B71 Sandur

B71 (Sandoy) (B71 being short for Bóltfelagið 1971 – literal translation: "Ball Club 1971") is a Faroese sports club, playing their home games ''Inni í Dal'', Sandur. Teams are made up of players from all the towns on the island of Sandoy.

Current squad

The Club history

Origins (1970–1971)

Although B71 is one of the youngest football-teams in the Faroe Islands, there has always been a considerable amount of interest in sports on the particular island from which the team fares.
Football had been played well before B71 was established in 1970, but since sand-surfaces were deemed unsuitable for football, a team had yet to be formed.

In the late 1960s, two of the island's towns, Sandur and Skopun, started to compete. There were no goals, so instead they used two rocks each, representing goalposts. This rivalry between two of Sandoy's biggest towns went on for several summers, bringing in truckloads of people from Skopun, even though cars had yet to be accessible to the common man.

At around the same time, a new school was being built on Sandoy, where there also would be built a field on which to play sports. As a result of this, people started talking about forming a new team and on New Year's Day 1970, a sports team was established. The preliminary year, the team was called ''Sand'', since only players from the town of Sandur were fielded. But the following year the team's name was changed to B71. Since players from the entire island wanted to be a part of the team, it no longer seemed fitting to name the team after just one town.

The first year only two teams were fielded. One senior team, playing in, what in those days was referred to as ''Meðaldeildin'' and one boys-team.

The Early Years (1972–1985)

In the beginning, B71 took baby-steps towards their eventual greater years in the late 1980s, early-to-mid-1990s. Players like Eli Hentze, Torbjørn Jensen, brothers Róin and Jóan Petur Clementsen, and many more, were still playing in the youth divisions, and would not feature prominently until they came of age in the second half of the 1980s.

Faroese Champions (1986–1989)

Nothing really spectacular happened until B71 became 3. division champions in 1986. Two years later, in 1988, they won the 2. division and then, remarkably, they became 1. division champions in 1989, without losing a single game that year. When all was said and done, B71 ended up with a resounding 31-point tally, as opposed to a more modest 22 points by runners-up HB, who, coincidentally, were pummeled 6–2 in the final match of the season against none other than, B71.

B71's success has, in later years, been attributed largely to the successful blend of a Polish influence, consisting of coach Jan Kaczynski, robust midfielder, turned coach, Piotr Krakowski, goalkeeper Waldemar Nowicki, and uniquely solid local players, including, Eli Hentze, Ib Mohr Olsen, Páll á Reynatúgvu, Torbjørn Jensen, brothers Róin and Jóan Petur Clementsen, and many more.

B71 also reached the final of the Faroese Cup in 1989. The initial match resulted in a 1–1 draw, but they ended up losing 2–0 after the replay.

In the space of 3–4 years B71 had gone from being an obscure 3. division side, to Faroese 1. division champions.

Relegation shocker (1990)

For some reason or another, B71 were unable to defend their title the following year. Instead, everything ended in catastrophe. Rather than posing a title challenge, B71 were relegated, forced to spend at least a year in the second-best division.
The shame would, however, be short-lived, since B71 immediately bounced back and were promoted the very next year.

The infamous Faroese Cup finals (1993–1994)

Although B71 continued to pose a threat in the Faroese top-division during the early 1990s, (never finishing lower than 4th) they never captured the league trophy a second time. Instead, focus turned to the Faroese Cup, where B71 had even greater success during their reign as one of the top sides in Faroese football.

B71 reached the finals in two consecutive