If you are a soccer fan, Iceland is likely on your radar for the past few weeks and not for the geothermal pools, northern lights or the unpronounceable volcano names. Despite its defeat against France, the surprising and deserved presence in an Euro Cup quarter-finals are one of those thrilling and memorable moments in the sport. Not just for the result itself but for the full ride, the supporters’ chants and Viking-inspired dances and the always-root-for-the-underdog sentiment that seeped in after the first match in the competition, a tie against Portugal.
Iceland’s campaign grandeur is shown in the fact that roughly around 8% of the country’s population (around 30,000 people) traveled to France to support the Icelandic squad. In rough figures, it would be as if 25 million Americans (or 108 million Chinese!) traveled abroad to support their team in a competition. After another two massive feats, finishing the group stage in second place and beating England in the round of 16, an unavoidable comparison stemmed from most of fans and journalists alike: Iceland might be to the Euro 2016 what Leicester was to the English Premier League on 2015-16 season. Although at first the comparison appeals to the romantic side, the numbers show a different view.
Iceland might be to the Euro 2016 what Leicester was to the English Premier League on 2015-16 season.
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Iceland currently is the 34th squad in FIFA’s ranking (June/16), not so far under fellow Euro Cup teams Russia (29), Poland (27), Czech Republic (30) and Ireland (33) and already above Sweden (35). Removing all the non-European countries, Iceland is the 24th best squad in the planet today, which makes their performance, alas impressive, less surprising.
Leicester, on the other hand, spent 10 seasons (2004-05 to 2013-14) away from the first division of English football (Premier League), with one season on the third division (2008). Back to the top-tier on 2014-15, Leicester was able to escape an almost-certain relegation with an outstanding stretch of 7 wins out of the last 9 games, after having only won 2 out of 29 until then, finishing in 14th place. Following season, the squad performed consistently for 38 games and won the championship four rounds in advance with a ten-point lead over the runner-up.
Whilst Iceland odds to be champion were 80-to-1 at the beginning of the tournament and 33-to-1 before the last match against France, Leicester odds were around 5000-to-1 at first and dropped to 500-to-1 by mid-season. It is fair to say that, while what happened to Iceland might happen in every other high-level competition, Leicester achievement was an once-in-a-century moment.
Leaving the comparisons aside, the main reason why Leicester and Iceland move a multitude of fans to support them is because they appeal to an instinctive and atavistic feeling within all of us, this belic inspiration of ‘strength in numbers’, of ‘group over individuals’, of ‘overcoming insurmountable obstacles’.
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Leaving the comparisons aside, the main reason why Leicester and Iceland move a multitude of fans to support them is because they appeal to an instinctive and atavistic feeling within all of us, this belic inspiration of ‘strength in numbers’, of ‘group over individuals’, of ‘overcoming insurmountable obstacles’. The same feeling that moved you to support the 300 of Sparta is the one that made you celebrate each Leicester victory or Iceland goal. The parallel between sports and pre-modern war is reinforced when moments like this appear.
As if acting like a defense system, after achieving the objective proposed, this emergent feeling automatically triggers an also instinctive social reaction that automatically desire for the proper order of things to be reestablished – we want the strong to lead, the weak to fall. We need to justify the remaining of the one that just arrived. It is as if we revert to an even earlier stage in our evolution – medieval that makes us support the new and tribal that makes us shape the new into something that makes sense and fit into the established rules.
We, the spur-of-the-moment fans, instead of a Kafkaesque support to “move them beyond the point of no return” and make them a place in the new established status, we act as Sisyphus’ boulder, waiting for him to reach the top so that we can roll all the way down.
Despite this conflict of intrinsic and paradoxical feelings, sports fan will still consider ludicrous the Orwellian argument that this war-like view as a reason to somehow write-off sports altogether. The question posed now is if technology will change sports the same way it changed war. In the recent years, it is clear that technology has brought innumerous benefits, bringing athletes to achieve results never before thought possible. If sports follow the same path as war, teams like Iceland or Leicester will likely no longer be part of the news.
*Just a side cult note: To create its jersey, Iceland drew inspiration from “Escape to Glory” (a classic eighties’ movie with Stallone and Pelé). Check it out!
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Photo credit: Getty Images