Icelandic football fans cheer their team during the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualification football match between Iceland and Ukraine in Reykjavik, Iceland, September 5, 2017. AFP/Haraldur Gudjonsson

 

REYKJAVIK: Iceland fans rejoice. The Nordic country's national team will be featured in the FIFA 18 video game, its football association announced on Wednesday, after reaching an agreement with the developer EA Sports.

The deal comes nearly one year after Iceland rejected EA Sports' first offer of two million kronurs (around 15,500 euros, $18,400) for the FIFA 17 game because the football association deemed the amount too meagre, especially after the team's success at Euro 2016.

Iceland were the smallest nation at the Euro but some ten percent of their 330,000 population travelled to France and created such noise with their drum bearing blue clad hordes of fans that they became a phenomenon.

Gamers can now hook into that with the FIFA 18 visuals.

"This is good news for all those who play the game all over the world (...) our supporters and the players themselves," Gudni Bergsson, president of the Football Association of Iceland (KSI), said in a statement, without specifying the latest amount.

Iceland, which has never been in a FIFA video game before, made headlines when they played to the Euro 2016 quarter-finals but faced a 5-2 defeat against France.

The latest version of the popular video game will be issued on September 29.

Iceland beat Ukraine 2-0 on Tuesday in the 2018 World Cup qualifying game.