Football in Greenland

Football match in Uummannaq
Football field in Ilulissat

Association football is the most popular and the national sport of Greenland. It was brought to Greenland by Danish settlers. Because of the climatic conditions, Greenland is unable to support any grass pitches so games are played on artificial turf. The national stadium is the Nuuk Stadium in the capital of Greenland, Nuuk. There is a proposal to replace Nuuk Stadium with a new stadium, named Arktisk Stadion.[1]

The Football Association of Greenland, founded in 1971, is not a member of FIFA or any of its confederations, but was a member of the International Football Union and ConIFA, secondary governing bodies of association football for nations and sub-national countries that are not FIFA members. Although the Faroe Islands, another dependency of Denmark, is a member of FIFA and UEFA, Greenland is considered part of Denmark for the purposes of international football.[2][3] However, Greenland have still been fighting to join UEFA and FIFA.[4] The Greenland football association and the Danish DBU entered into an agreement in 2015 to grow the sport of football in Greenland and work towards FIFA and UEFA membership by 2022. With the update of UEFA's statutes to forbid the admission of football associations from non-independent regions,[5] Greenland found their path to UEFA membership closed. As of 2022, they have decided to apply to the other confederation which they would be eligible to do so, CONCACAF, in the hopes that this would prove more successful.[6]

  1. ^ "BIG, a football stadium in Greenland | Abitare". Abitare. 2017-08-20. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  2. ^ Jamie Rainbow (2013-12-14). "Why Greenland will not be following Gibraltar into UEFA membership". Worldsoccer.com. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  3. ^ "Greenland gripped by football fever". FIFA.com. 2010-09-15. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  4. ^ "Greenland fights for the right to play international football matches". www.playthegame.org. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  5. ^ "UEFA Statutes (III.5.1)". Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  6. ^ "KAK Applying to CONCACAF (Danish)". Retrieved 23 July 2022.