20th century Although
Úrvalsdeild, the Icelandic Football League, was founded in 1912, the country's first international match was played on 29 July 1930, against the
Faroe Islands. Although Iceland won 1–0 away, both teams were at the time unaffiliated with
FIFA. The first match officially recognised by FIFA took place in
Reykjavík on 17 July 1946, a 0–3 loss to their future rivals
Denmark. The first international victory was against Finland in 1947. For the first 20 years of the
Football Association of Iceland (KSÍ)'s existence, the team mostly did not participate in qualifying for the
FIFA World Cup or the
UEFA European Championship. In 1954, Iceland applied to take part in qualification for the
1954 World Cup, but the application was rejected. Since 1974, the team has taken part in qualifying for every World Cup and European Championship. In 1994, the team reached their then best ever position in the
FIFA World Rankings, 37th. This record stood until 2016 when they managed to reach 21st. In a friendly against
Estonia on 24 April 1996 in
Tallinn,
Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen entered as a substitute for his father
Arnór. This marked the first time that a father and son played in the same international match.
21st century in
Rostov-on-Don, Russia In qualification for
Euro 2004, Iceland finished third in their group, one point behind
Scotland. As a result, they failed to qualify for a playoff spot. However, the following qualifying campaigns will be much more difficult for Iceland which will flirt with the last places of its respective groups, in particular during the
Euro 2008 qualifiers where despite two unexpected successes against
Northern Ireland (3–0 in the opening away, 2–1 at home in the return) and a heroic resistance in the first and second leg against the
Spanish future winners of the competition (a 1–1 draw at home after having led the score and a short 0–1 defeat away), Our boys suffered several other heavy defeats, including two against
Latvia, who had qualified for
Euro 2004 as a surprise (0–4 away, 2–4 home), and one against
Liechtenstein (0–3 away, after a 1–1 home draw). The reasons for the lack of results of the selection were due to the absence of professionals on the island, the Icelanders played soccer for fun. Moreover, the hostile climate where winter lasts 8 months did not help the development of the sport, there were only two synthetic fields forcing the footballers to train on the gravel or in the snow. In the 2000s, Icelandic soccer will experience a real revolution. The economic boom will allow the authorities to create important structures with indoor pitches in synthetic turf, which results in the practice of soccer all year round without worrying about the weather conditions outside. These new structures encourage young people to turn to sports and even lead to a decrease in alcohol and tobacco consumption among teenagers. In 2014, Iceland almost secured qualification for their first World Cup. Finishing second in Group D, they played
Croatia in a two-leg playoff for qualification. After holding them to a 0–0 draw in the home leg, they lost 2–0 away.
Euro 2016 Iceland qualified for a major tournament for the first time in 2015 after finishing second in Group A of qualification for
Euro 2016, losing only two games, and beating the
Netherlands – which had finished third in the 2014 World Cup – twice. During the qualification, they reached their then highest ranking in the FIFA World Rankings, 23rd. Iceland were drawn into a group with
Portugal,
Hungary and
Austria for the final tournament. At the tournament finals, Iceland recorded 1–1 draws in their first two group stage matches against Portugal and Hungary. They then advanced from their group with a 2–1 victory against Austria. Iceland qualified for the tournament's quarter-finals after a
2–1 upset win over England in the Round of 16, which led to England manager
Roy Hodgson resigning in disgrace immediately after the final whistle. However, they were eliminated by host nation
France in the quarter-finals, 5–2.
2018 World Cup Iceland qualified for the
2018 World Cup, their first ever appearance in the world championship and second major tournament overall, securing qualification on 9 October 2017 after a 2–0 win against
Kosovo. In doing so, they became the lowest-populated country ever to reach the finals until Curaçao broke both records in 2026. Iceland were drawn to play
Croatia,
Argentina and
Nigeria in a group that was considered by many as the "
group of death". Despite a challenging group, Iceland were tipped to advance from the group by several journalist websites, based on their impressive performance in Euro 2016. Their maiden match at the World Cup was against
2014 runners-up Argentina, with Iceland holding Argentina to a 1–1 draw. However, their chances of advancing from the group were hurt following a 2–0 loss to Nigeria, with several missed opportunities in the first half and a penalty kick in the second half missed by Gylfi Sigurðsson, putting Iceland in position to play a decisive match against already qualified Croatia. Iceland lost to Croatia in their final group game and were eliminated; and because Argentina won against Nigeria, Iceland finished bottom of the group with a single point.
2018–19 UEFA Nations League After Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup, Iceland participated in the
2018–19 UEFA Nations League, in which they were in
Group 2 of League A with
Switzerland and
Belgium. Many of Iceland's international matches in this competition were undermined by the repeated absence of some of their key players, often due to injury. Iceland lost all four games and faced relegation to League B, but due to a rule change by UEFA, Iceland was not relegated to League B for the 2020–2021 edition.
