Lech Poznań's Europa League Chaos: Fog Delays Flight to KÍ Klaksvík
The Europa League second leg between Lech Poznań and KÍ Klaksvík is hanging in the balance, and it has nothing to do with tactics, form or injuries. It’s the weather.
Poland’s champions, 1-0 up from the first leg after a late strike from Yannick Agnero in Poznań, are locked in a race against the clock – and the fog – to even reach the Faroe Islands in time for Thursday evening’s return match, scheduled for 6.30pm local time.
Two Days, No Landing
Lech have been trying to get to Vágar, the Faroe Islands’ only airport, for two days. Heavy fog has turned what should have been a routine charter flight into a drawn-out saga.
On Wednesday, the squad waited for hours, stuck in limbo. Head coach Niels Frederiksen’s patience clearly wore thin as the delays piled up. Cameras caught him telling his players they could not “just postpone, postpone, and postpone” their departure indefinitely and would have to make a firm decision at some point.
His message tried to keep a competitive edge amid the chaos. “If we fly tomorrow morning and play tomorrow then we will have to leave quite early, so we still have the possibility to rest,” he told the group, clinging to the idea of some semblance of preparation.
Cleared for Takeoff… Then Diverted
Hope briefly flickered on Thursday morning. Lech’s players boarded again, the club’s social media channels announcing they were “cleared for takeoff” and setting off a wave of optimism among supporters.
Then the fog struck back.
The plane reached the skies but never made it to the islands, circling in a holding pattern off Norway’s west coast for around 40 minutes before being diverted to Bergen. For a spell, their troubled journey became a global curiosity: the aircraft turned into the most-watched flight on tracking service Flightradar as thousands of Lech fans followed every loop and turn on their phones.
What should have been a straightforward trip had become a public ordeal.
UEFA on the Line
With kick-off looming, Lech are now deep in discussions with UEFA over whether the match can realistically go ahead as planned or must be pushed back to allow the team to arrive safely and recover.
KÍ Klaksvík, well used to these conditions, usually warn visiting clubs to arrive two days before a game to build in a buffer for exactly this kind of disruption. They also recommend flying with Atlantic Airways, the Faroese national carrier, whose pilots are seasoned in handling the islands’ brutal weather and tricky approaches.
That advice looked sound on Thursday morning. Three Atlantic Airways planes successfully landed at Vágar before conditions deteriorated again.
Lech, though, had opted for a private charter with Comlux. The choice has now become a central subplot in a tie that was supposed to be defined by a one-goal advantage and a tricky away leg, not airspace and visibility.
Islands Where Weather Calls the Shots
The Faroe Islands have a reputation that every European club official knows: you underestimate the weather at your peril. This summer alone, two opponents of NSÍ Runavík in the Conference League ran into serious travel delays, forced into late matchday arrivals by the same unforgiving conditions.
Some have learned. FC Lugano, also facing NSÍ Runavík, made the sensible call and arrived on Tuesday for their game, scheduled for this afternoon.
Lech Poznań, by contrast, are discovering the hard way that in the Faroes, the first opponent you have to beat isn’t always the team waiting on the pitch. It’s the fog.
