Jamaica

Jamaica 2015-16 Away
Jamaica 2019-20 Home

Let’s start off with this Romai shirt. Nice quality logo and it is a lovely dark green colour, but you’d be forgiven for thinking there isn’t much to it more than that. The pattern around the collar and on the hem and sleeve cuffs really has to make this shirt and I’d say it does. All 3 colours from the flag, jagged zigzag lines, they really do work! The advantage of patterns at the edges means that it can be used on the back too and the result is a very solid shirt.

The main tournaments for the shirt were the 2015 and 2017 Gold Cups. In 2015 they drew 2-2 with Costa Rica before edging Canada and El Salvador 1-0. Close games remained the theme with a 1-0 victory over Haiti followed by a 2-1 victory over the USA. This took them to Mexico in the final where they lost 3-1, finally being involved in a margin of more than 1 goal. 2017 was similar, with goalkeeping being even more of a specialty. They beat Curaçao 2-0 before drawing 0-0 with Mexico and 1-1 with El Salvador. The knockouts brought a 2-1 victory over Canada, a 1-0 victory over Mexico and then a 2-1 loss to USA in the final, to concede twice for the first time.

Moving on we have this Umbro shirt. Again, you could be forgiven for thinking it plain but you would be wrong. Green collar and sleeve cuffs, but far less interesting than the other shirt, help it a little. The shoulder pattern is great, again utilising the Jamaican colours and this time the pattern of the flag too. But is the shirt just plain yellow? No! We have a persistent pattern across the entire shirt, heat pressed detail mimicking bananas. Lastly, instead of the traditional flag, on the rear of the collar there is the team’s nickname: The Reggae Boyz. For a plain looking shirt, there’s a lot to it and that’s the sign of something great.

Used across the 2019 Gold Cup, Jamaica were drawn in Group C with Honduras, El Salvador and Curaçao. They topped their group, but not convincingly, beating Honduras 3-2 and then drawing twice, 0-0 to El Salvador (how often do they play them?!) and 1-1 to Curaçao. The knockout stages found them playing Panama and a penalty took them to a semi-final against the USA. The buck stopped there with a 3-1 defeat which was reasonable, but they’d have perhaps hoped for better from a tournament where they had partial hosting rights.

While not regular for them, this sort of success is to be expected from Jamaica and they can comfortably consider themselves the main powerhouse of the Caribbean. They’ve been to 11 of the past 15 Gold Cups, regularly reaching the quarter-finals and with further semi-final losses in 1993 and 1998. While regularly competitive, they’ve only been to one World Cup, qualifying for the 1998 edition. Croatia beat them 3-1, Argentina thrashed them 5-0 but they beat Japan 2-1. They’ve also been to the Copa América twice but never scored any points or goals. In contrast, the Caribbean Cup has brought them 6 titles from 9 finals along with two 3rd places. In only 19 tournaments, this is impressive. Less impressive was their Nations League qualifying, dropping into League B, but a 1-1 draw with Guyana was the only goal they conceded to get promoted to League A for the 2nd season.

But does their women’s side share in this glory? As the only Caribbean side to make a World Cup, to some extent, yes. But, being stuck in a confederation with the powerhouses of USA and Canada means that individual glory is very hard to come by. They started off poor but have gradually improved, with Group Stage exits in 2002 and 2014 but 4th place in 2006 and the crucial 3rd place in 2018. This allowed them to avoid the continental play-off and go directly to the World Cup, where they would sadly lose every game. Locally there have been fewer tournaments but they did finish as runners-up in the 2014 Caribbean Cup. The men’s youth teams have had reasonable success. They’ve never been to the Olympics but the U20s have been to the 2001 World Cup and 20 CONCACAF Championships (though only finished top 4 twice) and the U17s have 2 World Cup appearances, a CONCACAF title, 3 further CONCACAF top 4 finishes and 14 Championship appearances. Sadly, the U15s have been uninspiring to date and can’t continue the trend. The women’s youth sides have been to every U20 CONCACAF Championship and most U17 ones but have only twice made the knockout stages and have consequently no World Cup appearances. Their U15s have suffered from the same sort of problem.

Futsal existed in Jamaica, but only as a minor sport and they’ve not really participated in CONCACAF futsal to date. Ranked outside the top 16 teams, they’re certainly not the same team they are in full scale football. Despite all of Jamaica’s beaches, they aren’t a major force in that either. They are much more active, attending 6 tournaments and recently finishing as high as 8th (twice). Not one of the major powers but one of CONCACAF’s better sides.

Drawn as part of the top 5 of CONCACAF, Jamaica sit and wait in the final octagonal round for 2022 qualification. With 3.5 spots up for grabs, it will never be an easy task, but from good Gold Cup performances they will be confident in challenging for a spot. A second World Cup appearance for Jamaica? Maybe.

Israel

Israel 1994-96 matchworn Tal Banin v France
Israel 2008-09 Home
Israel 2019-20 Away

Oh 90’s Diadora, yes please. I’m not sure anyone’s quite understood why Diadora smashed out this superb shoulder pattern, but Israel for one should definitely thank them. Does it mean anything? Who knows! It looks awesome, that’s all we need. There isn’t even a lot else to the shirt and it still manages to beiconic. The old fashioned Diadora logo is rather nice, with the actual logo patterning the sleeve cuffs and collar, and the patterned material (with giant IFA logos) is also a decent touch. Let down a little by the buttoned collar, it is very much a shirt made by its shoulders.

