We are now back to winter-mode with monthly updates (However, at the end of the week we'll have an "after-math" piece wrapping up the 2008 season). This month's bulletin is mostly about transfers. But first some news regarding the national team:
The World Cup qualifier against France in August 2009 has been brought forward by a week and will therefore be played on August 12 instead of August 19.
The Faroe Islands play 3 qualifiers at home next year and all of them will be played in Tórsvøllur. The last qualifier that was played in Svangaskarð, Toftir, was against Scotland on June 6, 2007.
The 2009 home matches are as follows: June 10, 2009: Faroe Islands - Serbia August 12, 2009: Faroe Islands - France September 9, 2009: Faroe Islands - Lithuania
That means that no qualifier will then have been played in Svangaskarð for more than 2 years.
The small club Fram from Tórshavn who has just been promoted to the first division after emphatically winning the 2nd division has decided to change their name to FC Hoyvík.
Hoyvík, which was once a small village just outside Tórshavn has now grown together with the capital and is also a part of Tórshavn’s municipality. In fact, Hoyvík is the fastest growing area in the Faroes and in a few years time, 6,000 people will be living in the area, which then will make it the second biggest town in the Faroe Islands. Klaksvík, which currently is the second biggest town, has a population of around 5,000.
With a catchments area of 6,000, FC Hoyvík should have some great potential…
Fram was originally founded in 1975 and played on season in the top division in 1977.
The Football Association has decided that the transfer window will be open from January 2nd, 2009 to February 19th 2009.
It will then re-open on June 29th and close on July 27th 2009.
And speaking of transfers, belowe are the transfers that have taken place since the season ended (although the transfer window isn´t supposed to open until January...hmmm):
AB Argir are back in the Formula Division after taken the runners up position in the first division – a fine present for the club which turned 35 in August . AB played in the top flight for the first time in 2007, but it was a short visit as they were relegated at the end of the season.
Allan Mørkøre, who has been player-coach, continues as coach at AB next season also, but not alone, as he will be joined by John Petersen who has been coaching Skála for the last couple of seasons. The main reason for this is that Mørkøre doesn’t have the necessary papers to be coach in the Formula Division, so they have hired Petersen to fix that problem.
But it is a bit ironic, it must be said, that the person who has coached the team that has won promotion (Allan Mørkøre) is not allowed to continues as (formal (head)) coach, but at person who coached the team that was relegated from the Formula Division (John Petersen with Skála), he is allowed to be coach… (This is not a criticism of Petersen; just the irony in the situation, and the emphasis the football authorities put on a piece of paper nowadays).
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AB have signed 22-year-old Argentinean defender Leonel Peña who comes from 1st Division club Arsenal de Sarandi in Argentina, where Peña has been playing for the second team. You can see the player in action in the video clip below:
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20-year-old striker Tróndur Sigurðsson, AB’s top scorer this season, is leaving the club after just one season to re-join HB, where he originally came from.
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B36 Tórshavn:
Serbian central defender Dimitrije Jankovic has left the country and has joined FK Sevojno in his home country. He was among the very best players in the Formula Division. He has previously played for VB/Sumba, in 2006 and 2007.
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B71 Sandoy:
As B71 were relegated, B71 will not be are regular feature in future round-ups, so this is your chance to say goodbye to B71.
Coach Eli Hentze will not continue, he announced before the season had ended. He will be replaced by Frankie Jensen who this season has been coaching HB’s 1st division team, and was also assistant for their 1st team.
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Only 1 of B71’s 4 Brazilian players will continue for B71 next season. He is forward Clayton Soares. The other 3, his brother Wellington Soares, Flavio and Fabio have returned to Brazil and will not return.
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As B71 are relegated, their players are easier to tempt than they otherwise might have been.
Goalkeeper Símun Rógvi Hansen has joined by HB and Gudmund Nielsen, who scored 6 goals for B71 this season has been persuaded to join champions EB/Streymur.
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B68 Toftir:
Two of B68’s four Senegalese players will not be part of B68 next season. Those are Badara and Landing. The other two, Ndende and Keita will continue, however.
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B68 has signed 2 players from relegated Skála; striker Bogi Gregersen and Poul M. Poulsen, who has been two seasons at Skála where he mostly has played in central defence. He is originally from VB/Sumba.
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One of B68’s best players this season, midfielder Jann Ingi Petersen has decided to join NSÍ Runavík.
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EB/Streymur
EB/Streymur are holding on to their most important players and have also signed a few new.
Gudmund Nilesen comes from B71. He’s known for his solo raids where he can run straight through (and from) a bunch of defenders.
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From Skála EB/Streymur have signed Pauli G. Hansen and Pætur Dam Jacobsen.
