Fylkir

Fylkir was founded in 1967 on May 28 in a newly established suburb of Reykjavik, Árbær, by young and enthusiastic footballers who wanted to train and play football in their own neighbourhood. From the start, the club has emphasized the importance of youth development and for the first years Fylkir did not field a senior team. The original name of the club was KSÁ (Knattspyrnufélag Seláss og Árbæjar), the name was considered inconvenient and thus after a member vote, it was changed to Fylkir.

The senior team took first part in a national competition in 1972 and became that year second in their heat in the Icelandic 3. division. That was not enough to for Fylkir to gain promotion and for five successive years the team played in Division Three. All these years Fylkir was on the edge of promotion but it was not until 1977 that the dream came true. Fylkir earned a promotion to the 2. division after a historical Third Division Final in which Fylkir had to field its B-team because the majority of the normally starting eleven had gone to Spain on a long before pre-paid holiday!

The next six years, Fylkir played in Division Two, only once being close to gaining promotion. From 1984 to 1988, Fylkir roller-coasted between the Second and the Third Division and it was not until 1989 that Fylkir played its first season in Division One – the top league in Iceland at that time. The season was no success, Fylkir became ninth and was relegated, but the season is nevertheless an interesting one as three players – Kristinn Tómasson, Þórhallur Dan Jóhannsson and Finnur Kolbeinsson – who are now legends at the club, played their first season at a top level.

The next time Fylkir earned a promotion to Division One was in 1993, but just as in 1989 the team became ninth and was relegated. In 1996, history reapeted itself for the third successive time, Fylkir occupied the club's seemingly beloved ninth place and was once again relegated to Division Two.

In the year 1999, Fylkir was promoted to the top league – now called the Premier League – for the fourth time. The following year of 2000 Fylkir was only two points from winning the league, in its first year after promotion. The second place earned the club its first games in a European competition.

In 2001, Fylkir won the Icelandic Cup for the first time, but finished fifth in the Premier League after leading the competition for the first two-thirds of it. In the UEFA cup, Fylkir won Pogoń Szczecin from Poland 2–1 in the club's first European game. In Poland, Fylkir equalized in the last minute of the game to the euphoria of its 200 dedicated supporters who had travelled to Poland to support their team. 3–2 in aggregate and Fylkir were through to the second Qualifying Round. The opponents, Roda JC Kerkrade from the Netherlands, proved to be stronger than the Poles. Roda won the first game in the Netherlands, 3–0, a game in which football played a side role as it took place September 11. In Iceland, Fylkir scored the first goal, but the Dutch side the next three, ending the European adventure for Fylkir.

The Cup victory in 2001 earned Fylkir a spot in the UEFA cup for the second successive year, the opponents this time being Royal Excelsior Mouscron from Belgium. The teams drew 1–1 in Iceland and Mouscron won the game in Belgium 3–1. In the Icelandic Premier League 2002, Fylkir became second after a last minute battle with KR. Fylkir repeated the Cup success and won the competition for the second year in a row.

Forty years after its establishment, Fylkir is still a club with strong roots in its neighbourhood and the majority of its players and staff are born and bred in Arbaer. The club is now one of the bigger clubs in Iceland and the senior side has established itself as a prominent Premier League team after years of constant travelling between divisions.

In the season of 2006, Fylkir was not a big success. They finished 8th, staying in the Premier League by only two points. Instead, Grindavík were relegated after getting a 1–1 draw against the Icelandic Champions, FH, when they needed to win.

2007 proved to be a good year for Fylkir, after sitting firmly at the middle of the table all season, Fylkir ended up in 4th place, earning a spot in the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2008. Fylkir also reached the VISA-Cup semi-final but a shocking loss to 1st Division team Fjölnir ended their hopes for a third Cup win during the decade.

2007 was also a good year for Fylkir U20 team as they won the Icelandic division for U20 teams for the first time in the club's history.

2008 proved to be a rather difficult season for Fylkir. They started the season with two defeats, but then followed three victories and things were starting to look good. But then the troubles really begun, a terrible run of games sent Fylkir into the relegation zone. On 28 August 2008 Fylkir sacked manager Leifur Garðarsson and Sverrir Sverrisson stepped in as caretaker manager for the rest of the season. Fylkir managed to stay out of relegation and ended up in 9th place with 22 points. The 2008 season in Iceland was the first one with 12 teams. Fylkir reached the VISA-Cup semi-final but lost to Fjölnir for a second time in a row. They lost 3–4 after a thrilling match which was very hard for the supporters to take.

In the first round of the 2008 Intertoto Cup, Fylkir managed a 2–1 first leg victory in Latvia against FK Rīga. However, the visiting club won the return leg 2–0, taking the tie 3–2 on aggregate.

At the start of October 2008 Fylkir announced Ólafur Þórðarson as their new manager. Ólafur had worked for the club before, he was a player/manager for two seasons 1998 and 1999. His first season in 2009 proved very successful as Fylkir finished 3rd in the league, only 8 points behind champions FH, which gave the club a spot in the Europa League. So there were good expectations before the season in 2010 but the team failed to repeat the success from the earlier season. Fylkir finished 9th and stayed out of relegation with two wins in the last two home games against two bottom half teams Grindavík and Haukar who eventually got relegated.

In the first round of the 2010 Europa League, Fylkir was drawn against Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino from Belarus. The Eastern Europe team dominated the tie and won comfortably 6–1 on aggregate.