The Minnows of European Football

Football in Europe is at a high at the moment, with teams such as, Spain and Germany setting the mark for the rest of the world. While Europe boasts the strongest teams in the world outside of South America, there's a lot less glamorous, successful side to European football. I am talking of course about the microstates and principalities of Europe, the teams that make up the bottom pot in every draw, and are set as a definite six points won for most teams before the qualification campaign has even begun. Many people question these small nations' credibility to participate on the world stage, but in my opinion, the presence of these teams in World and European qualifying displays perfectly the spirit of the beautiful game. In this article I'll give an overview to the histories and successes of these principalities giving it their all on the biggest stage. 

San Marino

Where else to begin, than possibly the most well known of these small European nations, San Marino. A country landlocked entirely within Italy and with a size of just over 61 square kilometres. San Marino are currently tied last in the FIFA World Rankings, with Anguilla, Bhutan, and The Turks and Caicos Islands. I'm not surprised San Marino have had little to no success during their time as FIFA members, the microstate has a population of just over 30,000 people, akin to that of a small town here in Great Britain. (I imagine Morecambe would struggle if they entered World Cup qualification too.) San Marino's only official victory ever came in a friendly in 2004 against fellow minnows, Liechtenstein. This game ended 1-0 and had an attendance of 700. The goalscorer that day was the prolific striker Andy Selva. By prolific, I mean he is San Marino's all time leading goalscorer with 8 goals, and up until 2012, the only Sammarinese player to ever scorer more than 1 goal for the national team. Believe it or not, San Marino hold one record in World football that could be considered desirable, the fastest goal in World Cup Qualifying history. This was against no other than England in 1993, a game which saw Davide Gualtieri open the scoring after just 8.3 seconds. I find the thought of the football score of San Marino 1-0 England after 8 seconds quite interesting. As you may expect England went on to win the game, and with a score of 7-1 at that. San Marino also hold a less desirable record: the longest streak of games without scoring in European history; 20, between October 2008 and August 2012. San Marino's largest ever defeat was a 13-0 home defeat to Germany, although scores in excess of 5-0 are a regular occurrence. Only four San Marino games to date have resulted in anything but a loss for San Marino, the win mentioned above, a further 2-2 away draw in a friendly against Liechtenstein, a goalless draw at home to Turkey in World Cup qualifying, and a 1-1 draw away to Latvia  in World Cup qualifying. The latter of which saw current Yeovil Town manager Gary Johnson sacked as national team manager for such an embarrassing result. Another result of note in recent history was a 2-1 away defeat to the Republic of Ireland, succumbing to only a last second goal. It's difficult to envisage anything but similar results for the future of Sammarinese football, and they will almost certainly remain one of the weakest teams in Europe. San Marino's domestic league features mainly semi-pro players and has a league system that is extremely bizarre,and will be included in a future article. Although, if you're a fan of the Football Manager games, San Marino could very well be world champions. 

