2018 Úrvalsdeild

The 2018 Úrvalsdeild karla, also known as Pepsi-deild karla for sponsorship reasons, was the 107th season of top-flight Icelandic football. Twelve teams contested the league, including the defending champions Valur, who won their 21st league title in 2017.^[1]

Úrvalsdeild karla (Pepsi-deildin)

Season	2018
Dates	27 April – 29 September 2018
Champions	Valur
Relegated	Fjölnir Keflavík
Matches	132
Goals	361 (2.73 per match)
Top goalscorer	17 goals Patrick Pedersen, Valur
← 2017 2019 → All statistics correct as of 29 September 2018.

The season began on 27 April 2018 and concluded on 29 September 2018.

Teams

Grindavík

ÍBV

KA

Keflavík

Capital region

Capital region clubs:
Reykjavík:
Fjölnir
Fylkir
KR
Valur
Víkingur R.
Breiðablik
Stjarnan
FH

Locations of the 2018 Úrvalsdeild teams

The 2018 Úrvalsdeild was contested by twelve teams, ten of which played in the division the previous year and two teams promoted from 1. deild karla. The bottom two teams from the previous season, Víkingur Ó. and ÍA, were relegated to the 2018 1. deild karla and were replaced by Fylkir and Keflavík, champions and runners-up of the 2017 1. deild karla respectively.

Club information

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Breiðablik	Kópavogur	Kópavogsvöllur	5,501
FH	Hafnarfjörður	Kaplakriki	6,738
Fjölnir	Reykjavík (Grafarvogur)	Extra völlurinn	2,000
Fylkir	Reykjavík (Árbær)	Floridana völlurinn	5,000
Grindavík	Grindavík	Grindavíkurvöllur	1,750
ÍBV	Vestmannaeyjar	Hásteinsvöllur	3,034
KA	Akureyri	Akureyrarvöllur	1,770
Keflavík	Reykjanesbær (Keflavík)	Keflavíkurvöllur	5,200
KR	Reykjavík (Vesturbær)	Alvogenvöllurinn	3,333
Stjarnan	Garðabær	Samsung völlurinn	2,300
Valur	Reykjavík (Hlíðar/Miðborg)	Valsvöllur	2,465
Víkingur R.	Reykjavík (Fossvogur)	Víkingsvöllur	1,613

Source:

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Breiðablik	Ágúst Gylfason	Gunnleifur Gunnleifsson	Jako	Vörður
FH	Ólafur Kristjánsson	Davíð Þór Viðarsson	Adidas	Actavis
Fjölnir	Ólafur Páll Snorrason	Þórður Ingason	Hummel	Bónus
Grindavík	Páll Kristjánsson	Gunnar Þorsteinsson	Stanno	LÝSI
Fylkir	Helgi Sigurðsson	Ásgeir Börkur Ásgeirsson	Jako	Wurth
ÍBV	Kristján Guðmundsson	Sindri Snær Magnússon	Hummel	Bónus
KA	Srdjan Tufegdzic	Guðmann Þórisson	Diadora	N1
Keflavík	Guðlaugur Baldursson	Marc McAusland	Nike	Landsbankinn
KR	Rúnar Kristinsson	Pálmi Rafn Pálmason	Nike	Alvogen
Stjarnan	Rúnar Páll Sigmundsson	Baldur Sigurðsson	Uhlsport	Orkan
Valur	Ólafur Jóhannesson	Haukur Páll Sigurðsson	Macron	Munck
Víkingur R.	Logi Ólafsson	Sölvi Ottesen	Macron	TVG-Zimsen

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Breiðablik	Miloš Milojević	Resigned	3 October 2017[2]	Pre-season	Ágúst Gylfason	6 October 2017[3]
Fjölnir	Ágúst Gylfason	Resigned	6 October 2017[4]	Pre-season	Ólafur Páll Snorrason	11 October 2017[5]
FH	Heimir Guðjónsson	Sacked	6 October 2017[6]	Pre-season	Ólafur Kristjánsson	14 October 2017[7]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Valur (C)	22	13	7	2	50	24	+26	46	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Breiðablik	22	13	5	4	39	17	+22	44	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round[a]
3	Stjarnan	22	11	7	4	45	26	+19	40
4	KR	22	10	7	5	36	25	+11	37
5	FH	22	10	7	5	36	28	+8	37
6	ÍBV	22	8	5	9	29	31	−2	29
7	KA	22	7	7	8	36	34	+2	28
8	Fylkir	22	7	5	10	31	37	−6	26
9	Víkingur R.	22	6	7	9	29	38	−9	25
10	Grindavík	22	7	4	11	26	37	−11	25
11	Fjölnir (R)	22	4	7	11	22	44	−22	19	Relegation to 1. deild karla
12	Keflavík (R)	22	0	4	18	11	49	−38	4

Source: KSÍ (in Icelandic), Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Head-to-head goals scored; 7) Head-to-head away goals scored; 8) Play-off (only for deciding champion); 9) Draw.^[8]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Since the winners of 2018 Icelandic Cup, Stjarnan, qualified for European competition based on their league position, the spot awarded to the Cup winner (Europa League first qualifying round) was passed to the next best-placed team (the fourth-placed team).

