“Where did this bloody Icelandic clap really first come from?” asks Simon Weaver.
Every time a new song is aired or a new action appears on the terraces its origin is met by claim and counter-claim, with only a few exceptions (see: the Poznan, the Mexican wave). This summer’s fashionables, Mitro’s Will Grigg’s on Fire and the Icelandic Viking clap/haka/chant/thunderclap/roar/train, are no different and are coming back to a stadium near you very soon.
What can be said for certain is that Iceland have helped make the clapping action ubiquitous after Euro 2016, but it has existed for some time. “It means different things to different people, but it’s not actually Viking,” explains Kristinn Hallur Jonsson, treasurer of the noisy Tolfan supporters’ group. “It was taken from fans in Scotland and is more connected to the Spartans in the film 300 than to the Vikings.”
The 2007 film, in which the lead role of Leonidas was played by Scottish actor Gerard Butler, features a scene in which he roars to his men: “Spartans! What is your profession?” They bang their shields and shout: “Huh!” Fans in Scotland picked up on it at some point after the film. “It’s been popular here for a few years but I’m not sure quite when it started,” says Motherwell fans’ representative Dave Wardrope. He agreed that the film played a part and said: “No one is certain but we don’t think our fans took it from another club’s supporters. They made it up themselves.”
There is YouTube footage of fans “huhhing” at Fir Park before a win over Celtic in 2013 and supporters of the Scottish club also used the chant against Stjarnan in their 2014 Europa League qualifier. Stjarnan took 22 fans to Fir Park, and Motherwell had “three or four hundred” at the second leg, according to Wardrope, whose team lost 5-4 on aggregate. “Because Motherwell fans performed the chant, Stjarnan fans took it up. They passed it on to Tolfan and it was used throughout Iceland’s successful Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.” Back to Jonsson. “Since we started it, it has really taken off. We would like to thank Motherwell for lending it to us!”
There’s also footage of Middlesbrough supporters getting their clap on back in 2013, while reader Yves Reny got in touch to suggest that a slow-building applauding action has been commonplace at Ligue 1 grounds for some time, especially in northern France, and that Lens supporters have been clapping in unison for more than two decades. Such as here.
Any more for any more? We won’t judge. Let us know at knowledge@theguardian.com.
In at the deep end
“Samuel Umtiti made his international debut in the Euro 2016 quarter-final between France and Iceland,” notes Are Gabriel Høyland. “Is there anyone who has made their national team debut later in a tournament (Euros or World Cup), such as in a semi or even in a final?”
Yes, is the rather brief answer. Right-back Zé Carlos was drafted in to the Brazil line-up for their 1998 World Cup semi-final over Holland, which they would win on penalties, but it would be the only cap he would ever win. Going further back, to the 1950 World Cup final, we can go one better: Uruguay handed a debut to 19-year-old Rubén Morán, who helped the team to that famous win over Brazil. Morán went on to win three further caps.
Good fortune and 1966
“Just been looking back at 1958 to see how Wales progressed to the quarter-final of that World Cup,” writes Jez Orbell. “To say they had a sprinkling of good fortune is to put it mildly. To be clear this is not a bitter England fan but someone intrigued as to the most unlikely progression of a club or country in a competition. How many withdrawals, play-offs or obscure goal average advances has a team benefitted from and what is the furthest in the competition that they went? The ultimate beneficiary would have to be Denmark at Euro 1992 but what other notable examples are there?”
“My vote goes to North Korea for their famous 1966 World Cup endeavours,” writes Simon Atkinson. “They qualified for the tournament initially as the only Asian association not to boycott the tournament (due to a dispute about allocation of places across the federations). African nations obligingly followed suit, to leave only a two-leg play-off against Oceania representatives Australia in, of all places, Cambodia. The Aussies didn’t really bother to train, and got trounced 6-1 and 3-1 for their troubles, opening the way for the North Koreans to embark on their journey to Ayresome Park and ultimately Goodison Park, where they succumbed to Portugal in the quarter-final having won one of their four World Cup finals games.” Ah, but it was a good one to win. This piece is also worth revisiting on North Korea’s 1966 World Cup memories.
Knowledge archive
“Having seen Whyteleafe v Hythe Town called off due to a referee bee-sting incident, are there any other examples of games abandoned in similar fashion?” tweeted Jim Calver in 2012.
The match between Whyteleafe and Hythe Town was abandoned when referee Ashley Slaughter suffered a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting. He drifted in and out of consciousness and his life may well have been saved by the prompt attention of student, Gemma Clark, also the club physiotherapist. After Slaughter’s release from hospital, the club secretary Chris Layton, said: “Ashley called me and asked me to convey his thanks to everyone who helped him, and Gemma in particular. The afternoon was extremely traumatic and none of us want to go through that again. Heaven only knows what would have happened had Gemma not been there.”
It wasn’t the first game to be abandoned or halted because of bees. In 2011, a junior match in Brazil was temporarily stopped when a swarm invaded the field. “At first, I thought it might be some kind of ploy by our opponents [to get the match suspended] since we were losing 1-0,” said the Náutico coach Sergio China, with a straight face. Another match in Brazil last year was similarly interrupted; when the game resumed, there was a brawl between the two sides and a fan was shot dead after the game. And finally – with added video – here’s yet another game from Brazil that was bee-affected, and had the players lying down on the floor like something out of Radiohead’s Just.
For thousands more questions and answers take a trip through the Knowledge archive.
Can you help?
“When was the first open top bus parade of a football trophy in England?” wonders Steve Russell. “Someone in our office posed the question earlier today and, following some very amateur sleuthing, we were unable to come up with anything more satisfactory than Cardiff City following their 1927 FA Cup win. Please help.”
“From time to time in ice hockey, the manager will withdraw the goalkeeper from play with the aim to go for a win or draw,” emails Daniel Caruson. “Has there ever been a circumstance in professional football where the goalkeeper has been substituted and the goal left untended?”
“I was watching the Euro 2016 final on Sunday evening and, just like everyone else, I marvelled at Moussa Sissoko’s impressive marauding play,” begins Tom Swain. “I’m not the first one to observe how little in common France’s Moussa Sissoko has with Newcastle United’s Moussa Sissoko, but herein lies my question: has a player who has been relegated at club level ever played in an international tournament final?”
“With a good proportion of foreign ex-players and managers employed as pundits on British TV for the European Championship, were there any British pundits employed by non-English-speaking TV stations?” wonders Mike Dunton. “And, if so, did they participate in their hosts’ language?”
“Which individual has won the most Football League Trophy winner’s medals?” tweets Joe Edward.
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