Dam Jacobsen earned his first cap against Rumania in September. He’s a versatile player who can play in several positions. Right back is most likely, but he can also be used in midfield.
Pauli Hansen is a central midfielder and was part of the national team a couple of years ago.
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It’s not clear whether midfielder Mikkjal Thomassen will continue playing or not. Also defender and captain Egil á Bø is undecided. He remarkably got his debut for the Faroe Islands last summer aged 34!
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Hanus Eliasen (midfield/forward) and Høgni Zachariasen (midfield) are both leaving to join ÍF Fuglafjørður, where they both come from originally. Eliasen has been 2 seasons at EB/Streymur while Zachariassen has only been there for a year. He was unlucky breaking his leg early in the season, but returned towards the end and scored a couple of important goals.
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Hungarian forward Marcell Szaboles Balog who impressed in pre-season didn’t have many appearances during the league and has left the country to join Kecskemeti Te KFT in his native country, who interestingly are coached by Serbian Tomislav Sivic. Sivic was coach for VB, KÍ and B36 in the nineties. In 1997 Sivic guided B36 to their first league title since 1962.
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Danish player Anders Post Jacobsen, who arrived halfway through the season, has also left. The same has defender (sometimes midfielder) Fróði Clementsen.
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HB Tórshavn
Update, December 01: In a press release today, HB have announced that Rúni Nolsøe is no longer coach for HB. This because the parties couldn’t agree on how the co-operation should progress, they worded the note.
Nolsøe was appointed coach for HB ahead of the just finished season. After winning their first 3 matches, HB only earned 17 points in their next 14 matches which resulted in a 4th position in the table – a staggering 12 points adrift of leaders EB/Streymur.
HB’s board wasn’t satisfied with the situation and decided to add a new coach (Sámal Erik Hentze) to work together with Nolsøe, on equal terms. As Nolsøe now has quit (or how you word it), Sámal Erik Hentze continues on his own as head coach.
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HB has been relatively quiet so far.
Earlier this month they announced that they had signed B71’s goalkeeper Símun Rógvi Hansen. Hansen is a young talented goalkeeper, but it won’t come as a surprise if this season’s goalkeeper Marcin Dawid from Poland will be preferred as 1st choice. Símun Rógvi Hansen in not quite unknown in HB however, as he was their goalkeeper at the junior ranks a few years ago.
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Midfielder Bjarni Jørgensen has returned to HB after he left to join AB Argir in 2004. These years he has also played for Skála and this season for KÍ Klaksvík.
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From AB Argir comes 20-year-old Tróndur Sigurðsson, who rejoins HB after an extremely successful year in the first division with AB where he has been scoring buckets of goals for AB. It will be interesting to see if he’s ready to excel at the highest level too.
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ÍF Fuglafjørður
One of ÍF’s most important players, defender Bartal Eliasen, is mowing to Denmark and will therefore not be part of ÍF next season. He scored 9 league goals in 2008.
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Another important player this season, midfielder Høgni Madsen, who got his first cap for the Faroe Islands this summer has decided to leave ÍF and has signed for NSÍ Runavík.
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From EB/Streymur, ÍF will get two of their original players back, Høgni Zachariassen and Hanus Eliasen ,who have been one and two seasons away, respectively. Zachariasen is a midfielder while Eliasen is a combination of midfielder/forwarder.
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ÍF had 5 foreign players in 2008 and at least 4 of them will continue next season; Hungarians, goalkeeper Andras Gango and outfield player Balazs Zinko, and Serbian players Nenad Saric and Alexandar Jovevic. On the other hand, it does not look like the third Serb Sasa Jovanovic continues.
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Coach for ÍF next season will be Jón Simonsen.
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KÍ Klaksvík
KÍ have named goalkeeper Jákup Mikkelsen and former KÍ player Aleksandar Djordjevic as coaches for next season. Mikkelsen will still continue as a goalkeeper.
Djordjevic is a Serb who has lived in Klaksvík since 2001 when he came to play for KÍ. He retired several years ago. He has been capped 1 time for Yugoslavia's A team and several times for Yougoslavia's B-team.
KÍ and the coaches have said that they will be counting on Faroese players next season and not foreigners, and give youngsters the opportunity to show their worth.
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Brazilian forward Rodrigo Silva who scored 11 goals this season has gone to Ukraine where he has signed a 3-year contract with top division side FC Karpaty Lviv.
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It’s not quite clear what the faith is for Serbian defender Milic Curcic, but most likely he’ll not be playing for KÍ.
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Also Bjarni Jørgensen has left KÍ and has returned to HB, his childhood club.