Positions by round

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Valur	2	2	3	5	7	6	2	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1
Breiðablik	1	1	1	1	1	1	4	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	1	1	2	3	3	3	3	2
Stjarnan	5	9	9	10	5	8	5	4	4	3	2	1	2	2	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	3
KR	9	5	7	7	8	4	6	7	6	5	5	6	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
FH	3	7	2	2	3	3	3	5	5	6	6	4	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
ÍBV	12	12	12	12	12	11	9	11	11	11	10	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	8	8	6
KA	5	10	5	9	10	10	8	10	10	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	7
Fylkir	10	6	8	4	4	7	10	6	7	9	11	11	11	11	10	11	11	10	9	10	10	8
Víkingur R.	3	3	3	8	9	9	11	8	8	7	7	5	8	8	8	9	9	9	10	9	9	9
Grindavík	10	4	6	3	2	2	1	3	3	4	4	7	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	7	7	10
Fjölnir	5	8	10	6	6	5	7	9	9	10	9	10	10	10	11	10	10	11	11	11	11	11
Keflavík	5	11	11	11	11	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12

	Leader
	2019–20 UEFA Europa League first qualifying round
	Relegation to 1. deild karla

Source: KSÍ

Results

Each team will play home and away once against every other team for a total of 22 games each.^[9]

Home \ Away	BRE	FH	FJÖ	FYL	GRI	ÍBV	KA	KEF	KR	STJ	VAL	VIK
Breiðablik	—	4–1	2–1	2–0	1–1	4–1	4–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–3	0–0
FH	1–3	—	1–0	1–1	2–1	0–2	3–1	2–2	4–0	2–3	2–1	3–0
Fjölnir	0–2	2–3	—	2–1	0–1	1–1	2–2	0–0	1–1	1–3	0–2	2–2
Fylkir	0–3	1–1	7–0	—	3–1	2–1	2–1	2–0	2–5	0–2	0–0	2–3
Grindavík	0–2	0–1	0–1	2–1	—	2–5	1–2	3–0	1–1	2–2	2–1	2–1
ÍBV	0–0	0–0	1–1	0–1	3–0	—	2–1	1–0	2–0	2–1	0–1	1–1
KA	0–0	1–1	2–0	5–1	4–3	2–0	—	0–0	0–1	1–2	3–3	4–1
Keflavík	1–2	1–3	1–2	1–2	0–2	1–3	0–3	—	0–4	0–2	0–2	0–4
KR	1–1	2–2	0–0	1–1	1–0	4–1	2–0	3–1	—	1–0	1–1	0–1
Stjarnan	2–1	0–1	6–1	3–0	1–1	2–1	1–1	2–2	2–3	—	1–1	3–3
Valur	2–1	2–1	5–3	2–2	4–0	5–1	3–1	4–1	2–1	2–2	—	4–1
Víkingur R.	2–3	1–1	1–2	1–0	0–1	2–1	2–2	1–0	2–3	0–4	0–0	—

Source: KSÍ (Football Association of Iceland) (in Icelandic)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

As of matches played on 29 September 2018^[10]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Patrick Pedersen	Valur	17
2	Hilmar Árni Halldórsson	Stjarnan	16
3	Pálmi Rafn Pálmason	KR	11
4	Ásgeir Sigurgeirsson	KA	10
	Thomas Mikkelsen	Breiðablik
6	Steven Lennon	FH	9
7	Gunnar Heiðar Þorvaldsson	ÍBV	8
8	Kennie Chopart	KR	7
	Gísli Eyjólfsson	Breiðablik
	Guðmundur Steinn Hafsteinsson	Stjarnan
	Brandur Olsen	FH
12	Geoffrey Castillion	Vikingur	6
	Nikolaj Hansen	Vikingur
	Kristinn Freyr Sigurðsson	Valur
15	Elfar Árni Aðalsteinsson	KA	5