Encyclopedia
The
Denmark national football team is controlled by the Danish Football Association and has represented the country of
Denmark in international
football competitions since 1908. The team has been a solidly competitive side in international football since the mid-
1980s, with the triumph in the
1992 European Championships tournament as its most prominent victory.
In the qualification to , Denmark are placed in Group F with Liechtenstein,
Northern Ireland, Iceland, Latvia, Spain and the archrivals from
Sweden.
Teams
Apart from the men's senior team, Denmark competes with a women's national team, and has teams at various youth levels for both men and women, most prominently the under-21 national team. Additionally, there is a league national team, or B-team, of the best players from the domestic
Danish Superliga, playing official games in the winter break of the national league, as well as an old-boys national team. Historically, the team competed in the
Summer Olympics until and including the 1988 tournament, whereafter olympic games count as under-21 national games.
History
Amateur years
Denmark won an unofficial victory in the 1906 Intercalated Olympics, and finished second in their first official tournament, the
1908 Olympics, an achievement copied four years later in the 1912 Olympics. Although Denmark figured fairly prominently in the pre-
World Cup era, international success would elude them for years from the first World Cup in 1930 and forward. Despite the country's ability to produce outstanding footballing talent, a bronze medal in the 1948 Olympics was the only result of note in 50 years. As football remained an amateur pastime, most of the best Danish footballers moved abroad to make a living, and foreign-based professionals were barred from the national team, in common with other
Scandinavian countries.
In the 1960s, Denmark had a revival with a third set of olympic silver at the 1960 Olympics, though the most notable performance was fourth place in the . Denmark took advantage of a comparatively easy draw, as they beat Malta, Albania and Luxembourg before losing to the USSR in the semi-final and
Hungary in the bronze match. The national team rule of amateurism was abolished in 1971, which led to a vast improvement in the Danish team's performances. In 1978, professional football was introduced to the Danish leagues, which prompted the first sponsorship of the national team by Danish brewery
Carlsberg, enabling the team to hire full-time coach Sepp Piontek from
Germany in 1979. In comparison, Richard Møller Nielsen had a 54,8% winning share and a 1,89 point average, and especially Olsen's attitude of taking every friendly match seriously has led to many good results, one notable example being a friendly 4-1 win over England in 2005, the worst loss for the English team since 1980 and a repetition of the impressive Danish 3-2 win on English ground at Old Trafford in 2003.
For the 2006 World Cup qualification, Denmark was paired with, among others, 2002 World Cup bronze winners
Turkey and Euro 2004 champions
Greece competing for only one guaranteed spot at the final tournament. Following a poor start of the qualification, Denmark only had 9 points for 7 games, and were trailing both Turkey, by 3 points, and surprise leaders Ukraine, by 6 points. This meant that Denmark needed Turkey to lose points in the final 5 games in order for Denmark to clinch the 2nd place of the group and one last chance to qualify via two play-off games. Indeed, had Turkey lost points to Albania in their last game, Denmark would have gone through, but instead they had to settle for 3rd place in the group and a longer summer break. After failing to qualify for the
2006 FIFA World Cup, coach Olsen considered leaving the job, having received several offers from club teams, but decided to stay and extended his contract until after the
2010 FIFA World Cup, spurred on by his and the team's popularity among the Danish population.
Supporters
Apart from the national team, Denmark is equally famous for its traveling fans, known as
roligans. The movement emerged during the 1980s as the declared opposition to hooliganism. The goal of the roligan movement is calm, yet cheerful, support during the matches, as
rolig means calm in the
Danish language. The roligans have since developed an image of easy-going nature and rabid support, and they were collectively given the FIFA FairPlay Award at the 1984 European Championships. Just before the 1986 World Cup, the roligan movement was organized in order to support the national team at the tournament.
Stadium
- For stadium history, see Parken Stadium.
From a 2-1 friendly win over
Germany in 1912, to a 0-2 Euro 1992 qualification loss to Yugoslavia in 1990, Denmark played most of their home games at Idrætsparken in
Copenhagen, a total of 232 games, of which 125 was won. During this time, various games were spread out across the country, with matches played in other parts of the country, like at Aalborg Stadion in
Aalborg,
NRGi Park in Århus, and
Fionia Park in
Odense, Odense Stadium being the main venue for national games for a year after the abandonment of Idrætsparken.
On September 9 1992 the rebuilt Idrætsparken, now called
Parken, the biggest venue in Denmark with 42,000 seats, was opened with a 1-2 defeat by Germany. Parken has since been the sole stadium of the men's senior national team matches, with a contract on all men's senior matches until 2007. Meagre spectator support at some matches, which have attracted from 22,000 down to below 10,000 for the April 17, 2002 friendly 3-1 win over Israel, caused speculation that certain friendly matches might be moved to other stadiums around the country after 2007. In 2006 Parken's 13-year monopoly on national team matches was broken, for a May 27 2006 friendly game at NRGi Park, with World Cup 2006 participants Paraguay the opponent, almost 19,000 of the 22,227 tickets were sold within the first hour of sale. The game was a big success, support-wise, and another game at a new venue followed on September 1 at
Brøndby Stadium. However, this match only attracted 13,186 spectators and was deemed a relative failure. The reasons are thought to be a combination of the poor, rainy weather, and the fact that this stadium is located on the outskirts of Copenhagen, and as such does not attract a new demographic, as the travel distances and times to Parken are not much greater, if not lesser, for most of the population.