Davide Gualtieri celebrates his record setting goal against England

Andorra
Andorra are another European team of this ilk, being maybe only marginally better than San Marino. Andorra is a mountainous principality, landlocked between Spain and France, in the Pyrenees. Unfortunately, that's the last we'll hear of teams of this quality. Like San Marino, Andorra has a very small population, the fifth smallest of any UEFA member, at 85,000. Andorra's domestic league is part time, this is reflected in the predominantly amateur national side. Andorra have won only one professional game, a 1-0 home win, in World Cup qualifying, against a credible, professional, Macedonian outfit. The Macedonian manager promptly resigned and called the result "a shameful outcome". This game was part of Andorra's 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign that was a very successful pursuit by Andorran standards. The win was followed up by a goalless draw on Macedonian soil, and at home against Finland. This is Andorra's only qualifying campaign to date in which they have scored points. Andorra has recorded two other impressive victories; 2-0 victories in friendlies against Belarus and Albania. Yes that's right they won by more than one goal. Many England fans may recall a game in March 2007, in which England took on the Andorrans in Barcelona. Despite the final score being 3-0 to England, the goalless first half saw England's manager, Steve 'Wally with a Brolly' McClaren receive a chorus of boos and abuse from incredulous England fans. (I know we're bad, but its hard not to be disappointed with having not scored after 45 minutes worth of playing against a ski resort). The reverse fixture saw England gain a 6-0 win at home, although the match was of greater significance for the Andorrans, this was the last for goalkeeper Koldo, who the year prior was voted the greatest ever Andorran player, having made 78 appearances between 1998 and 2009. Despite conceding 6 goals, he received an ovation from the England fans for preventing an even worse defeat when he was substituted in injury time. He subsequently became national team manager in 2010 after long standing manager David Rodrigo left the job after an 11 year stint. All time top scorer, Ildefons Lima has scored 7 goals for the team. Like San Marino, Andorra are unlikely to ever make any significant improvement in the footballing world due to the limited talent pool. Interestingly though, Andorra is a tax haven, has one of the highest life expectancies in the world, and bid to host for the 2010 Winter Olympics. 

Andorra's national stadium, the Camp d'Esports d'Aixovall, lies within the mountains

Liechtenstein
Things begin to get a little better when we consider little Liechtenstein, well sort of. Liechtenstein is a double landlocked country between Switzerland and Austria, and is the only country to lie entirely within the Alps. Despite having a population only marginally larger than San Marino's, Liechtenstein have had several moments of success during their history as UEFA members. On two occasions, Liechtenstein have reached the dizzying heights of 118th in the FIFA World Rankings. Liechtenstein's biggest ever win was a very impressive 4-0 win, away from home against Luxembourg. Liechtenstein have also recorded qualifying wins against Azerbaijan, Iceland, Lithuania, and Latvia. Latvia's manager then resigned, (Latvia seem to have a habit of removing/losing mangers like this). Liechtenstein have also recorded draws against teams such as Slovakia, Finland and even against Portugal in 2006, a campaign which saw Liechtenstein earn a respectable 8 points. But of course it can't all be good news, these are the minnows of European football after all. As mentioned before, Liechtenstein are the only team to ever lose to San Marino and are responsible for half of their four non losing games. Liechtenstein also suffered an embarrassing 7-1 defeat to Malta in 2008. Results like these detract massively from the successes against stronger opposition. Liechtenstein's biggest ever defeat came in a 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifier in which Liechtenstein lost 11-1 to Macedonia. (little did the Macedonians know they were going to lose 1-0 to Andorra 6 years later). Another result of note is a 2-1 away defeat to Scotland in which Scotland needed a 97th minute goal to seal victory (As someone from England I had to mention it).The strides made in competitiveness made by Liechtenstein can be attributed to the presence of Liechtensteiner clubs in the Swiss league system, including FC Vaduz, who were only just relegated to the second tier of Swiss football last season.This has meant a small number of professional players have emerged from the country. The most notable of which is all time leading appearance and goalscorer Mario Frick, who has currently 111 appearances and 16 goals for the team. Whenever I see Liechtenstein have scored a goal it always seems to say 'Frick' on the scoreboard. Always. Other players of particular significance to Liechtenstein include Martin Stocklasa, Michele Polverino, and Benjamin Büchel, who has managed to find himself playing for Bournemouth (although he has never made an appearance). It appears I'm ending these articles with irrelevant facts now, so I should probably mention that Liechtenstein has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, is the smallest nation to ever win an Olympic medal, and has more Olympic medals per capita than any other nation. 