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From Skála KÍ have signed 18-year-old midfielder Erland Berg Danielsen.
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NSÍ Runavík
Johan Nielsen, the Faroe Island’s most winning coach is not continuing at NSÍ. He will be replaced by Pauli Poulsen, who has been assistant coach und Nielsen for the last two seasons at NSÍ, just as he was for 4 years at Skála before. New assistant coach will be Anton Skoradal, who in 2008 was head coach for Víkingur.
Johan Nielsen is currently not attached to any club. He’s not quite young anymore as he is born in 1940. Some smart thinking people might want to link him to the vacant job as coach for the national team, but that’s probably not going to happen as he has stated time after time that he has no interest in that job.
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NSÍ have not extended the contract with 3 of the new Serbian players they signed before this season, as they failed to live up to expectations. Those are forward Dejan Stojkovic, midfielder Milan Pejcic and defender (at least at NSÍ) Aco Pandorovic. However, Nenad Stankovic, stays put. So does Hungarian forward Karoly Potemkin who joined NSÍ midway in the season from B36.
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It’s not quite clear yet who will be in goal for NSÍ next season, as there is a doubt whether Tórður Thomsen, this season’s goalkeeper, will move to Denmark or not.
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But NSÍ seem to have strengthened their midfield with Jann Ingi Petersen from B68 and Høgni Madsen from ÍF who both were part of the national team this year. Petersen was recalled after more that 2 years absence while Madsen got his debut for the Faroe Islands against Portugal in August.
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Forward Jónhard Frederiksberg, who played for NSÍ in 2007 and half of the 2008 season before he returned to Skála, has rejoined NSÍ.
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Skála
Since it became clear that Skála were relegated, they have been vacuumed for players, and it could therefore take some time until we see them back in the Formula Division.
So here is your opportunity to wave goodbye to Skála.
The financial situation has been difficult at Skála and they have decided that they aren’t going to spend money on players to make a speedy return to the top flight. They just cannot afford it.
These are the Skála-players who so far have joined a new club:
Poul N. Poulsen, defender, to B68 Erland B. Danielsen, midfielder, to KÍ Jónhard Frederiksberg, forward, to NSÍ Bogi Gregersen, forward, to B68 Pauli G. Hansen, midfielder, to EB/Streymur Pætur Dam Jacobsen, midfielder/defender, to EB/Streymur
Nigerian forward Óbi will not be part of Skála either, while it's a bit unclear if Serbian goalkeeper Predrag Markovic continues or not.
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Update, December 01: Yesterday we forgot to mention that the two rumaninans Alin Balutoiu og Veleriu Mielea who arrived ahead of the sason will not conttinue. They have both joined AFC Petrom Chimia Craiova in Rumanina.
Alin Balutoiu was intended to be an attacking force, but he never convinced and was spending more and more time on the bench as the season progressed. The last time he was in the starting line-up was in round 12 when Skála lost 2-1 against HB. He managed to score one goal for Skála – a direct free kick against Víkingur in round 7.
The other Rumanina, Veleriu Mielea, played in central defence, but eventually Skála found out that neither he had the qualities that are expected from a foreigner, and his last appearance for Skála was in the 6-1 routing against HB in round 19.
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And finally, Skála's coach John Petersen has moved to AB Argir, where he will be pairing up with current AB coach, Allan Mørkøre.
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07 Vestur
So far 07 Vestur, who won the first division, haven’t revealed if they are going to strengthen the team with new players or not.
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Remarkably, Vestur’s top scorer this season was 40-year-old Jens Erik Rasmussen. Rasmussen spent the time on the bench when the Faroe Islands beat Austria in 1990. – That’s a millennium ago…
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Coach, 51-year-old Piotr Krakowsky, who came to 07 Vestur this season will continue for next season also. Krakowsky was coach at EB/Streymur for several years, but was replaced by Sigfríður Clementsen this season. Krakowsky has been in the Faroe Islands since 1989 when he played for B71 and was one of the main reasons why B71 won the title that year. In 2001, he was coach at B36 who won the title.
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Víkingur
Víkingur have named no other than former coach for the national team Jógvan Martin Olsen as their new coach for the next two seasons. Olsen just recently retired prematurely as coach for the Faroe Islands.
Víkingur’s current coach has moved on to NSÍ, where he will be assistant coach.
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Víkingur have also signed midfielder Súni Olsen, who returned home in the summer to join B36 after 3 years in Danish football where he played for AaB Aalborg and Viborg FF in the Superliga, although he spent much of the time playing for the reserves.
Súni Olsen is originally a GÍ player and will undoubtedly feel at home at Víkingur, and is surely going to be one of the star players in the Formula Division 2009.