The “Faroese fairytale” continues at the EHF EURO 2026

5,500 fans — or 10 per cent of the whole Faroese population — went crazy after the team took their very first point at a senior EHF EURO final tournament. After missing out on playing at the 2025 IHF World Championship, eliminated by North Macedonia, Elias Ellefsen á Skipagøtu and his colleagues are now preparing for the EHF EURO 2026. They will face Slovenia, Switzerland and Montenegro in group D, and their country will be almost empty in the middle of January as 7,500 fans from the Faroe Islands are expected to travel to Oslo.

Although the men’s team missed the World Championship in January, 2025 is a historical year: the under-21 side won bronze at the World Championship in Poland — the first medal at an international tournament — and Óli Mittún became MVP.

He had already been part of the EHF EURO 2024 squad alongside his brother Pauli, while their sister Jana is now playing her maiden World Championship after debuting at the EHF EURO 2024. Not to mention that the Mittúns are cousins of Elias Ellefsen á Skipagøtu, whose father is the goalkeeper coach of both the men’s and women’s national team, while his mother is the president of the federation. 

“The passion for handball runs in our families,” says Elias Ellefsen á Skipagøtu. “I fell in love early with handball because my father played the sport; I liked it from the start. I think this is the same for my teammates, because we are quite a small country. In the Faroe Islands, the halls are always open, we went there every day, taking some friends. We played just for fun, but we got better and better. We are still friends. We are a true team, it is fun and amazing to be able to represent our country in competitions such as the World or European Championships with your friends.” 

Ari Rouch has been part of the “Faroe-tale” for 13 years and is officially the Secretary General of the Faroe Islands Handball Federation, but is also taking care of almost everything related to handball in the Faroe Islands. And he knows everything about the “zero to hero” story.

“Handball in the Faroe Islands started in the 1940s as a women's sport. It came from Denmark with a Danish teacher to the Faroe Islands,” explains Rouch.

“In the 1970s Faroe Islands became an IHF member, our first golden time. But then the handball federation went bankrupt three times, we did not have any more senior national teams, but only a junior team, which could exist only due to the IHF funding,” says Rouch. “I started in the handball federation in 2012 and I was the only employee and only with a half-time job. Our budget was around 200,000 Euro — now it is two million.”

The Faroe Islands Handball Federation started their “senior national teams mission” from scratch. “We slowly expanded to fully compete with youth teams, starting at the IHF Emerging Nations tournaments. In 2019, we decided to compete again with the senior teams. All the attention we gave to the youth during the previous years has paid off since then. We always had good players in our local clubs, but we needed to organise them. We started to implement national teams and we started our overall strategy on three pillars: economy, administration and sportive success. You can't just have one of those. All must fit if you want to be successful,” adds Rouch. 

At one moment, he realised that something big might be coming: “I remember when I was standing in a corner in a Faroese training hall and I saw Elias [Ellefsen á Skipagøtu] and his teammates play in the local club H71. I said to my colleague that when these boys grow up, they will be good. I thought it was always going to take much longer — but after three years, those boys were somehow already in the spotlight of European handball, after winning the European Open in Gothenburg, our first trophy. After that, these boys progressed to the senior team.”

These are the boys born after 2002, mixed with the former generation, from 1996, who were the first to qualify for a U19 World Championship. 

After Elias Ellefsen á Skipagøtu, Óli Mittún also received many individual awards, being MVP at Younger Age Category events three times and grabbing the top scorer trophy twice.

“Those awards are important for us. It sheds a lot of light on Faroese handball to have players with this X-factor. Like Maradona or Messi of handball. We are proud of that. And it's also our role model for youngsters. But we never forget the whole team,” says Rouch. 

Being a small country sometimes has its advantages, he is sure: “We try to see in another light the fact that we are small. In our youth development programme, we know every player. Because there are only a few. It's very easy for us to come together. We can meet almost every weekend if we want to. We have a lot of training halls in the Faroe Islands and we try to keep them always open for the kids to go in. We found our own way.”

At the EHF EURO 2024, the Faroe Islands were “the champions of the hearts”, although they failed to qualify for the main round. But the picture of celebrating the draw against Norway with their crazy fans went all around the world.

“Since then, we have had a huge handball hype at home. Every national player, no matter what age group, did everything to ensure that we were and are so successful. All the top talents have joined big clubs or are playing in great leagues, things are going really well with our teams. And I'm proud and totally happy to be a part of it. All Faroese are handball fans — you will see it again in Oslo,” says Elias Ellefsen á Skipagøtu.

His cousin Jana and her team are currently supported by more than 300 fans at the 2025 IHF Women’s World Championship.

Another milestone was the new handball arena Tjarnir in Hoyvík, just outside the capital of Tórshavn. It opened in spring 2025 with a draw in the EHF EURO 2026 qualifier against the Netherlands — and this arena underlines the ambitions of the Faroese federation, which has its offices there.

“We have everything at hand, it's easy to organise international matches and tournaments. The tickets for the first match were sold-out in ten minutes. And the system crashed because the interest was so high,” says Rouch. The capacity is 2,500 seats and 600 standing places. “That fits perfectly for us, it could even be a bit bigger.” 

But can the Faroe Islands make it to the main round of the EHF EURO 2026? “That's our next goal and a dream,” says Rouch. “I think that in this group every team can beat each other. It's 50-50 in every match. Our team is gaining more and more experience and the players are playing better and in better clubs around Europe and Scandinavia. Our team is stronger now.”

After the memorable roar in Berlin, the fans recognised this little country on the handball map, says Rouch. “This last goal against Norway was the biggest moment for us because this was all over the world with the emotion of the fans and the players. You see this clip over and over again. And it is also evoking something in the Faroese people. Some kind of pride that we can do stuff that nobody thinks is possible. A moment like this gives you self-confidence as an individual, but also as a nation. To believe that we don't have to do everything in the same way as the big nations do. That we do things our own way. That it doesn't have to always be a disadvantage that you are small.”

Photos © kolektiff