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About 10 per cent of Greenland's 56,000 inhabitants are soccer players, or around 5,500. Matches are held on gravel/dirt, turf, or grass grounds with breathtaking views of snow-capped mountains and floating icebergs. "We come outside and we play football all night," said Angutimmarik Kreutzmann, who is among many locals taking full advantage of the midnight sun.
But that enthusiasm was dampened this summer when the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) voted to not admit Greenland, unanimously turning away the associate member's application for full membership. Some cited geopolitical tensions and the island's increasing strategic value, while others said, like the national team captain Patrick Frederiksen, that high travel costs were the true cause. "We all know it's just really expensive to travel to Greenland," he said.
Barriers to International Recognition
Greenland is a semi-autonomous nation, part of Denmark, and cannot join UEFA, the European soccer federation, as it is not an independent country — a rule adopted by UEFA in 2007. CONCACAF has no such rule, and that organization's decision was the most frustrating for the footballing community in Greenland.
What frustrates it is that Faeroe Islands — another Danish territory with its own national team — has done it too. The Faeroe Islands became members of FIFA and UEFA decades ago, long before the standards were increased to the likes of 40,000-seat stadiums — a size that is impractical in Greenland. "With our small population, such a stadium is not in the pipeline," the tourist agency for Greenland said.
Yet local clubs like Nuuk's B-67 are still going strong. "Come watch a game," said coach Oscar Scott Carl. "It's also a very big part of creating unity in the country." Players even stay active during the long winters, moving indoors for a type of soccer called futsal. The national team has even competed in Brazil's Intercontinental Futsal Cup this year.
A National Dream Lives On
The national football association of Greenland is the Kalaallit Arsaattartut Kattuffiat (KAK), which was founded in 1971 and runs the men's teams and the women's teams. The players are not just athletes but also local heroes, many of whom volunteer for community projects and mentor young fans. "They want to have their picture taken with us or our autograph," Frederiksen said.
Even though we've had a couple of punches, we all want to be playing internationally. "I think we have something for the world to see," said Jimmy Holm Jensen, the chairman of B-67. Official FIFA tournaments may yet remain a dream too far for Greenland, but the unquenchable passion and unifying power of the never-setting sun in Arctic skies continue to fuel the rabid interest in playing the game in this part of the world.
