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"Situated roughly half way between Scotland and Iceland in the Northeast Atlantic, the Faroe Islands are an archipelago of 18 mountainous islands, with a total land area of some 1400 sq. kilometres, a sea area of 274,000 sq. kilometres and a population of just over 47,000. The language of the Faroe Islands, Faroese, is a west Nordic language, which derives from the language of the Norsemen who settled the islands 1200 years ago.
As a self-governing territory under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Faroe Islands legislate and govern a wide range of areas in accordance with the Home Rule Act of 1948. These include the conservation and management of living marine resources within the 200-mile fisheries zone, sub-surface resources, trade, fiscal, industrial and environmental policies, transport, communications, culture, education and research.
The Faroe Islands have chosen not to be a part of Denmark’s membership of the European Union. The Faroes negotiate their own trade and fisheries agreements with the EU and other countries, in consultation and cooperation with the Danish foreign ministry, and participate either independently or together with Greenland (Denmark in respect of the Faroe Islands and Greenland) in a range of regional fisheries management bodies.
With an economy overwhelmingly dependent on the fishing and aquaculture industries, the Faroes are keenly aware of the need to strengthen Faroese capacity to deal with the challenges of a globalised world. Enhancing economic independence is a key factor in ensuring sustainable development and stimulating economic diversity.
The very basis for economic and social well-being and cultural integrity in all countries and communities of the world, not least in the Faroe Islands, is a healthy and productive natural environment."
This is a spin-off from my Ross County story as I head off to start my international management career
News report from the Dingwall Times on Tuesday 6th July 2010
Ross County's Adam Eckersley appointed as manager of Faroes in shock move
Hamish Brodie reports:
In a move that has sent shockwaves through the whole of Scottish football and indeed through the wider European scene, the Faroe Islands FA today announced that Ross County manager Adam Eckersley was to be their new manager.
Eckersley has led Ross County to 3 SPL titles in the last 4 years having taken the club up from relegation contenders in Division 1 7 seasons ago to European challengers now. As well as domestic success, also winning the SFA Cup last season, Eckersley has taken Ross County to the Quarter-finals of the Champions League for the last 2 seasons and is widely acknowledged to be one of the best young managers around.
After turning down the England job 2 years ago, speculation was rife that Eckersley was waiting for the Scotland job to become available, since he is running an entirely Scottish squad at Ross County and was believed to be happily settled in Scotland. Having qualified so brilliantly for the World Cup, Scottish fans were highly disappointed with their team's showing at the competition as they finished bottom of their group containing Mexico, Germany and the Czech Republic. The pressure on the Scottish FA to sack manager Roy Aitken is growing by the day now, but today's news may have an effect on that. Adam Eckersley was seen by many to be the forerunner in the race to succeed Roy Aitken and lead Scotland into Euro 2012, but Eckersley today made the shock decision to take up the post as manager of the Faroe Islands, killing off any immediate thoughts the Scottish people had of him becoming their manager.
We hope to get an interview with Mr Eckersley in the next few days to discuss this amazing development as well as looking forward to the new season with Ross County so make sure you keep with the Dingwall Times.
News report from the Daily Record on Monday 12th July 2010
Scotland sack Roy Aitken
Angus Thomson reports:
The Scottish FA yesterday decided to terminate the contract of manager Roy Aitken, saying that they felt it was time for a change in management and that they are now actively seeking his replacement. The news will come as a surprise to few after Scotland's dismal showing in the World Cup this year. Whilst fans were delighted by the performance in qualifying for the World Cup ahead of Italy, it is performance at the major competitions that really matters and in only winning their final group game against the Czech Republic when chances of qualification for the knock-out stages were already over, manager Roy Aitken paid the ultimate price.
Speculation has been going on over the last week about Aitken being sacked and who would replace him and this news comes just 5 days after Ross County manager Adam Eckersley, who was considered by many to be the man to take Scotland forward, made the shock decision to become manager of the Faroe Islands. Many in the press have criticised Eckersley for making a decision which can at best be considered highly bizarre and at worst potentially very detrimental to his reputation, should he fail to improve the Faroes fortunes, as many are predicting. Mr Eckersley has made no comment regarding his decision to take over the Faroe Islands job as yet so his reasons are yet to be heard, but many consider it a snub to his adopted country of Scotland and it may be a while before the Scottish public forgive the man whom they took to their hearts as the manager who broke the Old Firm dominance with a team full of Scots and whom they all wanted to manage their national side.
