Women's football in Iceland
{{Short description|Overview of Iceland in football}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox sport overview
| boxwidth = 250
| title = Women's Football in Iceland
| image = Margrét Lára Viðarsdóttir v Serbia 2009.jpg
| imagesize = 240px
| image_alt =
| caption = Margrét Lára Viðarsdóttir scoring against Serbia in 2009.
| union = Iceland Football Association
| country = Iceland
| sport = association football
| noncountry =
| teamlabel1 =
| nationalteam = Women's national team
| teamlabel2 =
| repteam =
| nickname =
| first =
| registered =
| clubs =
| national_list = {{Plainlist|
}}
| club_list =
League:
1. deild kvenna
2. deild kvenna
Kvinde 2. division
Cups:
Icelandic Women's Football Cup
| intl_list =
{{Plainlist|
}}
| match =
| league =
}}
Women's football in Iceland is growing in popularity.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14660970.2023.2179191|title=The rise of women's football: a case study of Iceland|first=Vidar|last=Halldorsson|date=3 April 2023|journal=Soccer & Society|volume=24|issue=3|pages=410–424|via=CrossRef|doi=10.1080/14660970.2023.2179191|s2cid=257019259 }}{{Cite web |last=Braneck |first=Dave |url=https://www.dw.com/en/euro-2022-italy-and-icelands-different-paths-to-womens-football/a-62464177|title=Italy and Iceland take different paths to Euro 2022|date=14 July 2022|website=DW|access-date=20 December 2023}}{{Cite web |last=Gunnarsdóttir |first=Sara Björk |url=https://inews.co.uk/opinion/comment/i-play-football-for-icelands-womens-team-and-im-paid-equally-to-men-it-changed-my-life-270316 |title=I'm a professional footballer and I've seen first hand the impact of making women visible in sport|date=19 March 2019 |website=inews.co.uk |publisher=Associated Newspapers Limited |access-date=20 December 2023}}{{Cite web|url=https://english.hi.is/womens_football_in_a_changed_world|title=Women's football in a changed world |website=University of Iceland|access-date=20 December 2023}}
History
The first women's football team in Iceland was Fótboltafélagið Hvöt that was founded in 1914 in Ísafjörður after the girls had been denied to practice with Fótboltafélag Ísafjarðar, an all-boys team.{{cite news |title=Upphaf kvennaknattspyrnu? |url=https://timarit.is/page/1568089 |access-date=21 December 2023 |work=Morgunblaðið |date=11 January 1983 |page=44 |language=Icelandic |via=Tímarit.is}}{{open access}}{{cite news |author1=Steinþór Guðbjartsson |title=Konurnar fyrstar á Ísafirði |url=https://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2017/06/01/konurnar_fyrstar_a_isafirdi/ |accessdate=21 December 2023 |work=Morgunblaðið |date=1 June 2017}} A year later, future actress Anna Borg founded a short lived football team in Reykjavík.{{cite news |author1=Skapti Hallgrímsson |title=Stúlkur á Ísafirði brutu ísinn 1914 |url=https://timarit.is/page/6902835?iabr=on#page/n3/mode/1up |access-date=21 December 2023 |work=Morgunblaðið |date=9 July 2017 |page=4 |language=Icelandic |via=Tímarit.is}}{{open access}}
It took several decades for a women's national league to form, first with an indoors league in 1971. A year later the transition to the modern day outdoor league came with 8 teams participating in the inaugural season. Few of Iceland's traditional footballing heavyweights participated at first, but came in with the main expansion in 1982.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}
Club Football
Besta deild kvenna is the highest tier of women's football in Iceland.{{cite news |author1=Helga Margrét Höskuldsdóttir |title=Nýtt vörumerki með rætur íslenskri knattspyrnusögu |url=https://www.ruv.is/frett/2022/02/24/nytt-vorumerki-med-raetur-islenskri-knattspyrnusogu |access-date=28 November 2024 |work=RÚV |date=24 February 2022 |language=Icelandic}}
International Team
{{Main article|Iceland women's national football team}}
Since the 21st Century Iceland has seen an upsurge of success with the national team qualifying for the UEFA Women's Championship four times and their greatest achievement was reaching the quarter finals of UEFA Women's Euro 2013.{{cite web |last=O'Connor |first=Philip |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-women-euro-idUKBRE96K09W20130721/ |title=Sweden thump Iceland to book semi-final with Germany |website=Reuters |date=21 July 2013 |access-date=20 December 2023}}{{Cite web|last=Crompton|first=Sam|url=https://www.uefa.com/news/020b-0e14353bd692-2ac4ad034860-1000--scintillating-sweden-leave-iceland-spellbound/|title=Scintillating Sweden leave Iceland spellbound|date=6 June 2017|orig-date=First published 21 July 2013|website=UEFA|access-date=20 December 2023}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jul/04/womens-euro-2022-team-guide-no-15-iceland|title=Women's Euro 2022 team guide No 15: Iceland|date=3 July 2022|newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=20 December 2023}}
File: Iceland women's national football team 2012.jpg line-up in 2012]]