From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Oct 2026
Valur refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 18 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valur may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Valur
Bjarni Mark Duffield was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Continental nights are coming to Valur
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Match1 Oct 2026
Valur come up short in Europe
1‑2 away to the standard of Malmo FF. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Valur
Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Frederik Schram falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kristján Oddur Haagensen and Valur agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market5 Oct 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
5.65. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Sep 2026
Albin Skoglund has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valur they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
Nobody wins at Valur
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match26 Sep 2026
Stjarnan made Valur work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Franz Pálsson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Sep 2026
A European night to remember for Valur
0‑0 against Astra, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Valur
Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Patrick Pedersen, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The team sheet said everything about Philip Rejnhold
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Philip Rejnhold.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Match19 Sep 2026
It needed Gísli Laxdal to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Vikingur, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Sep 2026
Valur throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Leiknir the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Valur will enjoy reviewing.
Match14 Sep 2026
Valur are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 14 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Markus Nakkim
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.30, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bjarni Mark Duffield is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Leiknir leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Philip Rejnhold dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Valur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 8.85. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Valur.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Patrick Pedersen. 2‑0 against FH, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bjarni Mark Duffield falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Patrick Pedersen
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Patrick Pedersen has come out of that comparison in the side, and Valur have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Frederik Schram has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Valur will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Valur, another week without a signature from Albin Skoglund.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Aug 2026
Valur out of the cup
IA ended it 2‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 24 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market31 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Valur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Match29 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Valur against Keflavik
1‑2 to Keflavik, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Frederik Schram, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Lúkas Logi Heimisson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.66. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Adam Ægir Pálsson at his very best
Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Valur.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Albin Skoglund obliged against Fylkir. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Valur.
Match19 Aug 2026
Valur win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 95th minute. Fylkir will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
Valur say no — this time
The offer from Leiknir for Ingimar Torbjörnsson Støle was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Kári Steinn Hlífarsson has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Valur have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Bjarni Mark Duffield falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match15 Aug 2026
Valur cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Kristján Oddur Haagensen has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Ingimar Torbjörnsson Støle has come up in conversations Valur were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Leiknir will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Viktor Andri Pétursson has pre-agreed a move to Valur, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Match15 Aug 2026
Three points for Valur, 2‑0 the final word against Breidablik in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Franz Pálsson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 8.05 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market10 Aug 2026
$330.0K — a new record at Valur
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Match8 Aug 2026
Valur win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Fylkir will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Market10 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valur they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
Valur spend $330.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $330.0K for Ásgeir Helgi Orrason, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Match8 Aug 2026
Valur get the job done against Fylkir
A 2‑1 win over Fylkir, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Markus Nakkim
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Albin Skoglund was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.50. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.43 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.37, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Patrick Pedersen and Valur agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Valur
Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Patrick Pedersen’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Valur.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Bjarni Mark Duffield falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.