Liechtenstein's all time leading goalscorer and appearance maker, Mario Frick

Malta
Malta is a very well known country, and the country that should be of most interest to British people due to its Commonwealth connections. The Mediterranean archipelago has a comparatively massive population to that of the countries already mentioned, at 450,000. Malta are currently 142 in the FIFA World Rankings, and have had a small amount of relative success in their 54 year history as part of FIFA. Malta's biggest ever win was the 7-1 against Liechtenstein as mentioned above, although unfortunately this sort of demolition has yet to be repeated against any of the other small nations. Since 2000, Malta have managed draws against many teams, including Croatia, Bulgaria, Northern Ireland, Austria, and Turkey, the omnipresent team of this article Macedonia, and Switzerland. Even more impressively, Malta have beaten Georgia, Hungary, Japan, Belgium, Greece, The Central African Republic (not sure why this game was arranged, and how impressive this result is), and earlier this year in an away match against Armenia; a team I said would be a dark horse in qualifying. A scattering of Maltese players may be known to the English football fan; Currently Australian based Michael Mifsud, player over 80 games for Coventry City between 2007 and 2009 and also had a short loan spell at Barnsley. Mifsud is currently the captain of the national team and has nearly 100 caps. He is the all time top scorer for the team with 37 international goals. Another Maltese player that spent time in the English leagues is Danijel Bogdanovic, the longest of which was a one year spell at Barnsley, followed by stints at Sheffield United, Blackpool, and briefly at Rochdale and Notts County on loan. Bogdanovic has made 40 appearances for the national team as a striker but has scored only the one goal. The limited talent pool, and financial backing seems to be the only barrier in Malta's way to success. Football is the most popular sport in the country with a large following, the climate is very conducive to sport, and as mentioned, the team have the ability to pull off the odd good result. Fact time:Malta is one of the most densely populated countries on the planet, and receives over 1.2 million tourists every year. 

Michael Mifsud scores a rebound to shock the Armenian team and seal an impressive away win for Malta, earlier this year

Faroe Islands
I have always had a soft spot for the Faroe Islands for some reason, I'm not entirely sure why, they just have always been my favourite of these small teams. I always check to see the Faroe Islands score after every game, and occasionally watch their games if they are drawn in a group with one of the home nations so the game receives TV coverage. I think its partly because they seem to be one of the stronger small sides, at least to me, despite the current FIFA World Ranking of 182 stating otherwise. The Faroe Islands are a small group of islands situated roughly halfway between Norway and Iceland, and not that far from the north of Scotland. It's quite strange how the Faroe Islands were granted FIFA membership in the first place, considering the islands are within the realm of Denmark, leaving many other dependencies wondering why they can't get membership. The Islands themselves have a population of about 50,000 people, less than that of Andorra. As for the national team, they, in my opinion do much better than they should do, even though by this I mean scraping the odd good result. Naturally, the Faroe Islands lose by large margins as the other small nations do, although results no higher than 3-0 losses have been frequent even against some of top teams in Europe. For example, in the current World Cup Qualifying, both games against Germany ended 3-0, 2-1 and 2-0 against Sweden, and a 2-1 away defeat against Kazakhstan in which the Faroe Islands were leading. Furthermore, in 2008 the Faroe Islands pushed then World Champions Italy to the limit in a 2-1 home defeat, a result that could not be matched by many other teams in the group. While these results mean nothing in the grand scheme of things, these results are much better than we would expect from a team of this few players to choose from. Despite all this, the greatest moment in The Faroe Islands' history came in their very first competitive match, a 1-0 against Austria in 1990 that had to be played in Sweden because there was no suitable pitches in the Faroe Islands at the time. This was a huge upset which is part of Faroese football folklore, the goal was scored by Torkil Nielsen, who is also quite good at chess apparently. Their biggest defeat was by 7 goals, and this has occurred fours times: 7-0 against Romania and Norway, and 7-0 and 8-1 both against Yugoslavia (The latter of which was just two days before I was born, yeah I know you don't care). In recent years the Faroe Islands have recorded victories against Lithuania, Estonia, and a first ever victory over Iceland, along with draws against Northern Ireland and Scotland. The Faroes very nearly recorded an away win against Estonia but were beaten by two stoppage time goals to lose 2-1. From 2009 to 2011 former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr was manager of the national team. The Faroe Islands have also twice sent a team (different to the FIFA team) to participate in the football at the biennial Island Games. (sort of Mini-Olympics for Island groups). Both appearances resulted in gold medals for the team in both 1989 as hosts of the event and 1981. The record goalscorer for the team is Rogvi Jacobsen, who has 10 goals. The current player with the most recognition is Motherwell goalkeeper Gunnar Nielsen, who once made an appearance for Manchester City against Arsenal, due to all three of City's other goalkeepers not being able to play. The efforts of the Faroe Islands show exactly why these teams deserve their chance to play at this level, proving that with the right determination and management some results can come. In my opinion, one win every few years is not bad for a team with some carpenters and fishermen in it.

