Valmiera Football Club is a

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

n professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club playing in the Altero.lv LIIGA, the third highest division in the Latvian football league system. The club is based in the city of

Valmiera Valmiera () is the second largest city of the historical Vidzeme region, Latvia, with a total area of . As of 2002, Valmiera had a population of 27,323, and in 2020, it was at 24,879. It is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city, and ...

. By winning the

Latvian First League The Latvian First League () is the second tier of football in Latvia and is organised by the Latvian Football Federation. Since 2021, its full name is Nākotnes Līga (''Future League''). History The league was founded together with other Latv ...

in 2017, the team was promoted to the 2018 Virslīga after a 14-year absence, and won their first title in 2022.

History

A predecessor of the club and the main team of the city of Valmiera from 1978 to 1993 was FK

Gauja The Gauja River (, ) is a river in the Vidzeme region of Latvia. It is the only large river of Latvia that begins and ends its flow in Latvia. Its length is 460 km, of which 93.5 km (approximately one-fifth) are in Gauja National P ...

Valmiera, which won the final

Football Championship of the Latvian SSR Championship of the Latvian SSR in football (also Higher Football League of the Latvian SSR, ) was a top competition of association football in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, Latvian SSR in 1945-91 soon after the Soviet occupation of La ...

in 1990 and continued in the top flight after the restoration of the independence of Latvia. However, after the 1993 Virslīga season Gauja was relegated and slowly declined, disbanding in the mid-1990s while playing in the 2. līga. The current club was founded in 1996 as Valmieras FK (Valmieras futbola klubs). It participated in the 1. līga (the second-highest division of Latvian football). The team finished second in the league which gave Valmiera the possibility to battle with the second from bottom team of the Higher League – Skonto-Metāls for a place in the top division of Latvian football. In the first game in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

Skonto-Metāls won 1:0, but at home Valmiera overcame the one goal deficit and won 2:0 (I. Maļukovs, Dz. Savaļnieks), thus earning a place in the Virslīga. In its debut season in the

Virslīga Latvian Higher League or Virslīga, also known as TonyBet Virslīga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Latvia and the highest level of the Latvian football league system. Organised by the Latvian Football F ...

Valmiera managed to finish 7th out of 9 teams with a comfortable margin over the two weakest teams. The following season was even more successful as the team finished 5th in Virslīga, and the same result was repeated in 1999. The new

millennium A millennium () is a period of one thousand years, one hundred decades, or ten centuries, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting ...

brought financial difficulties for FK Valmiera. After the 2003 season the team had to leave the Virslīga because of financial difficulties and since then played in the 1. līga, paying more attention to developing young talent. Several of former Valmiera players have played in the

Latvia national football team The Latvia national football team () represents Latvia in men's international Association football, football, and is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Latvia. They have never qualified for the FIF ...

. Those include

Vīts Rimkus Vīts Rimkus (born 21 June 1973) is a Latvian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Club career Born in Riga, Vīts Rimkus started his career in 1993 with Pārdaugava Rīga, scoring twice in 14 league appearances. After a p ...

Viktors Morozs Viktors Morozs (born 30 July 1980) is a Latvian football coach and former player (midfielder). He is currently the manager of Latvian Higher League side, RFS. Club career Morozs started his career in Valmiera. Between 2001 and 2008 he played ...

Gatis Kalniņš Gatis Kalniņš (born 12 August 1981) is a Latvian football Striker (association football), striker, currently playing for FK Valmiera in the Latvian Higher League. Club career As a youth player Gatis Kalniņš played for his local club FK Val ...

Deniss Romanovs Deniss Romanovs (born 2 September 1978) is a retired Latvian football goalkeeper. Club career His early career was spent with Latvian sides Skonto-Metāls, Valmiera, Ventspils and Ditton. During the 2008/09 season he joined Slavia Praha. ...

and

Māris Smirnovs Māris Smirnovs (born 2 June 1976) is a Latvian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football), defender, and is currently the fitness coach of the Latvia national football team, Latvia nation ...

. For more than ten years Valmiera was a mid level team in the 1. līga. Since 2010, under manager

Gatis Ērglis __NOTOC__ Gatis is a Latvian masculine given name borne by over 5,000 men in Latvia. The etymology of the name is disputed. One suggestion is that it may be related to the Latvian word ''gatavs'' ("ready", "mature"). Another suggestion is that it ...

a number of young local players experienced rapid development and the team became one of the leaders of the 1. līga. In 2016 the sports organisation was established as "SO Valmiera Glass / Vidzemes Augstskola" or "Valmiera Glass ViA" - taking the name of the team's long-time sponsor Valmiera Fiberglass and Vidzeme University, which inherited the legacy of Valmiera football. Also joining Valmiera Glass ViA was the school's

basketball club Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

. In 2017 the team's best scorers were

Alvis Dubovs Alvis is a given name and a surname (close to the uncommon Scottish surname Alves). Alvis may also refer to: *Alvi, a Muslim community in South Asia, who claims descent from the fourth Rashidun caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib *Alvis Car and Engineering ...

and Niks Savaļnieks, helping Valmiera Glass ViA to win the

with a ten-point margin. In 2018, Valmiera Glass ViA returned to the

. One of the biggest offseason deals for the team was the return of

to his hometown, but the veteran striker was mostly sidelined due to injuries. The team struggled in amidst fierce competition and earned only one point in the first ten rounds of the league. That led to the decision to replace long time manager Ērglis with Ukrainian coach

Mykola Trubachov Mykola (, ) is a Slavic variant, more specifically a Ukrainian and Belarusian variant, of the masculine name "Nicholas", meaning "victory of the people". It may refer to: People * Mykola Arkas (1853–1909), Ukrainian composer, writer, histor ...

. In 2019, he was replaced by Georgian coach

Tamaz Pertia Tamaz Pertia (born 23 December 1974) is a Georgian football coach and a former midfielder. Playing career During his playing career, Pertia has played for Lokomotiv Minsk in the Belarusian Premier League and many clubs from Georgia, Moldova a ...

. In 2020 club was renamed to "Valmiera FC" (Valmiera Football Club), reportedly due to Valmiera Fibreglass entering a temporary legal protection process due to financial difficulties. In 2022, Valmiera won the Latvian top-tier league for the first time in history under the management of coach Jurģis Kalns. This was followed by two consecutive 4th place finishes. However, around 2024 the team started to accumulate unpaid debts, which led to the club being denied a license to play in the 2025 Virslīga season and being replaced by FS Jelgava who would have been otherwise relegated. Later, Valmiera was denied a Latvian Future League licence as well, making the future of the team unclear. Ultimately, the club managed to reduce its debt and was granted a license to play in the third-level Altero.lv LIIGA in the 2025 season.

Honours

Latvian Higher League Latvian Higher League or Virslīga, also known as TonyBet Virslīga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Latvia and the highest level of the Latvian football league system. Organised by the Latvian Footbal ...

**Champions:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

League and Cup history

;FK Valmiera / Valmiera Glass ViA / Valmiera FC

European record

''As of match played 17 August 2023'' ;Notes * QR: Qualifying round

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

References

External links

* {{Latvian Higher League Valmiera Football clubs in Latvia Association football clubs established in 1996 1996 establishments in Latvia