Used across Euro 1996 qualification, Israel managed several decent performances without managing to pick up many points. They finished 5th, with 12 points, just 2 points from 3rd and yet 8 points from qualification and 11 points from bottom. A home win against Poland combined with home and away wins over Azerbaijan for some good points but 3 single goal away losses combined with home draws to Romania, France and Slovakia left them short of both good points and positioning.

Next up we end up considerably more plain, with a very standard Adidas template. The incorrect blue highlights Adidas’ hatred for pale blues, as with San Marino, but there’s enough white on the shirt to add a little variety. Never going to win any beauty contests but reasonable enough. Main attraction is the dual material badge, which is always a nice touch, though somewhat wasted on the shirt itself.

While the shirt wasn’t ideal, their placement at the bottom of pot 2 for the 2010 qualifiers was. However, the group turned messy and they failed to take advantage. Home and away wins against Luxembourg and Moldova gave them a secure points basis, but 3 draws and a loss against Switzerland and Greece meant they’d need to do well when they faced the Latvians. A dismal 1-0 home loss and a 1-1 away draw left them in 4th place, a point behind the Latvians and 4 points off Greece in the play-off spot. Certainly could be viewed as an opportunity wasted.

Last, but not least, is this reasonable Puma effort. It may not be overly exciting but there is at least a chevron on the front and the same spotted style of pattern across the shoulders. The colours are right and the collar and sleeve cuffs add a splash more of that blue to help, but there’s not much more to the shirt to make it any better than reasonable. I suppose the flag on the back is a talking point, but by the point you’re reaching for that, you’ve lost.

Sadly their qualifying campaign for Euro 2020 also had little to boast about. An impressive 4-2 home win over Austria added to home and away wins over Latvia, but aside from 2 home draws they lost all their other matches. A 5th place finish exactly 8 point from either qualification or last place wouldn’t have been what they were after in the group with Austria, Poland, North Macedonia, Slovenia and Latvia, but they did get an automatic play-off spot from their Nations League performance. This bright spark, however, was quickly extinguished as they lost on penalties to a Scotland side who didn’t even muster a shot on target. Not terribly impressive.

Three sets of results that almost but don’t quite summarises Israel’s typical qualification history. They’re most regularly found in the 3rd/4th slot in the groups, good at taking points from other teams but struggling to make things count in the end. They have managed to make 2 Euros and 2 World Cup play-off (for 1958 without having played a single match), but it took direct qualification for the 1970 World Cup. 2 draws and a loss sent them back home. With the general feeling around the country being as it is, they’ve hopped through several confederations too, taking an Asian Cup title, 2 runners-up and a 3rd place in their 4 appearances. They do also have 2 Olympic Games quarter-final appearances to their name and 2 promotions in 3 seasons of the Nations League, which is impressive, though the former were in the 1970’s. A decent side, without ever quite challenging the top teams.

Their women’s team came into official play towards the end of the 1990’s and have consistently been ok at the bottom end of play. When qualifications were split into 2 divisions they were a dangerous Division 2 side that tended to fall short of promotion, though they did spent 2009 Euros qualifiers in the preliminary round. With the shift in UEFA qualifiers across to full scale groups their performance has suffered, though they continue to take points from the lowest ranked nations. Youth football is where thing get complicated though. The U21s have been to 2 Euros, once as host, never passing the group stages but the U19s are gloriously complicated. 3 Euros appearances (runners-up in 2022), 2 OFC appearances (both runners-up), 6 AFC titles from 9 appearances and bizarrely a single CONMEBOL appearance. Yet they’ve never been to a World Cup. Then the U17s appear to have only played in UEFA (even before they were UEFA) and have been to 11 tournaments grabbing a 3rd place. Nothing makes sense! The women’s youth teams simplify things somewhat by struggling to gain points. The U19s have hosted a tournament and been in the Elite Round but both them and the U17s have little to write home about, with positive results too rare for any consistent success.

 Futsal has been an area Israel struggle in. They were at 3 AMF Futsal World Cups without significant success, but in the FIFA world they’ve primarily competed in preliminary qualifiers and haven’t bothered the major tournaments. They have been active though, albeit only at a senior men’s level, which puts them a step above many. From 2007, for a 6 years, Israel played a little beach soccer, performing reasonably in Division B of the Euro Beach Soccer League without ever winning a stage. They’ve since disappeared off the map though and never competed in World Cup qualifiers either.

Drawn in a group with Denmark, Scotland, Austria, Faroe Islands and Moldova, Israel would’ve been hopeful of a decent campaign with one of their strongest squads in recent history. They managed to finish 3rd place, with a reasonable 16 points, but took only a single point off the top two, falling a ways short of the play-offs. A reasonable campaign, but not too special, though still something to be pleased about.

Iceland

Welcome to the unofficial museum of Iceland national football kits. The lowest population nation to qualify for a World Cup, by a factor of 4, their history is worth telling. For the largest nations, even 90’s shirts are comparatively common and there exist multiple collections that highlight their history. Every nation deserves this sort of dedication, so here is a small selection of Iceland, from 1980 to the current day.

Football has long been the major sport in Iceland, with the first international being played in 1946, against former colonisers Denmark. Occasional friendlies proved reasonably promising, but their first qualification attempt for a major tournament (the 1958 World Cup) proved a rude awakening. Aside from Olympic qualification attempts, they tried to qualify for the 1964 European Championships but otherwise restricted themselves to friendlies until the 1974 World Cup qualifiers. They would go on to play in every qualification since.

