The Faroe Islands Premier League (also known as ''Betri deildin'' for sponsorship reasons) is the top level of football in the Faroe Islands. It was founded in 1942 as Meistaradeildin, and it is played in current format since 2005, when Premier League replaced 1. deild as the country's top football division. The league is organised by the

Faroe Islands Football Association The Faroe Islands Football Association (; ), or FSF, is the governing body of all domestic football in the Faroe Islands, the highest level of which is the Faroe Islands Premier League. It also runs the Faroe Islands national teams for Faroe Islan ...

. It is contested by 10 clubs. At the end of every season, two teams are relegated and two promoted from 1. deild. As of February 2024, the Faroe Islands Premier League is ranked 38th out of 55 leagues in the

UEFA coefficient In European football, the UEFA coefficients are statistics based in weighted arithmetic means used for ranking and seeding teams in club and international competitions. Introduced in 1979 for men's football tournaments (country rankings only), ...

History

The league was founded in 1942, although clubs did not take part in European competitions until 1992, because the

joined UEFA only in 1990. From 1942 to 1946, the competition was played in a knockout format, and from 1947 onwards in a league format. Before the creation of the

in 1979, the league was organized by the Faroe Islands Sports Association. The only time a season was not played was during the

British occupation The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts establishe ...

in 1944, when a lack of footballs caused the season to be cancelled. The league was known by several names; from its foundation in 1942 until 1975, it was known as Meistaradeildin. It changed its name to 1. deild in 1976 and introduced

promotion and relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

system. Since 2005 the league has had different sponsored names, being called ''Formuladeildin'' from 2005 to 2008, ''Vodafonedeildin'' from 2009 to 2012, ''Effodeildin'' from 2012 to 2017, and since 2018 ''Betri deildin menn''.

Competition format

The league is contested by 10 teams, who play each other three times. A draw is made before the elaboration of the next season's fixtures to decide which teams will have an additional home game. Formerly this was decided based on clubs' performance in the previous season.

Promotion and relegation

At the end of the season, two teams are relegated and two are promoted to and from 1. deild. Like in Spain, the teams are allowed to put their B and C teams in the lower divisions, and there will only be relegation if at least one non-

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

finish in the 1. deild top three. In the past, the league used a promotion-relegation playoff between the 9th placed team and the 2nd placed team in 1. deild, played from

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

until

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

European qualification

Currently, the Faroese champion qualify to the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

Preliminary round, while the second placed team enter the

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

at the first qualifying round. An additional berth in the Europa Conference League first qualifying round is granted to the

Faroe Islands Cup The Faroe Islands Cup (, literally the Prime Minister Cup) is the main football cup competition in the Faroe Islands. The first edition was played in 1955. History The HB–TB decade The first decade of the competition was marked by the alternanc ...

winners. If the winners of that competition have already qualified to a European competition, the berth is given to the third placed team in the league. Since the introduction of Europa Conference League, teams from the Faroe Islands can only qualify directly to the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

by winning the Europa Conference League.

Current teams

List of seasons

Bold indicates teams who also won the

that season, an achievement known as the

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

Performance by club

Clubs in bold are currently playing in the top tier.
Clubs in ''italics'' are no longer active in adult football.

Notes

References

External links

League at UEFALeague at FSF

League at Faroe SoccerList of football stadiums on the Faroe Islands
– Nordic Stadiums {{UEFA leagues 1 Faroe