Sports journalists redefine “the Icelanders’ team” – it is now enough for an Icelander to have bought a shirt

The association of sports journalists has issued new guidelines on when a foreign club may be called “the Icelanders’ team” in headlines. Under them, it is now enough for an Icelander to be on the bench, in the stands, to have signed on trial in 2009, or to have bought the club’s shirt at an airport.

“We were starting to run into trouble,” an association spokesperson told Mysan. “There were matches with no Icelander involved at all and we simply didn’t know how to write the story. One journalist sat in front of a blank screen for three hours.”

The new rules are already having an effect. Yesterday it was reported that the Icelanders’ team had lost to the Icelanders’ team, and that the Icelanders’ team had drawn with a side the spokesperson calls “soon an Icelanders’ team” because an Icelandic family holds season tickets there.

The rules also cover referees, groundstaff and people selling hot dogs at the stadium. If an Icelandic tourist appears in a TV broadcast, the match may be described as an “all-Icelandic clash”.

Hallgrímur, a 52-year-old bookkeeper from Akranes, unexpectedly became part of the coverage. “I went to a match in Manchester on holiday and bought a hat. The next day I read a headline saying the Icelanders’ team had won big. I was very proud. I hadn’t done anything but I felt like I’d scored.”

Critics point out that the rules could turn almost every match in the world into domestic news. The association replies that this is exactly the point.

The next step is to examine whether the Olympic Games can count as a national championship.