Gradual improvement came and, by the 1990’s, they’d started to prove competitive, with them coming close to Euro 2000 and Euro 2004 qualification. As players started to spread more widely across Europe, their profile continued to grow. A major focus on youth development and football back at home lead to the golden generation. Reaching the 2014 World Cup play-offs was the first sign that they’d created something special, though they fell 2-0 to Croatia. 2nd place in their 2016 Euros qualifiers took them to the tournament where they famously qualified for the knockout stages and knocked out England to reach the quarter-finals. They followed this up with World Cup qualification in 2018, topping their qualifying group and acquitting themselves well at the finals, but not making it out of the group. Missing out on Euro 2020, the next generation is starting to come through already and it is time for Iceland to prove that their staying power!

I may not be Icelandic, but the country and their footballers have made a huge impression on me. Their story, both in football and in shirts, is a beautiful one and I thoroughly believe it deserves to be told.

Iceland 1980-82 GK, benchworn Guðmundur H Baldursson v Wales

Starting off with the oldest, we go back to Iceland’s Adidas days. While a standard template for the time, it is lovely, with black padded sleeves complimented by the yellow striping. The black on the front also helps the logos stand out, particularly the old KSI logo, which is large and beautifully detailed. The old typeface for the number helps make it stand out nicely and the only possible complaint is that yellow doesn’t necessarily go with the blue and red of the logo!

Worn on the bench by Guðmundur H Baldursson for Iceland’s 4-0 home defeat to Wales to open out 1982 World Cup qualification, it doesn’t come from auspicious circumstances, but he would go on to star between the sticks for their 2-2 away draw. Drawn in a group with the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Wales and Turkey they would defeat the latter home and away but otherwise struggle. A narrow home loss to the Soviets and a draw to Czechoslovakia contrasted with poor away form, losing to both of them heavily. They finished 4th of 5 teams.

Iceland 1982 Home, matchworn Árni Sveinsson v Finland
Iceland 1982-85 Home, matchworn? U19s?
Iceland 1982-85 Home, matchworn Kristján Jónsson v ? (youth?)
Iceland 1982-85 Home, matchworn Lárus Þór Guðmundsson v Ireland
Iceland 1982-85 Away, matchworn Lárus Þór Guðmundsson v ???

Next up we have the classic Adidas stripes all from the collar to the ends of the sleeves and an interesting collar, with almost an additional collar over the top of it. Looks kind of interesting but all rather strange. The slight variant is plainer, with the main kit having white piping to separate out the sleeves and down the sides. Also saw some of the typical logo variation of the time, with the old KSÍ logo either all in white, as an outline only or as a transfer. The rear number variety is rather strange too but it all comes together for a solid enough, if rather plain, shirt.

The standard kit was used across 1982-85, with this appearing at least once in a friendly against Finland. The main design was used across Euro 1984 qualification, with Iceland finishing on a mere three points. At home they managed a 1-0 win over Malta and a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands, but they lost 1-0 home and away to Spain; 3-0 at home to the Republic of Ireland and 2-0 away; suffered another 3-0 defeat at the hands of the Dutch and lost in Malta 2-1. That loss proved to be the Maltese’s only 2 point though, so they finished 4th, but still some distance off the top 3.

Iceland 1984 Home, matchworn Kristján Jónsson v Saudi Arabia

Up to this point, Iceland hadn’t had anything too out of the ordinary and had remained loyal to the major brands. However, local brand Henson got their time to shine very briefly. White pinstripes, deep blue and lighter blue larger stripes, all this continuing on the front, rear and sleeves. There’s a lot there. Then throw in the outlined red numbers and it all comes together in 1 incredibly beautiful package. There aren’t many truly great 80’s shirt, but I contend this absolutely is one of them.

In one of the great shames of Icelandic football, this was used in only a single match. Precisely why, I’m not sure. Being outside of international breaks, a locally based team were chosen as the squad to face Saudi Arabia in a 1984 friendly. They went out, beat them 2-1 and came back home, with Henson never being seem again on their shirts. All very strange.

Iceland 1986-88 Home, benchworn Ingvar Guðmundsson v Norway
Iceland 1986-88 Away, matchworn Guðmundur Steinsson v Portugal
Iceland 1986-88 Away, benchworn Heimir Guðmundsson v Hungary

Beauty comes in many colours and here are two great examples of that. One of the better Adidas templates, diagonal pinstripes add some variation to something otherwise standard. Having them alternate in between blue/white and red keeps all the national colours on the shirt, with the collar and sleeve stripes helping to add to the colour. Badges are a transfer, which is a bit of a shame and the rear numbers are a bit battered but that helps to add to its appeal. A simple concept made beautiful by the variety.

Used across 1986-88, this particular away shirt is captain and goalscorer Guðmundur Steinsson’s shirt for the Olympic qualifier versus Portugal. It wasn’t enough to prevent a 2-1 defeat, sadly, something that proves to be a bit of a pattern. Never thrashed, they nonetheless lost most of their games, with a draw to the Netherlands and a win against East Germany proving to be their only successes, both at home. Italy and Portugal beat them in both games. The design was also used in 1998 Euros qualification, where they were a little more successful. They beat Norway home and away, grabbing home draws against France and the Soviet Union. But three 2-0 losses away and a disastrous 6-0 home loss to East Germany meant they finished just above the bottom.

Iceland 1990-91 Home, benchworn Einar Páll Tómasson v Czechoslovakia
Iceland 1990-91 Home, matchworn? Kristján Jónsson v ?
Iceland 1990-91 Away, matchworn Kristján Jónsson v Czechoslovakia

Not quite as good a template, there’s a lot less variety to this shirt but it is still surprisingly detailed. Diagonal stripes across the shirt with the old trefoil logo sprinkled across between them. They also extend across the entire shirt, including sleeves. We return to variety in the logo, with the standard logo very rarely being replaced by the flag. This sometimes varied between shirts in individual matches even. The away shirt isn’t significantly different, but is much rarer, and the collars across the board are a little unusually deep. Regardless, their penultimate Adidas design is pretty nice.

