Football in Latvia | OneFootball

Latvian football has not been without its problems over the years, although it has been on the up as well. The Latvian Higher League or Virslīga as it is known, has seen a number of clubs fall foul of a number of reasons, which has seen many of them dissolve over the years.

Skonto FC – Latvia Football most successful side throughout history – had to fold in 2016 because of bankruptcy and it was a real shame as they had dominated the country’s competition for so many years.

The club had won 15 total titles throughout their history, although their last had come in 2010 as a number of other sides started to make their own pieces of history.

Unfortunately, the majority of league winners throughout the history of Latvian football have all folded. RFK Liga – who won eight titles; Olimpija Liepāja – who won seven titles; Liepājas Metalurgs and Kaiserwald Riga had both won two titles as well no longer exist.

The likes of Ventspils, JPFA/Spartaks Jurmala and Riga FC have all since become top teams in Latvia and have each managed to lay claim to a top domestic league title in the recent decade.

With their rise, Latvian football has started to bring back some of the excitement to its followers from yesteryear and has the ability to generate the same buzz that cycling fans receive when the Paris-Nice race takes place – as summed up by this article from cycling.today published in 2020.

The current format of the Latvian Higher League has been increased to 10 teams as recent as the 2020 season – having been nine the season prior and eight before then as each team played each other four times. The season runs generally runs from March to November, however the 2020 campaign had to start in May because of the pandemic that swept across the globe.

The ten teams are: Jelgava, Liepaja, Metta / LU, Riga FC, Rigas FS, Spartaks Jurmala, Valmiera, Ventspils, BFC Daugavpils and FK Tukums 2000/TSS (who won promotion at the end of the 2019 season.

Indeed, the Latvian Higher League is perhaps a really exciting league for avid bettors, as there has been an average of 3.06 goals to be scored in each match as of 22nd September with 55 having been scored, therefore, providing those keen bettors with the same excitement as perhaps some of the best james bond scenes determined 2020.

Nonetheless, there will be some intrigue as to what happens on the pitch in the coming weeks as the two Riga sides (Riga FC and Rigas FS) continue to fight at the top of the league rather closely.