Gudni Johannesson, his wife Eliza Reid, and son Duncan, in Nice for the Iceland vs England match. Photograph: Håkon Broder Lund

The best thing about being Iceland’s new president? Tickets to every Euro game

This article is more than 7 years old

Elected a week ago, ex-history professor Guðni Jóhannesson explains how he hopes to change his country’s future

At eight o’clock on Sunday evening Iceland’s president, Guðni Jóhannesson, will wear his country’s blue shirt to cheer on the national team as they take on France in the quarter-finals of Euro 2016. He will join about 9,000 heavily outnumbered Iceland fans in Paris’s Stade de France.

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Watching Iceland play live in the Euros has long been a dream for Jóhannesson, but he only just took office in time to realise it. Four weeks ago he suddenly emerged as the hot favourite to win the presidential election on 25 June despite having no background in politics. At the same time the nation was building up to its first appearance in a major men’s football tournament, the European Championship in France, which kicked off two weeks before the election.

Just before the football started, the election polls had Jóhannesson, an academic historian whose specialist subjects include the cod wars and Iceland’s financial crisis, way ahead.

The Icelandic people were angry about news stories on the Panama Papers, which revealed establishment politicians’ links to offshore funds. Jóhannesson appeared on television night after night to analyse the “fiasco” and suddenly there was a clamour for the quietly spoken professor to stand as president. But just before he was elected it was not just shaping the country that was on his mind – it was how to get hold of one of the hottest tickets in town.

“First, I would look forward to shaping history rather than writing about it,” he told the Observer before the election. “But if there’s only one thing I allow myself to think about in terms of benefits from getting elected it’s this: I would be guaranteed a seat at every single sporting event I would like to attend.

“It has been a nightmare trying to buy tickets for games in the Euro qualifiers. I recall frantically trying to get tickets for the game against the Netherlands when the computer system broke down. If I am elected, one phone call and the ticket is mine.”

It showed that Jóhannesson, who duly won by a large margin, has a sense of humour, and that he is a keen sports fan. “I am immersed in sport,” he said. His father was a sports coach and teacher; his brother Patrekur played for Iceland at the 1992 Olympic Games in handball, the country’s second most popular team sport.

The day after the election, Jóhannesson was true to his word. Although he does not take office until 1 August, the KSI, Iceland’s football association, welcomed the news that he was a fan who had first watched the team in 1975 – “a 2-1 win against East Germany when they were a decent side”. The KSI invited Jóhannesson to Nice last Monday. He was there in the crowd, in his Iceland shirt, with his eldest son to see the most famous football match in Iceland’s history. “There were tears of joy,” he said after their 2-1 humbling of England. Now he will be there to see their next David and Goliath battle. But, should his team achieve another famous victory against the host nation, do not expect him to gloat. “A football stadium is the perfect place to express healthy national pride,” said Jóhannesson before leaving for France. “We are all there together, all equal, all positive. For me as president-elect this is a wonderful way to start my tenure. But a president should not be boastful.

“We went a bit over the top in the years before the financial collapse in 2008, when we thought we were conquering the world of finance. We gave the impression that Icelanders were the best in the world in every imaginable field. Well in football in 2007, Iceland lost 3-0 to Liechtenstein. This achievement in football makes us very proud, it unites us, but it does not mean we are some kind of superheroes, better than others in all aspects of life – far from it.”

Iceland is, though, clearly very good at teaching football and other sports. In that field, Jóhannesson believes, others can learn from Iceland. His favourite sport as a player was handball, in which Iceland won the Olympic silver medal in 2008. The basketball team have also done well in recent years, as have some of their athletes – and the women’s football team “led the way” said Jóhannesson, by qualifying for the Euros four times. These are remarkable achievements given the harsh climate and a population of 330,000.

“I think sport has strong connections to the national psyche,” said Jóhannesson. “When Iceland is playing everybody goes behind the team, and there is hardly ever any schadenfreude. I remember when I lived and studied in England [at Warwick and Oxford] sometimes the newspapers were happier when England was losing than winning.”

Membership of sports clubs is very high, and football clubs have an average of 140 players each, compared with 35 in England. More than 85% of 10-year-olds are active members of at least one sports club, and the standard of coaching, even for beginners, is way better than other nations.

“For the participation numbers, it’s the benefit of almost living as though we’re in a small village, where everybody knows everyone,” said Jóhannesson, a father of five. “The kids, I wouldn’t call it social pressure, but in a positive sense everyone seems to want to take part in one sport or another. Fortunately we’re still at the level where it’s affordable.

“We’re striking the right balance, too. The general consensus is that sports are meant to be for everyone, those who win and those who are not among the best, not going to get into the Premier League or go to the Olympics.

“There has been a revolution in coaching in the past decade or so. I remember when I was a kid some of the coaches I had in football or handball, they weren’t great. But nowadays I go with my kids and you can be sure that the coach will have a sporting degree of some kind.

“If you want to learn from Iceland, look at the obvious fact that if the instructors are not qualified the result is not going to be a happy one. This is something you can learn from Iceland.”

After the football, Jóhannesson will pick up his main role of settling arguments. The president should be apolitical, stand above party disputes and not take sides, he said.

“All things considered a nation needs to feel united at times. This achievement in France is helping in that regard, but afterwards I hope we will continue to argue about politics, about justice, about all the vital issues that make up our society – because we should disagree on so many things. The foundation of a civic society is the right to disagree and we certainly use that right well here in Iceland.”

One of the big discussion points is the possible increase in geothermal energy output, in order to export it to Britain. Other big issues in Iceland are the boom in tourism that Johannesson said “will have consequences that must be discussed”, the possibility of a new constitution, and the presidential task of creating a cabinet after the parliamentary elections in the autumn.

The public’s disillusionment is such that the polls predict a resounding defeat for the current coalition.

And if that is not enough, there is the small matter of the football team’s next task: qualifying for the World Cup for the first time. They have qualifying games against Finland and Turkey in early October. “No political meeting can intervene with watching Iceland play,” Jóhannesson said.

Tickets should be no problem.