One of two designs used across Euro 1992 qualifiers, this design is from the earlier matches of the campaign. Drawn with France, Spain, Czechoslovakia and Albania, Iceland fell slightly short for the most part. 5 losses by only a single goal, their sole 2 goal loss being away to group winners France, and 2-0 home victories against Albania and Spain meant that they finished second bottom in a tough group.

Iceland 1992-95 Home (gift to Brazil FA after 1994 friendly?)
Iceland 1992-95 Home, matchworn Rúnar Kristinsson v Luxembourg, 1994 WCQ
Iceland 1992-95 Home, matchworn Lárus Orri Sigurðsson? v Luxembourg, 1994 WCQ

Iceland later shifted across to Italian manufacturer ABM. We’ve got some white and red stripes and collar + cuff pattern to add a bit of flair which definitely helps the shirt. In addition, the shirt itself is nicely patterned, with these slightly strange fan shapes that appear to have no relevance whatsoever but do look rather nice. The numbers are felt, which is particularly nice, though do incorporate the ABM logo which varied from shirt to shirt as to whether it was there or not. As this shirt number wasn’t used in the South American friendlies, it appears to have probably been a direct gift to the Brazilian FA which is pretty cool.

1994 World Cup qualification saw this design in use where they finished 3rd out of 5 (with Yugoslavia, the 6th team, suspended). All their games were close, with none seeing many goals. A 2-0 home win against Hungary was the widest margin and all three of their losses (2 to Greece, 1 to Russia) were 1-0. They also won away in Hungary and at home to Luxembourg but drew at home to Russia and away in Luxembourg to rest comfortably in 3rd a long way from both 4th and 2nd.

Iceland 1995-96 Home, Benchworn Lárus Orri Sigurðsson v ?
Iceland 1995-96 Home, Matchworn?

ABM’s second design for Iceland was even plainer, without the sleeve stripes or collar detailing. Instead of the fan shapes, we have the ABM logo tiled across the entire shirt which is at least more relevant, but otherwise it feels like a downgrade. The numbers are now also transfers, leading to them deteriorating faster. The stripes inside the button collar are the only real addition, and an inconsistent one at that, coming in multiple colours. Some shirts also had front numbers, though those were rare.

The shirt was used to try and qualify for Euro 1996, where they were drawn in a fairly weak group (the 2 qualificants got 1 point between them in the tournament) but an evenly spread one. Iceland got 5 points from a 1-1 away draw to Sweden, a 0-0 home draw to Turkey and a 2-1 home victory over Hungary. While they finished bottom, only 2 games weren’t a one goal margin (2-0 home loss to Switzerland and 5-0 away loss to Turkey). A lack of goals appears to have been their problem, drawing blanks in 3 home and 3 away games.

Iceland 1996 Home, matchworn Lárus Orri Sigurðsson v Republic of Ireland

Another Italian manufacturer stepped into the fold when they left ABM, with Reusch initially submitting this fairly plain, intermediate shirt for several games. Felt number on the front, transfer on the back, patterned fabric all over and little to no special detail, everything about it screams intermediate shirt. A centralised Reusch logo and number highlights the offset KSI logo quite nicely, the last shirt it would appear on. While basic, it is a great shirt for them to have worn and, interestingly, no away shirt appears to have existed, rare in the modern era.

One of two shirts across 1998 World Cup qualification, Iceland were drawn with Romania, republic of Ireland, Lithuania, North Macedonia and Liechtenstein. They took an away draw in Ireland and home draws to Lithuania and North Macedonia but otherwise had a poor campaign, conceding 4 or more goals in 4 games! Liechtenstein proved the only consolation, with two 4-0 victories adding a little shine to a disappointing campaign.

Iceland 1997-99 Home, matchworn Helgi Kolviðsson v Andorra?
Iceland 1997-99 Away, Matchworn Helgi Sigurðsson v France
Iceland 1997-99 Away, Matchworn Lárus Orri Sigurðsson v Liechtenstein
Iceland 1997-98 GK, Matchworn Birkir Kristinsson v ?

Reusch’s main design came in from 1997, lasting all the way to 1999. Continuing the tradition with patterns in the fabric is a definite plus while the design across the shoulders is very eye-catching. The restraint in not just using Icelandic colours helps it, in my opinion, as it makes the design feel less forced. Exactly why these swirls and stars were used, I don’t know, but they make for a very unique shirt and possibly my favourite Iceland design, though a strong competitor comes up shortly… The away shirt clashed a little more in colour, with the white contrasting quite sharply with the black and blue shoulder pattern but they’re incredible shirts. While the old KSI logo was great, things were mixed up nicely with the new one and it helps with the transition across to Reusch as a manufacturer.

Also from this time period is this beautiful goalkeeper shirt. Patterned across the entire shirt it is mostly black, with felt numbers standing out. The sleeves have an interesting colour choice with this pinkish red and black padding for the elbows. A fairly calm design compared to the shirts it was used with but still a thoroughly attractive shirt from Birkir Kristinsson, the current joint holder of Iceland’s GK cap record.

Used in the tail end of 1998 qualification, the design was mainly used for Euro 2000 qualifiers. Drawn from pot 4, Iceland were handed an awful qualification group. World Champions France (who went on to win Euro 2000), a strong Russian side and a Ukraine side with their talismanic Shevchenko. Despite this, Iceland remained competitive throughout with 1 goal aggregate losses to France and Ukraine and sharing 1-0 wins with Russia. A 0-0 away draw with Armenia capped some poor away form and that left them 5 points adrift of the play-offs though, despite some spectacular results and home and away wins versus Andorra.

