By 1980 Icelandic football got some notice, but this was because of players making good impressions abroad. Domestic leagues continued to be weak.
Reynir Arskogsstrond won the 3rd division championship. Good for the team looking largely like bunch of teenagers, but otherwise the winners had only a novelty value. Promoted to second level, though.
KA and Thor, both from Akureyri, finished 1st and 2nd in the second division and promoted to top league. Both clubs were familiar with first division football and clearly above the rest of the second league. There is nothing more to say – half of the second division members were entirely unknown, only three clubs, apart from the winners, played in a minor role if first division occasionally.
First division was 50% Reykjavík clubs. Of them the smallest one, Trottur, was the league outsider, sinking to the bottom early in the championship and never moving from the last 10th spot. IB Keflavik, usually stronger, had a bad season and finished 9th. These were the relegated. On the brighter side was UB Kopavogur – unlikely first division member, but they finished 5th , seemingly determined to establish themselves among the best.
Four clubs at the top were more or less familiar to foreign public names, for those were usually stronger and played in the European tournaments. But there was no competitive race for the title. IA Akranes and Vikingur Reykjavik were comfortably above the rest of the league, yet, fought between themselves for the bronze medals. Both finished with 20 points and IA Akranes got the medals thanks to superior goal-difference. Way above them were Fram and Valur, but there was no much of the clash between them either: Fram ended 5 points ahead of IA Akranes, but 3 points behind the champions. In a small league of only 10 members, 3 points was rather big advantage.
Valur Reykjavík finished with one more title – their 17th and 3rd since 1975. Valur, traditionally one of the best clubs in the country, was seemingly the current strongest club.
The Cup final opposed Fram Reykjavík to ÍB Vestmannæyjar. IB were stronger in the first half of the 1970s, but sunk to the lower half of the table after 1975. Fram prevailed 2-1. Thus, the strongest Icelandic clubs at the moment won the trophies.
Fram won their 4th Cup. Although one of the most successful clubs, with 15 titles by 1980, Fram was well bellow their arch-rival Valur in recent times: since 1947 they won only 2 titles – one in 1962 and one in 1972. On the other hand, they excelled at last in the Cup tournament, winning their very first Cup in 1970 and steadily adding more during the 70s.
A strange play-off was staged between IA Akranes and Vikingur – strange, because the final table shows IA at third place. The play-off decided who will represent Iceland in the UEFA Cup and Vikingur won 2-1. Still, it looks weird, for if IA Akranes was awarded 3rd place, they automatically deserved the European spot. What the play-off did was just cementing the supremacy of the clubs from the capital – all three Icelandic representatives in the European tournaments hailed from Reykjavik.