ISLAND GAMES

The Island Games, were first held on July 6th 1985, when a gathering of "island" teams from the British Isles "colonies" came together, as part of the Isle of Man sporting jamboree. The organisers casually asked Greenland, The Faroes, and Saint Helena from the South Atlantic if they would like to join in, so when they said yes, suddenly the status of the tournament was raised and the event became biennial.Guernsey put in a bid for the 2021 Games following the Faroe Islands' withdrawal from hosting. The bid was approved in July 2016. Due to COVID-19, the 2021 Games were cancelled and rescheduled for 2023 with Guernsey still as hosts and future hosts "pushed out" by two years.

 In May 2018, the Parliament of the Faroe Islands guaranteed €1,500,000 towards hosting the Games in or before 2029.

In August 2018 it was reported that the Falkland Islands are considering hosting the Games in 2033, and "the Island Games Executive" planned to visit the Falklands in 2020 for their Spring Meeting" to discuss the proposition.

Anglesey Island hosted the 2019 Island Games Football Tournament. The "Global" Island Games, was planned to being  held on Gibraltar this year, but the island cannot host the football because there isn't enough room!! Keep it on the Island........which football club in the English League had that as a chant?

There are enough pitches on Anglesey fortunately-so problem solved.
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2019/06/international-island-games.html

Football was included on the games' menu during the third staging of the tournament, when the only FIFA affiliated island, the Faroes, who also happened to be the hosts, beat Anglesey (Ynys Mon) 6-0 to win gold. There were four matches to play and the Faroes won all their fixtures, taking gold home.
Anglesey took silver and Aland, bronze. You know Aland..in the Gulf of Bothnia?? You know Bothnia? Use an Atlas.

In 1991, the Faroes (flag below) held on to their title but having gained full FIFA and UEFA membership they had bigger fish to fry! They competed in their first major tournament on September 12th 1990 when they beat Austria 1-0 in front of a home crowd of 1,544. A 61st minute goal from amateur timber worker, Torkil Neilsen, settled the tie. The Faroes won the Island Games in 2009.

Football is by far the biggest sports activity on the islands, with 7,000 registered players out of the whole population of 52,000. Ten football teams contest the F.L. Premier League, currently ranked 51st by UEFA's "League Coefficient"-menaing how important is the league compared to other UEFA nations? The Faroe Islands are a full member of UEFA, the islands competing in UEFA qualifiers. The Faroe Islands is also a full member of FIFA and therefore the Faroe Islands football team also competes in the World Cup qualifiers. The Faroe Islands won its first ever qualifier when the team defeated Austria 1–0 in a UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying.

The nation's biggest success in football came in 2014 after defeating Greece 1–0, a result that was considered "the biggest shock of all time" in football, thanks to a 169-place distance between the teams in the FIFA Rankings when the match was played. The team climbed 82 places to 105 on the FIFA ranking after the 1–0 win against Greece. The team went on to defeat Greece again on 13 June 2015 by a score of 2–1. On 9 July 2015, the national football team of the Faroes climbed another 28 places up on the FIFA ranking.

Guernsey and Jersey have been successful in the Island Games football tournament with at least two gold medal wins but spare a thought for Sark (where's that?), who in the 2003 tournament lost 20-0, 19-0, 16-0 and 15-0 in their ties (70 goals in five days)....but at least they appear to have improved. By the way, their goalie also saved two penalties.

This year the hosts won Gold beating Guernsey 2-1 and the Isle of Man cruised past Shetland 5-0 for third place.

In the Women's tournament:
Winners were in rank order: IOM, then Ynys Mon, Jersey, Hitra, Western Isles and Gibraltar.
Guess where this shield comes from? Orkney will host the 2025 Games and invite these islands.

Aland	Finnish autonomous province	28,666
Alderney	Part of a British crown dependency	1,900
Bermuda	British overseas territory	64,200
Cayman Islands	British overseas territory	56,700
Falkland Islands	British overseas territory	2,900
Faroe Islands	Autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark	49,700
Frøya	Norwegian municipality island	4,300
Gibraltar	British overseas territory	30,000
Gotland	Swedish county	57,200
Greenland	Autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark	56,000
Guernsey	British crown dependency	65,800
Hitra	Norwegian municipality island	4,250
Isle of Man	British crown dependency	84,500
Isle of Wight	English county  United Kingdom	138,400
Jersey	British crown dependency	105,500
Menorca	Spanish island	94,400
Orkney Islands	Scottish council area  United Kingdom	21,300
Saaremaa	Estonian island - county	31,000
Saint Helena	British overseas territory	4,250
Sark	Part of a British crown dependency	600
Shetland Islands	Scottish council area  United Kingdom	23,200
Western Isles Na h-Eileanan an Iar	Scottish council area  United Kingdom	27,400
Ynys Môn Anglesey

Anglesey Population 69,000. Future tournaments are:-

2021	Postponed due to COVID-19 Pandemic
2023	XIX	Guernsey
2025	XX	Orkney
2027	XXI	Ynys Môn
2029	XXII	Isle of Man

Of the 23 current IIGA members, two (Bermuda and the Cayman Islands) have competed in their own right at the Olympics. Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Jersey and St. Helena have each sent teams to the Commonwealth Games.