How Iceland defied the odds to qualify for Euro 2016

With a population less than Cork, Iceland are the smallest nation to qualify for a major football tournament. But they have 850 Uefa-licensed coaches and outperform about 150 countries in developing players. The question is how. Brian Oliver found out

The standard of coaching in Icelandic football has improved so much that Hermann Hreidarsson, who played in England’s Premier League for 10 years, compares himself to a modern-day 14-year-old.

When Hreidarsson left his Icelandic club to sign for Crystal Palace in 1997 he was moving from a small-town team in the Vestmann Islands, off Iceland’s south coast, to the big time.