Iceland 1999-2002 Home – Benchworn Tryggvi Guðmundsson v Denmark
Iceland 1999-2002 Home – Matchworn Brynjar Björn Gunnarsson v Denmark
Iceland 1999-2002 Away, youth matchworn/prepared?

Reusch simplified things a bit for their final shirt with this, less flashy design. Angular arrows and the traditional three colours make it nice enough, with the player spec versions only having a transfer badge. Crucially, the fabric is simplified, with the lovely patterned fabric sadly dropped for this shirt. Quantity was the order of the day here, rather than quality, with the shirts being massive. Even for an XL, this example is vast and it makes you wonder how much better Iceland would’ve done if they hadn’t been wearing parachutes… The latter, particular shirt was interestingly used in 1 match but two tournaments as that match against Denmark was both a 2002 World Cup qualifier and their last game of the 2000-01 Nordic Championship.

Widely used, appearing for the end of Euro 2000 qualifiers, the 2000-01 Nordic Championship and the 2001 Sahara Cup the main tournament for them was 2002 World Cup qualification. Sadly this was a familiar story for the Icelanders, a strong home showing (a 2-1 loss to the old enemy Denmark and a 1-1 draw with Bulgaria notwithstanding) was contrasted by a poor away showing. Denmark again managed a 2-1 win, but the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Malta managed a combined 13 goals without reply. The exception was Northern Ireland who Iceland could only beat 1-0 in Reykjavik but thrashed 4-1 away to finish 4th in the group.

Iceland 2002-04 Home Matchworn Marel Baldvinsson v Latvia
Iceland 2002-04 Home Matchworn Ólafur Örn Bjarnason? v Mexico?
Iceland 2002-04 Home Matchworn Rannver Sigurjónsson? v Yugoslavia U19?
Iceland 2002-04 Away, Match-prepared for Eiður Guðjohnsen? v Scotland?

2002 marked the shift to Errea, yet another Italian company, and this partnership lasted up until 2019. However, they started off at their strongest and came up with the “ice-breaker” shirt. There’s a return to a large collar, which is terrible, and the lower half of the shirt is unremarkable. The logo is poorly stitched, even on match worn examples, but the design across the shoulders is what makes this shirt. Ice fragments break up across the shoulders, with the pieces more broken up the lower they get. The away shirts had two minor varieties, with one being barely used (only photo evidence as some of the squad for the Scotland game) where the ice extended further down the sleeves and more plain blue across the top of the shoulders.

Euro 2004 qualification saw them drawn against Germany, Scotland, Lithuania and the Faroes. They competed for a play-off spot throughout, missing out by a single point to the Scots in the end, despite a draw at home to the Germans. Otherwise they were fairly consistent, beating the Faroes 2-1 and Lithuania 3-0 home and away and conceding 2 goals in both games against Scotland, though they scored in the away game. The home loss to Scotland sadly proved to be the decisive result, despite the Scots trying to throw everything away by drawing to the Faroe Islands.

Iceland 2004 Home, matchworn Heiðar Helguson? v ?
Iceland 2005 Home, matchworn? Auðun Helgason v ?
Iceland 2005 Away, matchworn Hannes Þorsteinn Sigurðsson v Sweden
Iceland 2005-06 GK, matchworn by Gunnleifur Gunnleifsson? v Mexico?

Good things rarely last and in 2004, Errea calmed things down with a plain design that only coloured the sides and under the arms. Reverting to the national colours of red and blue does work, to an extent, but it feels unadventurous. The white and blue on the away side similarly so. Logo quality stays poor but the collar is quite nice, with it finally being smaller and not just being a plain colour. Not as much to say here really but we do get a flag on the back. Both designs were used in 2004 and 2005, but the later shirt removed the colouring under the sleeves themselves for the home shirt and added it for the away, while otherwise remaining identical.

Much better is this goalkeeper shirt! Though the stitching is terrible quality, being plainly visible, it is much more interesting to look at. Not traditional Icelandic colours, but the black and white stripes across the sleeves and shoulders work well. Collar not fully elasticated but the Errea logo is oddly large. Very strangely, it was also used in a much later friendly.

Good things also didn’t last in terms of results. From being competitive but missing out to an absolute disaster. Iceland beat Malta in Reykjavik and drew 0-0 away but otherwise lost every game. Their opponents almost never kept a clean sheet, Iceland only not scoring away in Croatia, but they conceded far too many goals, with several 3-1 and 3-2 losses to the likes of Sweden, Bulgaria and Hungary. They did manage to edge the Maltese who got 3 draws and an awful goal difference but that was a very small silver lining.

Iceland W 2004-06 Home

While similar looking, the white trim differs here to the 2004 shirt, with the red on the sides and underneath of the sleeves split from the rest of the shirt nicely by it. Additionally, the same style of collar is broken up, with a v-neck added (less common on the men’s side). Elasticated sleeve cuffs are an interesting touch too. It may not be entirely unique but it is nice to see a different style of shirt for the women over the men.

Used across parts of Euro 2005 qualification and 2007 World Cup qualifiers, Iceland’s women failed to make either tournament. For 2005 they were drawn with France, Russia, Hungary and Poland. France dominated, as expected, but Russia took 3 points off them in the away game and that, combined with Iceland only taking 1 point off the Russians meant that they fell short. 12 points from the bottom two teams was enough for them to reach the play-offs though, were Norway sadly thrashed them 9-3 on aggregate. For 2007, they faced Sweden, Czechia, Belarus and Portugal, once again getting a good away point, this time Sweden’s only dropped points, but falling to Czechia, who beat them home and away. 12 points against the bottom two meant they were three behind the Czechs, but no play-offs meant that neither side could make the World Cup.

