If you have had enough of hearing how many Icelanders there are in France, that there are more Volcano’s in Iceland than there are professional players or that one of the teams coaches is a dentist, here is something different – Norwegians open their homes to Icelandic football fans and tourists from Iceland travelling in Norway during the past weeks have been struck by the dilemma of not being able to watch their team play, other than in bars.
“Nobody thought that Iceland would progress this far and now during our stay on Norway we are having difficulties finding places to watch the matches” said a father of three traveling with his family around Norway – “We want to find family friendly locations to see how Iceland does against France. After winning England, we think anything is possible”.
All over Norway, people are opening up their homes and cabins to Icelanders travelling the country to watch the Euro 2016 and vote for their favorite team.
“Whether they forgot it was the Euro or did not expect their team to get this far we are helping our brothers and sisters from Iceland to find a place to watch the games ahead, to book a seat in a family couch and get a football experience for a life time – This will be a once in a lifetime opportunity.” said the campaign spokes person, Ola-Christian Amundsen.
To book this experience football fans can use a simple service called “MatchMaker”, there one can find local hosts all over Norway, and book the match against France. It might be at people’s homes, at their mountain cottage, or in their boats. Apparently Norwegians bring their TV with them everywhere, it’s just a question where those wanting to watch the game are located.
“Iceland is our team now, Norway did not qualify for the Euro so during this tournament we are all Icelanders”.
said one of the Norwegians participating in the MatchMaker initiative.
The service is free and comes with no strings attached. The host and their visitors meet through the service, but are themselves responsible for setting up a date.