Watching Iceland and doing research at the same time. That a country with a population smaller than Malta's in a few years went from being ranked similar to Malta to qualifying for the Euros (and almost the last World Cup) was no lucky accident. The Icelandic FA decided not only that they wanted to be better than the whipping boys of each qualfying group, they wanted to be competing with the best. They had a plan and they stuck with it. The highlights:
- They built football pitches, lots of them and given their climate quite a few full sized indoor ones.
- They made sure all the football coaches at every level had UEFA qualifications
- The coaching courses were held in Iceland; nobody had to travel overseas
- Every resident of every tiny fishing village now could have their children coached by a highly qualified coach at top level facilities in their own village
- Players were given the opportunity to play at the top competitive level at a young age: Eidur Gudjhonssen made his international debut at the age of 17; he was an exception but many others were playing for their clubs at a young age
- The FA and clubs acknowledged that Icelandic players needed to play in top European leagues to reach the next level; Icelandic clubs produced skilfull 14-16 year olds but that skill needed to be challenged and matured in Europe
- Iceland have a history of struggling due to their geographic isolation and the harsh climate: the young players had it in them to "struggle" against the challenge of moving away from home at a young age
- Icelanders work hard. All the plans would have been nothing without some "duglegur". In Iceland they don't say "good job", they say "hard work. You did hard work"
I wish Malta could take something out of this. If anybody thought it was a laughable dream for Iceland, why can't it happen for Malta?
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