌ in 2002, when they won the Cup competition and were runners up in the league. In 2003 (playing for B36), he won the Player of the Year award. He retired from the national team in 2004, after 37 caps.

GÍ Gøta are desperately looking to strengthen their squad, after their almost disastrous campaign last season (although they won the cup competition), when they just avoided relegation by a last gasp equalizer in injury-time in the final match of the season against Skála. All of their three Polish players have now left the club and to make up for that, GÍ are trying out Danish players Zakehi Franck Bodjo and Hamed Hervé Touré. GÍ are also looking for a goalkeeper and are trying out an English goalkeeper, Craig Johnson, from Birmingham. Earlier, GÍ have signed defenders Paul Ennigarð, who played with ÍF Fuglafjørður last season and Niclas Niclassen from KÍ Klaksvík.

Skála has lost influential midfielder, Nenad Stankovic from Serbia, due to the reason that he has not been given a renewal to his work permit. That will seriously weaken Skála's midfield, but Skála are working on a replacement…

NSÍ Runavík has made a deal with Everton to borrow Jóhann Troest Davidsen for the forthcoming season, although they haven't revealed for how long the deal lasts. Jóhan has just turned 18 and is no longer under a trainee-contract but a full senior contract with Everton. But for a while, he will be playing with NSÍ.

VB Vágur will in the future be called VB/Sumba, as the two clubs have merged. Actually, the merge was made before last season, but as VB Vágur celebrated its centennial, they didn't use the name of Sumba. VB/Sumba will probably have a hard time in the Formula League this season, as they have lost some key players: Mortan úr Hørg and Milan Kuljic have both gone to HB Tórshavn and long serving goalkeeper Bjarni Johansen has retired after 19 years between the posts. And since 1994 he has played every minute of every game for VB!! – That's 225 league games in succession. Beat that, Frank Lampard, you only played 164:-)

ÍF Fuglafjørður is trying out Gábor Tamási from Hungary. Tamási is mostly playing in the attack but can also play in midfield. Tamási has 14 days to convince ÍF to sign him.

Return to SoccerAndEquipment.com to find out if Tamási made it or not and get the latest news on soccer in the Faroe Islands.

Next update, probably late February.

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