A tribute to Torkil Nielsen's winning goal against Austria; the only image of this moment I can find on the Internet

Luxembourg
Out of all of these nations, Luxembourg are the team that should have the best chance of success. The landlocked duchy, located between Belgium, France and Germany has a population of 500,000. This is in excess of that of teams such as Iceland (who are currently second in their World Cup qualifying group, with a shot at the playoffs), and just less than Montenegro, who have given England problems for two qualifying campaigns in a row now. Instead, Luxembourg have rarely produced anything too special, with a 2-1 against Switzerland in 2008, and a surprise 3-2 victory at home to Northern Ireland last month, being  big highlights amongst many draws against average opposition. Luxembourg's best victory ever has to be one of the most peculiar football fixtures of all time, with the national team beating Afghanistan 6-0, in London in 1948. Several members of the current national team are professionals, including Mario Mutsch, and Aurelien Joachim, who play in Switzerland, and The Netherlands respectively. Luxembourg's current World Ranking is 126, one of their highest in the last 10 years. Luxembourg's greatest defeats were two 9-0 defeats against England in both 1960, and 1982. All time top scorer is Leon Mart, who also competed in one of Luxembourg's five Olympic appearances. Luxembourg managed to progress to round two in both Paris 1924, and London 1948 Olympic Games. Luxembourg have most likely assured themselves as the strongest of these nations, with the largest prospect of some future. Over 100,000 people in Luxembourg are part of at least one sports federation, which is a staggering proportion of the overall population. Maybe the non-focus on a particular sport is what prevents Luxembourg from producing a real top player, which should be possible, considering nations as mentioned before with similar talent pools such as Montenegro and Iceland have spawned some players for some of the top teams in Europe. Probably the most successful Luxembourger athletes are cycling brothers Andy and Frank Schleck, who have had successful careers. Not to mention Olympic Gold medal winning skiier Josy Barthel, of whom the national stadium is named after, and 5 wins in the most important competition since the dawn of time, the Eurovision Song Contest. If only some focus was placed on football, maybe they could have the best shot at something happening from one of these nations. Although, as you probably agree, I'm being extremely optimistic, and the situation will probably never exceed progress made by anyone else named in this article. But I can always dream, not just for Luxembourg, but for any of these teams. 

Matias Jänisch scores Luxembourg's third goal to seal a big victory over Northern Ireland last month

In conclusion, the simple fact I made this article shows that I'm fond of these small nations and the efforts they give. The majority of these players are amateur, playing for the love of the game, giving it their all against top professionals who earn more money in a week than they will all year. I think its unfair to even talk of removing these teams, FIFA added them to their organisation, so they could play, not to be shunned for being poor by ex players and media of stronger nations. Sure these teams will never qualify, but there's a lot of teams that don't qualify often. I can't see Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland qualifying anytime soon, and England are scraping this World Cup Qualifying. Overall, I believe that no matter how bad these teams are, they deserve a chance to play, to prove to people their worthiness, and to make the people of their nations proud. Every team has to start somewhere. 






Special mention to Gibraltar, who recently became members of UEFA (Although not FIFA yet) and will be eligible to enter qualifying for the 2016 European Championships. I expect they will be of the standard of these teams, and I wish them, not only as Britons, but as the new least populous member of UEFA, the best of luck for the future. Thanks for reading.