International record
World Cup
European Championship
...
to 1980 - Did not qualify
...
- Round 1
|
Confederations Cup
Summer Olympic- 1900 - Was not invited
- 1904 - Was not invited
- 1906 - Did not enter/Winners
|
Players
The players are freely chosen by manager Morten Olsen, and are normally assembled, from their respective club teams, at Hotel Marina in Vedbæk for a week-long training camp preluding the upcoming game, typically played on a Wednesday or Saturday evening.
Payment
Each player in the national team receives a set amount of money per game, including bonuses for games won and qualification for the European Championship and World Cup tournaments. Through the years, these money prizes have gone from around €1,340 for a game win in 1987 and around €26,800 for the Euro 1988 participation alone, to around €67,000 for the 1998 World Cup and up to €107,000 for the 2002 World Cup participations, per player. Currently, the win bonus for friendly games are €1,340 per player, with start money for an away game at €670 per player, while a home win before a sellout crowd of 42,000, can possibly wield €7,600 per player, including the win bonus, due to spectator-dependent bonuses. In the qualification matches for the international tournaments, the bonuses are increased for both home and away wins, with a bonus also being paid for away draws.
Current squad
The current squad, according to DBU. All match statistic are updated after the latest national team match, a September 6, 2006 2-0 Euro 2008 qualifier win against Iceland.
Former notable players
Notable former players of the Danish national team, arranged after year of debut.
1900s-1920s:
- Harald Bohr 1908-1910
- Vilhelm Wolfhagen 1908-1917
- Sophus "Krølben" 1908-1919
- Nils Middelboe 1908-1920
- Poul "Tist" Nielsen 1910-1925
- Paul Berth 1911-1922
- Michael Rohde 1915-1931
- Pauli Jørgensen 1925-1939
1930s-1940s:
- Arne Sørensen 1937-1946
- Karl Aage Hansen 1943-1948
- Knud Lundberg 1943-1956
- Carl Aage Præst 1945-1949
- Poul Petersen 1946-1952
- Axel Pilmark 1947-1950
|
1950s-1960s:
- Bent Hansen 1958-1965
- Henning Enoksen 1958-1966
- Ole Madsen 1958-1969
- Harald Nielsen 1959-1960
- Johnny Hansen 1965-1978
- Henning Munk Jensen 1966-1978
1970s:
- Per Røntved 1970-1982
- Morten Olsen 1970-1989
- Henning Jensen 1972-1980
- Allan Simonsen 1972-1986
- Jens Jørn Bertelsen 1976-1987
- Frank Arnesen 1977-1987
- Preben Elkjær 1977-1988
- Søren Lerby 1978-1989
|
1980s:
1990s:
|
Managers
Ever since the Danish Football Association started registering official games at the 1908 Summer Olympics, assigned football managers who have coached the team at official tournaments. From 1911 to 1961, 169 matches were played without an assigned national team coach.
| Manager | Year | Games | Win | Draw | Loss | Win % |
|---|
| Charles Williams | 1908-1910 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 75.0% |
| Axel Andersen Byrval | 1913-1918 | 16 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 87.5% |
| caretaker managers | 1920-1956 | 19 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 52.6% |
| Arne Sørensen | 1956-1961 | 41 | 20 | 8 | 13 | 48.8% |
| Poul Petersen | 1962-1966 | 47 | 17 | 8 | 22 | 36.2% |
| caretaker managers | 1967-1969 | 28 | 13 | 4 | 11 | 46.4% |
| Rudi Strittich | 1970-1975 | 61 | 20 | 11 | 30 | 32.8% |
| Kurt "Nikkelaj" Nielsen | 1976-1979 | 31 | 13 | 6 | 12 | 41.9% |
| Sepp Piontek | 1979-1990 | 115 | 52 | 24 | 39 | 45.2% |
| Richard Møller Nielsen | 1987-1988
1990-1996 | 73 | 40 | 18 | 15 | 54.8% |
| Bo Johansson | 1996-2000 | 40 | 17 | 9 | 14 | 42.5% |
| Morten Olsena | 2000-present | 63 | 37 | 17 | 9 | 58.7% |
a) Accurate up to and including March 1 2006. |
See also
- Faroe Islands national football team
- Greenland national football team
Past squads and campaigns
- Euro 1964 squad
- Euro 1984 squad
- World Cup 1986 squad
- Euro 1988 squad
- Euro 1992 winning squad
- Euro 1996 squad
- World Cup 1998 squad
- Euro 2000 squad
- World Cup 2002 squad
- Euro 2004 squad and campaign
Footnotes
Literature
- Palle "Banks" Jørgensen, "Landsholdets 681 profiler fra 1908 til i dag", TIPS-Bladet, 2002, ISBN 87-91264-01-4
External links