Hibernian manager Colin Cameron has today emerged as the favourite to succeed Aitken, but the Scottish FA say that they are not in a hurry to make an appointment and will consider all candidates carefully for the job.
[This message was edited by Peacemaker7 on 05 March 2004 at 18:11.]
Article from the Dingwall Times on Monday 26th July 2010
Ross County and new Faroese manager Adam Eckersley talks exclusively to Hamish Brodie
Hamish: Thank you Adam, for giving us your first interview since taking over the Faroes job.
Adam: You're welcome Hamish. I've had a great relationship with the Dingwall Times during my stay at Ross County so it seemed right that I should talk to you ahead of the national media.
Hamish: When you rejected the England job two years ago, it was widely suspected that it was because you were waiting for the Scotland job to come up. Although I know you denied this at the time, you did state that you would love to manage Scotland.
Adam I've made no secret of the fact that I would one day like to manage Scotland, but that didn't have any immediate impact on my decision to reject England. As I said at the time, I rejected England because I was happy living up in North Scotland and didn't feel it was the right job for me.
Hamish: You must have known though, when you accepted the Faroes job, that Roy Aitken was very likely to be sacked as Scotland manager and that you were the favourite to replace him?
Adam: It's for the media to speculate about us managers losing our jobs Hamish. Between managers we have great respect for each other and I think Roy Aitken's sacking was quite harsh. The first seeds for me taking over the Faroese job were sewn a while ago back in April though and the Scotland job was far from my mind at the time.
Hamish: How did it come about then? Many people are thinking you must be mad to take over such a lowly country with little or no hope of ever getting anywhere or even winning any games, even if you didn't want the Scotland job yet!
Adam: Well, I'll deal with the how first before responding to the comments in the national media! It started back in April when a letter came to us at Ross County, totally out of the blue, from the Faroese FA. They were enquiring if it would be possible for myself and some of my Ross County coaches to go across to the Faroe Islands for a few weeks in the Summer off-season to do some coaching with their players and their club coaches as they had been very impressed with what we had achieved at Ross County. The idea intrigued me because I've always been interested in the Faroe Islands so I was happy to accept. As you know Hamish, I went on holiday officially at the start of May, leaving my assistant manager, Andy Goram, in charge for our last 4 league games. At the time we kept quiet as to the reasons and it was agreed that Archie would say only that I had been given time off before the cup final since we had secured the title.
Hamish: So Archie was totally behind you on the decision?
Adam: Oh yes, he has been fully involved throughout. We decided that we would take up the offer from the Faroese FA and go during May rather than in the off-season so I headed up there with 3 of my coaches during May, leaving a lot of speculation behind me as to why I was not there for the last 4 league games! It was a great experience for me - the Faroe Islands are one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time working with the Faroese FA, players and club coaches. It was mentioned at the time that then Faroese manager Henrik Larsen was considering retiring from the job in the Summer and things just went from there really. The Faroese FA were very impressed with me and my methods and I was impressed by them so we began establsihing connections between Ross County and the Faroes and ultimately they asked me if I was interested in succeeding Larsen as manager. It was one of those decisions that one makes, maybe more with the heart than the head, and on impulse, but I don't regret it. It's a challenge that I am relishing and the opportunity to spend some time in the Faroes is not at all bad!
Hamish: So the deal was very much underway before the World Cup kicked off?
Adam: Yes, we didn't finalise things until just before the announcement was made on my birthday that I was to become manager, but the discussions had begun before the World Cup. Had I known then of Scotland's fate and that of Roy Aitken after the world cup, I doubt my decision would have been any different. I would love to manage Scotland one day, but I'm still young and my primary aim is still to establish Ross County as the top team in Scotland and to win the Champions League with my all Scottish team - maybe after that, if the Scotland job hapens to become available it might happen, but who knows how long I will be in charge of the Faroes - I don't look at it at all as being a stop-gap job like many of the national media are saying. I can quite realistically see myself being here for the next 10 years if the Faroese FA and fans still want me.
