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THEY'VE become the new benchmark. The envy of small but aspirational football countries the world over.

A country with a population that’s 50 per cent bigger than Aberdeen and half the size of Glasgow.

So how DID Iceland climb 100 places in the FIFA rankings in five years? Why WERE they the first team to make Euro 2016?

The secret, according to their joint national manager, is that there is no secret.

Heimir Hallgrimsson spent the day in Glasgow last week, invited by the Scottish FA to talk at their 2015 Convention about European football’s unlikeliest success story.

The 48-year-old was eloquent, honest, proud, self-deprecating – but the tale he told couldn’t have been simpler. It’s one of joined-up thinking between authorities and sports, of better-educated coaches and community-driven facilities, of putting the health and well-being of kids at the core of everything they do. And then reaping the rewards when it all comes together.

Hallgrimsson, who saw his nation come out of the hat with Portugal, Hungary and Austria in yesterday’s Euros draw , said: “There was no manual. No plan written down, no great secret. But many things have to click to be successful.

“What’s changed for us? Our coaching, our facilities, the way we train. There’s an explanation for all of it. And when you break it down, it makes sense. Does Scotland have anything to learn from us? That is for you to decide. Scotland is a traditional football nation but that’s maybe what keeps you down. Tradition.

“A lot of things are changing and the way we live today is different to how we did things way back.

“We were outdoors as kids doing a lot of activities. Much of that is lost today as you sit on your computer. So we have to adjust to what’s happening in the world. If you rely on tradition alone…?”

Hallgrimsson lets the question hang in the air. He has done the hard yards to earn his seat with legendary Swedish coach Lars Lagerback in the dugout, paving the way to take over after the Euros.

A youth coach for 15 years with local club IBV, he took charge of the women’s team for five years and the men’s team for another five before signing up with their FA.

A dentist by profession who runs his own practice on the island of Vestmannaeyjar, he drilled down into the reasons behind their rise for MailSport – and the sense behind them. He said: “You can’t have success without good players but our current team have been developed by Icelandic coaches for the last 10-15 years.

(Image: Koen van Weel/AFP/Getty Images)

“The coaches deserve credit – 70 per cent of them have a UEFA B Licence and 23 per cent have the A Licence. They develop all players. The best move up age groups. The best girls train with boys up to 16.

“But everyone trains. Everyone is allowed to come to practice. Within that we have ability-based groups.

“The best players train together. The mediocre ones train together and the poorer players do the same. They all play against teams of the same level but everyone gets the same standard of coaching.

“So a late developer doesn’t drop out. He’s not rejected at 10, 11, 12 like in most countries and that has benefits. We don’t lose kids from the system and if they get better at a later age, they are still with us.

“Also important though, is that all our coaches are paid. That’s why the quality is high. The parents pay for the kids to play and that money goes into paying for the coach.

“The facilities are paid for and run by the community, that’s why we have good people coaching. We look at it as a good profession. Not many are full-time but it’s a good part-time job so PE teachers and ex-players do a lot of coaching.”

From the age of 3-10 the cost is £255 a year, up to 14 it’s £335, and from 14 to 19 it’s £417 – but the local authority will give you a voucher covering £153 of the cost.

When you consider they don’t pay for facilities – the cost of which is the biggest bugbear of every youth football organisation in Scotland – then it seems a small price to pay.

And that’s where the joined-up thinking comes in. With a climate worse than Scotland’s, one of the things they realised was they had to give their kids better opportunities to get a ball at their feet. In 2002, they had one indoor football hall, five artificial pitches and seven mini-pitches in the whole country.

Now? They have seven full-size indoor pitches, 12 half-size indoors, 23 artificial pitches outdoors and 136 artificial mini-pitches at schools, pods effectively, which are floodlit and let kids play before and after school and during breaks.

Hallgrimsson added: “The indoor arenas have made a big difference in the winter. We’re still an amateur league – we have the shortest season in world football at five months, therefore the longest pre-season at seven months.

“But that allows us to work on making our players better. The clubs have access to good artificial pitches to do technical training.

“In the past Icelandic footballers were powerful but had no technical ability. That has changed – but we have been careful not to leave the character behind. So far as the facilities go and the cost? The local communities and authorities build them and the club runs them.”

In Vestmannaeyjar, they have a population of 4200 – but have an indoor arena, four other 11-a-side pitches, five handball courts, basketball courts, a swimming pool and a golf course.

Heimir revealed: “Every year we do a questionnaire to all the kids in school. ‘Do you do sports? How many times do you train? Do you do drugs? Do you take alcohol? Do you smoke? What are your grades?’

“And we see a clear correlation between the kids who do sports and higher grades in school and also they’re less likely to indulge in drugs or alcohol. They’re fitter, have more self-confidence so the value of sport is highly rated in Iceland.

“And because it’s dark a lot in the winter, if you do sports you’re more upbeat about life.

“We do a survey of 10-year-olds and 90 per cent of them do two sports. If they do football, they do handball or basketball. A lot do gymnastics, athletics, they also must swim once a week. It is why Icelandic footballers adjust well wherever they go. Their motor skills from a young age are excellent.”

Iceland have 75 professional players dotted around 14 countries in Europe. Their Under-21 team that beat Scotland in the play-offs in 2010 to make the Euro finals now provides 11 of the squad going to France in the summer, most of them in the starting line-up.

And while their domestic league is still battling to find its way in Europe, again, Hallgrimsson sees benefits. He said: “We give players the opportunity at 16, 17, 18, to taste senior football.

“Our teams are getting stronger. We haven’t made the group stages in Europe yet – but we will.”

“I can’t wait to get to France but then, that’s not the end of the road. Success is a journey, not a destination.”