Iceland 2006-08 Home, Match Issue?
Iceland 2006-08 Away, Match Issue?
Iceland 2006-08 GK, Matchworn Árni Gautur Arason v Denmark?

These shirts from 2006-08 are apparently much easier to source with these 3 representing my collection. 2 match-issue shirts lacking patches means they could be anything from friendly worn to being used in youth tournaments. We’re still prior to Iceland having names on their shirts though. The collar improves again, with trim like the rest of the shirt and no longer being just elasticated. The red accenting is much calmer here, with some lovely detail on the collar, and much calmer colour limited to the sleeves, the cuffs and the hem of the shirt. Feels a lot more thought through and detailed, the addition of the flags for the previous shirt seem popular as now there are ones on both sleeves!

Also from 2006-07 comes this match worn GK shirt, most likely by long term international servant Árni Gautur Arason who most notably made 2 appearances for Manchester City in the FA Cup. Looks to be from the first half of the Denmark away game as he used long sleeves in the 2nd half! The design is great, with a Euro 2008 patch and gold and white accenting. Asymmetrical is slightly bothersome and the offset number is strange but overall it is a beautiful shirt and I won’t hear a word against it. The old GK designs are particularly hard to get hold of and this is therefore one of my favourite shirts in the collection.

I’m not sure anyone can understand exactly what happened in Euro 2008 qualification. Iceland finished 6th of 7 teams and decided to ignore the “easy” points. A 1-1 draw at home to group (and eventual tournament) winners Spain was almost equalled by a 1-0 loss away and Northern Ireland were in the chasing pack but the Icelanders beat them 2-1 in Iceland and 3-0 away to leave them 6 points distant of qualification. This would seem to be a great thing but then they were battered 3-0 by Liechtenstein away and only drew 1-1 at home, losing every other game. Spain, Sweden, Northern Ireland, Denmark and Latvia all finished ahead of them and they only edged Liechtenstein by 1 point.

Iceland 2008-10 Home, matchworn Arnór Smárason v Netherlands
Iceland 2008-10 Away, matchworn Grétar Rafn Steinsson v Liechtenstein
Iceland 2008-10 GK, matchprepared Árni Gautur Arason v Netherlands

From reasonable highs to real lows, Errea returned to disappointment. A partially elasticated collar and a lack of any distinguishing marks on the shirt make for a really poor design. The worn versions saw an interesting variation in the Errea logo, which is nice. The collar gets back the red and white accenting, and the partial elastication, but it loses a lot of detail or innovation. Aside from the sleeve flags and a little white trim from collar to sleeves, it is rather plain. Definitely a downgrade.

On the other hand, the GK shirts were reasonable, with a continual stripe across the length of the sleeves and the shoulders, white panelling on the sides, a lovely gold colour and an interesting asymmetry to the collar. One half white and one half black doesn’t sound like much, and it isn’t, but it adds a little to the shirt and is complimented nicely by the black sleeve cuffs off the white of the sleeves. A complaint could definitely be that the logos and numbers are all clustered very high up on the chest, but it is easily better than the outfield shirts.

Iceland drew a short straw for 2010 World Cup qualification, being drawn in the sole group of 5. The Dutch walked away with a 100% record and left Norway, Scotland, Macedonia and Iceland to fight it out for what turned out to be no play-off spot. 5 points separated Norway in 2nd from Iceland in 5th with points being taken by everyone, from everyone else. Two 2-1 losses at home, a 1-1 draw with Norway and a 1-0 win over Macedonia wasn’t good enough for Iceland and a 2-2 draw against Norway away didn’t add enough. No margins over 2 goals was a promising stat but they didn’t do enough across the campaign.

Iceland 2010-12 Home, matchworn Rúrik Gíslason v Denmark
Iceland 2010-12 Home
Iceland 2010-12 Away, youth matchworn?

Errea did next return to form somewhat, with all the Icelandic colours are present once again. There’s a little red accenting on the collar and sleeve cuffs, and the collar design changes about again, to lose the elastic. To liven up the middle of the shirt, there are those white, curved areas. They’re a little strange but interesting to look at. They may have worked better in red, though the away having them in blue makes it look much better. Overall a good shirt, with home and away using all 3 Icelandic colours, but not really at the highs of 2002-04, maybe not even 2006-08.

Drawn with Denmark, Portugal, Norway and Cyprus, Iceland finished in 4th for Euro 2012 qualification. They were 12 points behind the Norwegians and only got 4 points, all against the Cypriots who finished bottom. Narrow away losses were probably the highlight, as points at home were also in short supply.  A 5-3 loss to Portugal (it was 3-2 to the Portuguese in the 80th minute!) was probably the standout result, but goals were in too short a supply all around.

Iceland 2012-13 Home, matchworn? Hólmfríður Magnúsdóttir v Netherlands
Iceland 2012-13 GK, matchworn/prepared?

Asymmetry is the word of the day for their next shirt. This time the curves are smoother and the accenting tertiary colouyr mainly paired with the secondary one. The design turns a bit plainer leaving the lower torso blank again, with the sleeves newly dominated by the Errea logo, rather than flags. The flag returns to the back of the shirt, adding a little to that, but the collar has lost something, only a little outlining helping it be anything but completely plain. An elegant design for sure, but continues the pattern of fairly unimaginative template shirts in nice colours rather than their initial dedicated efforts.

