The Faroe Islands Premier League kvinnur (also known as ''Betri Deildin kvinnur'' for sponsorship reasons) is the top level women's football league of 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 ...

. It was called 1. deild kvinnur until 2018, when the Faroese top tier in the women's football for the first time was named after a sponsor. The new name was Betri Deildin kvinnur and is a deal for five years, from 2018 until the end of the 2022 season. It is organized by the

Faroe Islands Football Association The Faroe Islands Football Association ( fo, Fótbóltssamband Føroya; da, Færøernes fodboldforbund), or FSF, is the governing body of all domestic football in the Faroe Islands, the highest level of which is the Faroe Islands Premier League. ...

and it was first played in 1985. The winners qualify for the

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. The ...

History

The league was played for the first time in 1985. In its early years and throughout the 1990s, it was dominated by the

Tórshavn Tórshavn (; lit. "Thor's harbour"), usually locally referred to as simply ''Havn'', is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the northwest of the city lies the ...

teams, with HB winning it seven times and B36 four; other teams to be crowned champions in the period were Skála, two times, and ÍF, once. KÍ also won their first title during the successful period of the Tórshavn duo.

The KÍ era

KÍ dominated the league from 2000, winning it seventeen times in a row, establishing a new world record for consecutive championships won. The dominance was so big that in an interview in 2005, after winning the league for the sixth consecutive season, KÍ

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Malena Josephsen Malena Josephsen (born 3 January 1977) is a Faroe Islands, Faroese Association football, football midfielder who Captain (association football), captains KÍ Klaksvík (women), KÍ Klaksvík of the Faroese 1. deild kvinnur. From 2004 until 2015, ...

stated: "We know when we go on the pitch that we will win the match, the only question is yhow much we will win. We are not getting any better by playing in this league."

A new champion and sponsorship deal

After being runners-up four consecutive times, EB/Streymur/Skála ended KÍ's winning streak in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

, becoming only the second club to represent the Faroe Islands in the

, and defended their title in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

. For the 2018 season, the league gained its first sponsorship deal, when the FSF announced that Betri, a bank and insurance company headquartered in

, would sponsor the men's and women's leagues, thus changing 1. deild kvinnur's name to Betri deildin kvinnur. The second best division was then given the name 1. deild kvinnur.

Format

In 2020 the league will be contested by six teams, playing each other four times for a total of 20 rounds. A second division exists, but there is no

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues ...

between the two divisions.

Current teams

In 2020 the league will be contested by six teams, the same as in 2018, one team more from last season's five, as the women's team from the club NSÍ from Runavík entered the league.

List of seasons

Titles by club

Clubs in bold are currently playing in the league.
Clubs in ''italics'' are competing in cooperation with another club or inactive in women's football.

References

External links

League
at

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 ...

Faroese women's league
on Soccerway.com {{UEFA women's leagues Far 1

Women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

Women's sports leagues in the Faroe Islands