Hamish: What are your aims realistically with the Faroes? You're 151st in the FIFA world rankings and widely regarded as one of those teams who just make up the numbers in Euro and World Cup qualifying.
Adam: I want to help Faroese football develop. Where that will take us I don't honestly know - we have to be realistic and say right now that the chances of the Faroe Islands ever qualifying for a major tournament are very slim. If I can improve our FIFA ranking and maybe take us into the top 100 that would be a huge achievement. It is a small country and whatever we do can't change that. With a population of under 50,000, we can assume only approximately half of those are male leaving ~25,000. How many of those are in the 18-30 age group? Maybe 5,000. How many of those can play football and want to play football? Well, your guess is as good as mine for the future, but from the listing I have from the Faroese FA, there are 298 Faroese footballers that I have at my disposal. It will be a huge challenge, maybe even a huge challenge just to win a game, but it is one that excites me hugely.
Hamish: You're in what many consider to be one of the weakest qualifying groups for Euro 2012, but you are still favourites to finish bottom of the group. How do you see the qualifying going?
Adam: Well, I have to say I took the job before I even looked at the qualifying group, but it is very interesting. Germany are the highest ranked team in our group at 28 and hot favourites to qualify, but then the other 3 teams are all lower down the ranking, although of course comfortably above our 151st ranking. Austria, Switzerland and Northern Ireland are the teams people expect to be scrapping for 2nd place. If we can finish above any of them it would be a great achievement, but it isn't beyond the bounds of possibility, however unlikely, that we could actually challenge them for 2nd place. Of course, that isn't what either I or the Faroese FA expect, but the ultimate aim of the qualifying groups is to qualify of course so that will be our ultimate aim, however unlikely.
Hamish: Well, the people of Dingwall and us here at the Dingwall Times wish you all the best and we will certainly be reporting on your games and will have a Dingwall-based branch of the Faroese fanclub!
Adam: Thank you Hamish. The people of Dingwall have been great in their support for me and I can assure them that I will still be putting every effort into taking Ross County to the pinnacle of European football.
Hamish: Just before you go, a quick word on Ross County for the new season...how do you see things going?
Adam: My main aim, as ever, is to win (and retain) the SPL and continue to establish ourselves as the major force in Scottish football. If we can retain the Scottish FA Cup also then that would be excellent. Then of course there's Europe again - we've made the Quarter-finals for the last two seasons, beaten by PSV both times, but I think this year we were closer to beating them than previously and if we can go one step further and reach the semis this year that would be fantastic, but we can't take anything for granted. Just qualifying from our group again will be no easy task and if we can again do that we will have achieved a great deal again.
[This message was edited by glamdring on 05 March 2004 at 14:04.]
It's 27 days now until the first match in our Euro 2012 Qualifying Group and having just kiecked off our domestic season yesterday, I'll have to juggle my duties with Ross County and getting to know my Faroese charges to decide who to select in the squad for the first matches which will be a double-header, home to Austria and 4 days later away to Switzerland.
In some senses we are very fortunate the way the group has been drawn, but whatever group we were to be in we would be supposedly the worst team so we have no illusions as to how difficult a task this will be.
The 10 groups as drawn, before any matches have been played are included below together with the world rankings of the nations in our group.
The current top-ranked nations in the FIFA rankings are as follows:
3. France
5. Ukraine
11. Norway
15. Republic of Ireland
17. Greece
18. Italy
25. Denmark
27. England
28. Germany
30. Czech Republic
37. Romania
38. Sweden
41. Croatia
44. Serbia & Montenegro
45. Holland :eek:
47. Belgium
48. Portugal
49. Wales
53. Scotland
54. Poland
59. Russia
61. Austria
63. Finland
64. Slovakia
66. Turkey
68. Slovenia
69. Spain :eek:
75. Hungary
African, Asian and American nations have somewhat taken over many of the top ranking positions with Brazil and Nigeria heading the ranks.
[This message was edited by glamdring on 05 March 2004 at 16:25.]