Drawn as bottom seeds for 2014 World Cup qualification in a slightly weaker group (Switzerland, Slovenia, Norway AGAIN, Albania and Cyprus), not much was expected of them. With their successful youth players moving across into the senior team, they refused to listen to expectations, returning to their competitive form of years past. Second place behind the Swiss was their lot, bringing them a play-off spot. They beat the Slovenians by 2 points, both teams with 5 wins, Iceland’s away draws proving the difference: 1-1 against Norway and an incredible 4-4 draw with Switzerland where they went 1-0 up, fell 4-1 down and drew in stoppage time thanks to a Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson hat-trick. A tricky play-off draw against Croatia meant that they fell short, with a 0-0 draw in Reykjavik despite an early red card and a 2-0 away loss despite an early Croatian red card! So close and yet so far.

Iceland 2014-15 Home, matchworn Kári Árnason v Turkey
Iceland 2014-15 Away
Iceland 2014-15 GK, matchworn/prepared?

Next up is a shirt that could be great but isn’t the most disappointing shirt of the Errea era. Well, that gives away my opinion pretty quickly doesn’t it? Polo neck style collars with buttons are the worst, but this isn’t far behind, with it basically just having a flappy opening on the front. The stripe is fairly striking, but short, and leaves a lot of plain blue space. The away shirt is a little better, due to the collar being blue, but we’re still left with too much blank space. Similarly the stripe stands out beautifully on the GK but it is too monotonous otherwise. With only detail on the front of the shirt, it is a little too dull but finally is a dedicated design again and proved a springboard for their next shirt.

Czechia, Turkey and the Netherlands were the big names to beat for Euro 2016, while Latvia and Kazakhstan could always cause problems. Iceland stayed atop the group for much of the campaign, beating their 3 rivals in Iceland and only losing to the Czechs and the Turks away by a single goal. They had a massive highlight with home and away wins against the Dutch (2-0 and 1-0), but home draws to the Latvians and Kazakhs would definitely have been a disappointment. 2 points from their last 3 games dropped them into 2nd place but they’d comfortably qualified, even under previous qualification rules. Crucially, despite how close they’d come before, they made their mark by qualifying for their first major tournament!

Iceland 2016-18 Home, Benchworn Kári Árnason v Greece
Iceland 2016-18 Away, Benchworn Ari Freyr Skúlason v Denmark
Iceland 2016-18 GK
Iceland 2016-18 GK
Iceland 2016-18 GK

The fading of the stripe around the logo, the switch to an off centre vertical stripe to make it stand out better and the reworking of the collar are spectacular improvements. Yes, asymmetry isn’t my favourite thing in the world but it does work herewith the highlighting of the KSI logo. The collar and sleeves have the white accenting to stand out, but it does still look slightly strange. Has the right balance of colours to look good without seeming forced and enough variety to not get boring. I’m a definite fan of the 2016-18 shirts. Let’s not talk about why they briefly had a lime green kit with blue numbers, please.

Euro 2016 was the clear highlight, with 2 draws and a win in the group stage sending them through in 2nd, ahead of Portugal and Austria but behind Hungary. Ronaldo famously threw a strop about their 1-1 draw but at least he got a nice trophy to make him feel better. The winning goal against Austria will live long in the memory. In the Round of 16 they faced England who would surely dispose of these upstarts, particularly after an early penalty. So they naturally lost 2-1 and the whole of Iceland celebrated. A 5-2 loss to France brought an end to the dream but they earned fans from across the world.

They used the same shirt for 2018 World Cup qualification against Croatia, Ukraine, Turkey, Finland and new boys Kosovo. A perfect home record (despite a 3-2 scare against Finland, with them scoring 91st and 96th minute goals) with only those 2 goals conceded propped up some shaky away form. The only other close game at home was 1 -0 win against Croatia. A much improved Kosovo were dispatched 2-1 and Turkey were comfortably beaten 3-0 but a draw with Ukraine and losses to Finland and Croatia (Finland’s only home victory) made things messier than they needed to be. However, Croatia dropped points in their penultimate game so Iceland topped the group to make a debut World Cup and shatter the record of smallest population at one (~330,000 vs T&T’s 1.2m)!

Iceland 2018-20 Home, matchworn Arnór Sigurðsson v Albania
Iceland 2018-20 Away, matchworn Birkir Már Saevarsson v Belgium
Iceland 2018-20 GK
Iceland 2018-20 GK

A transitioning of white to red across the shoulders to the collar but still interspersed with the blue is the main talking point of their next shirt. There’s some patterning down the sides of shirt too which help break up the plainness. All the shirts are the same pattern, with it working well across the blue and white outfield kits as well as the 3 goalkeeper styles (red, black and purple, though the latter was only youth used). It still isn’t broken up enough but that’s a flaw with the restrictions on World Cup kits. It can’t live up to the start, but it is still a strong end to their partnership with Errea.

The 2018 World Cup captivated the nation, with over 99.5% of the population watching their first game, a 1-1 draw with Argentina, including a penalty save by Hannes Halldórsson from Messi. They fell behind, quickly equalised and held one of the most potent attacks to nothing more. Their 2-0 loss to Nigeria was more disappointing but only a great defensive display saved the Croatians. Despite an Icelandic barrage, the Croats took the lead and 1-1 from a penalty wasn’t enough. Pressing forward at the death brought only a 2nd Croatian goal and Iceland fell at the first hurdle.

