The Greenland Cup ( da, Grønlands Cup, kl, Kalaallit Nunaat Imertarfik) was an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

friendly

knock-out tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

controlled by the

Football Association of Greenland The Football Association of Greenland ( Greenlandic: ''Kalaallit Nunaanni Isikkamik Arsaattartut Kattuffiat''; da, Grønlands Boldspil-Union) (KAK) is the governing body of association football in the island country of Greenland. The KAK was foun ...

. The

Greenland National Football Team The Greenland national football team represents Greenland in non-FIFA international tournaments. It is controlled by the Football Association of Greenland. Although it has the same status as the Faroe Islands within the Kingdom of Denmark, Gr ...

competed as a regular in its short-lived running. Despite being the representing country, Greenland never won the Greenland Cup. It ran from 1980 to 1984, with 3 tournaments overall. It was contested by the Greenland, Faroe Islands and Iceland senior male national teams who, at the time, were not affiliated with FIFA. The

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

and

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

were the only teams to win the tournament. Both countries have since gone on to become

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

and FIFA members.

Overview

The Greenland Cup tournament was created in 1980. The tournament used knock-out rules or a

round robin Round-robin may refer to: Computing * Round-robin DNS, a technique for dealing with redundant Internet Protocol service hosts * Round-robin networks, communications networks made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology * Round-robin schedu ...

system. The tournament matches did not have

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

, nor did they go to a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. Matches were replayed if drawn, as in the 1983 final. The first tournament was held in

Sauðárkrókur Sauðárkrókur () is a Localities of Iceland, town on the Skagafjörður in northern Iceland. It is the seat of both the Skagafjörður (municipality), Sveitarfélagið Skagafjörður ('Municipality of Skagafjörður') and the Northwestern Re ...

Akureyri Akureyri (, locally ) is a town in northern Iceland. It is Iceland's fifth-largest municipality, after Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörður, Reykjanesbær and Kópavogur, and the largest town outside Iceland's more populated southwest corner. Nicknamed ...

and

Húsavík Húsavík () is a town in Norðurþing municipality on the north coast of Iceland on the shores of Skjálfandi bay with 2,307 inhabitants. The most famous landmark of the town is the wooden church Húsavíkurkirkja, built in 1907. Húsavík i ...

, Iceland. The hosts beat the Faroe Islands 2–1 in the first match, on 30 June 1980. Greenland lost their first game 6–0 to the Faroes, and, in the last match, Iceland's national team beat Greenland 4-1 – Iceland's Marteinn Geirsson, Páll Ólafsson,

Lárus Guðmundsson Lárus Guðmundsson (born 12 December 1961) is an Icelandic former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), striker. Club career Guðmundsson started his career at Knattspyrnufélagið Víkin ...

, and

Guðmundur Steinsson Guðmundur Steinsson (born 18 July 1960) is an Icelandic former professional footballer who played as a forward. He made 19 appearances scoring eight goals for the Iceland national team. At club level he played for Knattspyrnufélagið Fra ...

scored a goal each, however, Greenland forward Kristofer Ludvigsen scored the last goal. Two years after the first edition, 1983 saw the second Greenland Cup. The match for the cup between Greenland and the Faroe Islands ended in a 0–0 draw. The match was then replayed several days later. The rematch saw the Faroe Islands beating Greenland in a close 3–2 victory in the Greenland capital city of

Nuuk Nuuk (; da, Nuuk, formerly ) is the capital and largest city of Greenland, a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the country's largest cultural and economic centre. The major cities from other co ...

. The third and last Greenland Cup

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

was in 1984, when Iceland made a comeback to the tournament. Greenland lost to both the Faroe Islands and Iceland in 1-0 results, putting Greenland in third place. The Faroe Islands and Iceland met in the final, sharing the cup after the match came to a draw. After this tournament, the Greenland Cup was abolished due to a lack of quality from Greenland's national team. The

's president, Lars Lundblad, mentioned the interest in reviving the Greenland Cup after the improvement of Greenland's team and would be possible if Greenland joins FIFA.

Winners

# The first 1983 Greenland Cup final ended in a 0–0 result between Faroe Islands and Greenland, so the match was replayed.

1980

1983

1984

Post-tournament friendly

Goalscorers

;4 goals * Asmund Nolsøe ;1 goal * Kristian Petersen * Samuel Vagalid * Niels Davidson * Eydun Dahl Christiansen * Aksel Højgaard * Kristoffer Ludvigsen * Kresten Kreutzmann * Lars Sandgreen * Larus Godmundsson * Paul Olfsson * Martinus Gerisson * Godmund Steirsson {{div col end

External links

RSSSF - Greenland Cups 1980–84

References

Football competitions in Greenland Greenland national football team Greenland-related lists