Euro 2020 qualifiers In
group H of the Euro qualifiers with the world champions
France, Turkey, Albania, Andorra and Moldova. Iceland lost both confrontations against
Les Bleus (4–0 at the
Stade de France and 1–0 at home on a penalty kick after the hour of play at the end of a tight game) and the away match against
Albania 4–2, though achieved a win and a draw against Turkey. Iceland finished third behind France and Turkey and advanced to the
playoffs, where they defeated
Romania 2–1. On 12 November 2020, in their
playoff game against Hungary, Iceland nearly secured qualification for
Euro 2020, having led 1–0 for most of the match, thanks to a direct free kick by Gylfi Sigurðsson. However, Hungary scored two goals in under five minutes, the first in the 88th minute by
Loïc Nego and the second in the second minute of added time by
Dominik Szoboszlai, proving to be the winner, thereby securing qualification at Iceland's expense. Iceland had also suffered poor results in their
UEFA Nations League campaign in
League A, having lost all their
group stage matches and failing to garner a single point, resulting in their relegation to League B the
following season. Manager
Erik Hamrén ultimately resigned, following their poor performance that year.
2022 World Cup qualifiers Iceland also had a poor start to
2022 World Cup qualifiers, suffering two defeats at the beginning of the tournament, away against
Germany (0–3) and more surprisingly in
Armenia (0–2). Preparation for the September games, where Iceland had the advantage of playing all three games at home after several away games and had played some encouraging friendlies in June, was disrupted by extra-sporting affairs involving both
Kolbeinn Sigþórsson and
Gylfi Sigurðsson accused of sexual offences and thus absent from the month's games. The cases also led to the resignation of several senior officials of the
Icelandic Football Association, including its president. In the aftermath of these affairs, Iceland lost against Romania (0–2), drew against
North Macedonia (2–2), and suffered a heavy loss against
Germany (0–4); these results left Iceland in second-to-last place in Group J with four matches remaining. In the two October games, Iceland drew against Armenia (1–1) and defeated Liechtenstein (4–0). Despite these results, along with an away draw against
Romania (0–0), Iceland was mathematically eliminated with one day remaining, being unable to recover enough points to reach second place. This run of poor results has been attributed to several factors, both sporting and extra-sporting: the late generational renewal, a process partly hampered by a limited pool of footballers due to Iceland's demographics; the questionable tactical choices of the new coach, resulting in a lack of automatism among new players who are not used to playing together and the absence of a real standard team; and sexual assault scandals that have effectively sidelined some of the team's best players under investigation.
Euro 2024 qualifiers The
Euro 2024 qualifiers have also got off to a poor start in terms of results, with just one win and 3 defeats after 4 matches and a provisional penultimate place. Iceland were swept aside in
Bosnia (0–3), before recording the biggest official victory in their history against
Liechtenstein (7–0). Following a long series of poor results, Icelandic coach
Arnar Viðarsson was sacked and replaced by Norwegian
Åge Hareide. Under the new coach and after two away games, Iceland hosted
Slovakia and
Portugal, but both matches ended in defeat. First,
Strákarnir okkar lost to the Slovaks (1–2) after a crude defensive error with a direct clearance to
Tomáš Suslov, who scored Slovakia's 2nd goal when the teams were level. Iceland then put in a better performance than in their previous matches against group favourites Portugal, demonstrating excellent tactical organization and keeping the Lusitanians at bay for long periods. However, a goal by
Cristiano Ronaldo on his 200th appearance for Portugal, initially disallowed but then validated by
VAR at the very end of normal time, sealed Portugal's victory (0–1), shortly after the Nordic side had been reduced to 10 men following a second yellow card for
Willum Þór Willumsson. Iceland finished 4th in their group with a disappointing record of 3 wins, 1 draw and 6 defeats, but were eligible for the
play-offs thanks to their performance in the
Nations League. In the
semi-final of the Path B play-offs, Iceland set a benchmark against a top 100 FIFA team for the first time in several years by brushing aside
Israel 4–1, thanks to a hat-trick from
Albert Guðmundsson, while Israel finished the match with 10 men and missed a penalty to equalise. In the decisive match against
Ukraine, Iceland opened the scoring through
Albert Guðmundsson and led at half-time, but conceded 2 goals in the second half and lost (1–2) in a similar fashion to the previous Euro play-off lost in
Budapest against the Hungarians. Iceland then had a complicated
2024–2025 Nations League, as they were relegated to League C for the next edition, despite having started in the highest League (League A) for the first 2 seasons.
Strákarnir okkar finished 3rd in their group, just ahead of
Montenegro, whom they beat 2–0 on each occasion, but suffered 3 heavy defeats (against
Wales away and twice against
Turkey) and a home draw against the Welsh. Iceland's penultimate place in the group means they are eligible for the
2024–2025 Nations League promotion/relegation play-offs, where they face
Kosovo, who finished 2nd in their League C group. Iceland lost the first leg 1–2 in
Pristina and had to turn the tie around in the home leg, which was actually played on neutral ground at the
Estadio Nueva Condomina in
Murcia,
Spain, due to renovation work at
Laugardalsvöllur, Iceland's only stadium to UEFA standards. Deprived of this advantage and reduced to 10 men during the match, they lost again 1–3 (2–5 on aggregate) and failed to maintain their place in League B. ==Team image==