Euro 2020 qualification brought a little more joy, a 1-0 loss to France spoiling an otherwise 100% home record, but a loss to Albania away and a draw in Turkey saw them fall short by 4 points. France proved untouchable for them but Andorra and Moldova were easy prey. Their Nations League campaign against Switzerland and Belgium is best not talked about but it still got them a play-off spot.

Iceland 2020-22 Home, match prepared Viðar Örn Kjartansson v Romania
Iceland 2020-22 Home, benchworn Hjörtur Hermannsson v Germany

For the 2020’s, Iceland switched away from Italian manufacturers for the first time since 1992 to go to Puma. While a template, it did not spread far and wide so it still feels nicely original. Varying shades of blue across the front of the shirt and darker shades to highlight the sleeve cuffs and collar are added to by red streaks across all of the chest. The white away shifts between white and greys but otherwise matches. Lovely material throughout and Fyrir Ísland added to the rear of the collar!

Used across 2022 World Cup qualification, it will be remembered as that of a squad in transition. A narrow away loss in Denmark and narrow home losses to England and Belgium (controversially so for the former) are the only highlights from their Nations League campaign, sending them down to League B. In their Euros play-off they dispatched Romania, both sides limited in their squads by the pandemic, but conceded two, heart-breaking, late goals to Hungary to miss out on the tournament. 2022 qualifiers haven’t inspired much confidence but there are signs that the transition is bearing fruit.

Iceland 2022-24 Home, matchworn Mikael Neville Anderson v Lithuania
Iceland W 2022 Home
Iceland 2022-24 Away, benchworn Andri Lucas Guðjohnsen v Latvia
Iceland 2022-24 GK, matchworn Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson v Bosnia-Herzegovina

Puma followed up a solid start with…this. The away shirt has the interesting idea of the cage around the number with the logo on it and the eye is drawn to that with the deep grey stripes down the front. But…that’s it, there’s nothing else there and the whole shirt is this pale grey. The home shirt is at least the right colour, but the deep blue rectangle is…odd to say the least. At least the women’s team redeem themselves with the Liberty design changing it from a rectangle into a flowery pattern. The GK design is also alright, with the arrow pattern up the front as a nice effect. Puma’s ultraweave makes them incredibly light, but also means they crease strongly and easily. Not my favourite kits, to say the least.

Used across the 2022-23 Nations League and Euro 2024 qualifiers, Iceland’s transition seems to be bearing some of its first fruit. Unable to be relegated from League B (due to Russia’s ban) they somehow contrived to draw all 4 matches against Israel and Albania. For Euro 2024 they were drawn with Portugal, Slovakia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. A disastrous 3-0 opening defeat to Bosnia was followed by a 7-0 win over Liechtenstein and a change of manager. Matches were closer from then on, but despite a late win over Bosnia, they only added a win over Liechtenstein and a point against Luxembourg. Hopefully the play-offs will provide better luck.

Feels kind of strange to ask what’s typical of the senior men’s side now. Initially poor, with brief attempts for the 1958 World Cup and the 1964 Euros but started regularly playing in the 70’s, quickly rising from the bottom places to a mixture of play-off competition and contesting for the penultimate spot. They debuted at the 2000-01 Nordic Championship to finish 2nd, reached the 2001 Sahara Cup quarter-final (having joint top scorer) have 2nd place at the 2017 China Cup (having beaten China 2-0 and losing 1-0 to Chile) and they have 2 Greenland Cups (both achieved simply by beating Greenland and one of those is shared with the Faroes) from 1980 and 1984. They also hosted the 1986 Iceland Triangular Tournament but lost their games against Czechoslovakia and Republic of Ireland 2-1. Active in and outside of football, their development has been clear and they now stand established in Europe.

As with most Nordic nations, their women’s side is strong, though they initially started off slowly due to the small size of the Euros at the time. 4 qualifications since 2009 establish their credentials, though only 1 win and 4 draws in 13 games isn’t ideal. Their habit of finishing second in World Cup qualification groups has thus far restricted them for attending one, with a late goal denying them an automatic 2023 spot before they fell in the play-offs. Results such as a win in Germany for 2019 qualification further assure their quality. Youth football is a major focus in Iceland, but the small population means that the youth teams can get starved as talent moves to the senior side. The early 2010’s saw success for all the men’s youth teams, with the U21s and U17s qualifying for the euros (U21s came 5th) and the U19s reaching the second round of qualification. The U21s reached the 2021 Euros and fell in the play-offs for 2023 while the U19s were at the 2023 edition of their tournament. Otherwise the U17s have been the most successful, with 9 appearances in the Euros, finishing as high as 7th. Their women’s youth teams have fared similarly to the senior side, with the U19s qualifying for the Euros in 2007 (as hosts), 2009 and 2023, with the U17’s in 2011 and 2015 (as hosts) but otherwise regularly falling narrowly short. 4th place in 2011 was definitely the best result. Women’s youth World Cups being based on Euros results fall in the wrong years for any qualifications there.

Beach soccer hasn’t caught on in Iceland, perhaps for obvious reasons, but the surprise is definitely the lack of futsal. An attempt was made to qualify for the 2012 Euros where they entered the preliminary round but otherwise they haven’t been seen. A narrow loss to Latvia (5-4) and wins over Austria (5-4) and Armenia (6-1) weren’t enough to progress. With the large number of indoor pitches, most players play full football and so the FA does not focus on futsal at all.

For 2022 qualification they were always going to be in a period of rebuilding. They were expected to be fairly competitive though and fell short quickly. Some positives from the new generation helped them stabilise somewhat but it feels like a missed opportunity. Their only wins came against Liechtenstein, with 3 draws still leaving them 3 points short of even 4th. They’ll look to do better in future.

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