After long discussions with the various scouts I sent out to watch as many Faroese players as possible and pouring over the information handed to me by the Faroese FA and former manager Henrik Larsen I have selected my first international squad. It was certainly hard deciding who to include and who to leave out, what composition of players to have and other decisions to select 26 players, but I hope I have all areas well enough covered from the fairly small pool of players available to me.
Archie has been great about the whole Faroe Islands linkup and has thrown himself whole-heartedly into it - he is one of those impulsive people who likes new and innovative ideas. He came over for a few days during our spell in the Faroes in May and told the Faroese FA that they and any of their clubs were more than welcome to visit Dingwall to use our new modern training facilities whenever they wished. Ross County is indeed the closest British league club to the Faroe Islands and now thanks to our European Champions League money we have some of the best training facilities and youth academy not only in Britain, but in Europe as a whole.
Having some of the Faroese players come over here to train helps me hugely in judging their talent and watching them also, even though it isn't very frequent. Archie, like much of the Scottish press and public had fully expected that I would begin my international management with his native Scotland and managing many of the players on the Ross County roster, but he is completely behind my decision to coach the Faroes and his support is invaluable. He is very much interested in fostering long-term links with the Faroes and many of their clubs to help them develop their football.
The squad selected for the opening two matches is as follows:
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Squad ScreenMortensen, A GK Petersen, M GK Danielsen, A D/M RC Hansen, M D/DM RC Jacobsen, J D/F RC Mortensen, V D/DM RC Gregersen, Ó D/DM LC Jacobsen, J D/DM L Poulsen, J D LC Dam, Ó D C Gregersen, A D C Johannesen, A D C Mikkelsen, J D/DM C Joensen, M DM RC Benjaminsen, F DM C Højgaard, R M RLC Johannesen, K M RC Justinussen, K M LC Joensen, T M C Djurhuus, J AM RC Nielsen, J AM/F C Olsen, S AM C Borg, J F RC Petersen, F F RC Fløtum, A F C Olsen, B S C </pre>
Our 2 star players are undoubtably Ólavur Gregerson and Jón Rói Jacobsen and we'll need both to be on form if we are to get anything from our matches with Austria and Switzerland. We don't have the strength in depth to be able to carry our star players if they don't perform - they have to carry the lesser players with them if we are to be successful.
[This message was edited by Raptor on 08 March 2004 at 18:59.]
For those who haven't followed my Ross County story and don't wish to trawl through that, Archie is the Ross County chairman and long time friend of myself
FT: Faroe Islands 0-2 Austria
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Wallner 45 Kulovits 68</pre>
Austria were never in much danger of defeat in Tórshavn after Roman Wallner had given them the lead just before half time. In a close first half, there were few chances for either side and the Faroese approach play was for the most part rather unimaginative with sole striker Jákup á Borg seeing very little of the ball and Jón Rói Jacobsen and Jan Djurhuus being guilty of giving away possession too often as they attempted to run with the ball. With the half drawing to a close, the Faroe Islands' previously tight defence failed to pick up Wallner as Alexander Proyer played a through ball and the Austrian striker slotted clinically past Petersen.
The Faroe Islands switched to a more adventurous attacking formation in the second half, throwing on Fróði Petersen to add more options upfront, but still failed to create any scoring opportunites as the Austrian defence comfortably cut out and mopped up the Faroese attacks. With 68 minutes on the clock, Joachim Standfest found Stefan Kulovits in space and another neat finish saw the Austrians take a 0-2 lead that they never looked like surrendering. Alex Manninger had to be at his best to make two good saves late on for the Austrians, but the cutting edge just wasn't there for the Faroese and at the final whistle no-one could really argue with the final score.
New Faroese manager Adam Eckersley was disappointed with the result and performance, but said he knew it would be tough and that his side were expected to lose every match in the group. He pointed to the two defensive errors, failing to pick up opposition players in dangerous positions as the reason for the defeat whilst also conceding that the Faroese attacking play lacked any decisiveness and his players constantly gave the ball away. Eckersley remained upbeat however, saying that his side had created some chances and that the defending apart from those 2 mistakes had been solid. It remains to be seen how many changes are made to personnel and tactics for what is sure to be an even tougher fixture, away in Switzerland on Wednesday.
Diving into the North Atlantic 
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