Iceland have failed to qualify for a major competition. They started the 2008 group phase with a win but made things hard with a defeat to Denmark. In 1996 Eidur Gudjohnsen came on as sub for his father Arnór. This was the first time a father and son played in the same international match.

The closest Iceland have come to qualifying for a major competition was in 2004 when they led the group for most of the way, unfortunately both Germany and Scotland had games in hand and used them to good effect to knock Iceland to third in the group.