Latvian Higher League or Virslīga, also known as TonyBet Virslīga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

league in

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 ...

and the highest level of the Latvian football league system. Organised by the

Latvian Football Federation The Latvian Football Federation ( ; LFF ) is the governing body of football in Latvia with its headquarters located in the Rimi Sports Centre in Riga. Its activities include the organizing of the Latvian football championship ( Optibet Virslī ...

, the league is contested by ten clubs.

History and league format

History

The first all-national Latvian championship - the Virslīga - which succeeded the Riga Football League and other, parallel regional leagues, was organized in 1927. It succeeded the previous Latvian Championship () that was held from 1922 to 1926 in similar fashion. The Virslīga lasted until the

Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 The Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 refers to the military occupation of the Republic of Latvia by the Soviet Union under the provisions of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany and its Secret Additional Protocol signed i ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, between 1945 and 1991 the championship of Soviet Latvia was the main footballing competition in the

Latvian SSR The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Also known as the Latvian SSR, or Latvia) was a Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republic of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941, and then from 1944 until 1990. The Soviet occupation of the Bal ...

. With Latvia regaining full independence in August 1991, the newly established Latvian Football Federation (LFF) decided to reorganise its competitions within the Virslīga from 1992. The same year Latvia returned to

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

and became a member of

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

Format

Latvian Higher League is usually played from early March till November. Although the team count in the league has changed multiple times (10 in 2007 and 2020, 9 in 2019 and 2021, and 8 in 2015-2018), since 2022, a total of 10 teams participate in the Virslīga. Each side plays 36 games during the season, with 18 games being played at home and the other 18 away. At the end of each season, the lowest placed team in the league gets automatically relegated to the Optibet Nākotnes Līga, with Nākotnes Līga winner replacing them, while the second lowest placed team gets to play in a 2 leg relegation playoff (''Pārspēles'') against the runner-up of the Nākotnes Līga, for the last spot in the league. The winner of Virslīga qualifies for the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

first qualification round, while runners-up and 3rd place teams qualify for the

UEFA Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual football competition organised since 2021 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It is the thir ...

first qualification round. A winter off-season league cup, the Virslīga Winter Cup, was played in January of each year from 2013 to 2017, which was replaced in 2018 by the Virslīga Cup (). However, since 2024, a revamped off-season tournament,

Livonia Cup The Livonia Cup (, ) is an international men's association football super cup competition organised by the Estonian Football Association and the Latvian Football Federation, and contested by the reigning champions of the Meistriliiga and the Vir ...

, is being played from January till February, with teams from Latvia's and Estonia's leagues taking part.

Sponsorships and name changes

The League has changed sponsors for several times. From 2006 until 2010 it was known as the LMT Virslīga. No sponsorships were established for the 2011 season. Starting from the 2012 season, the league was reorganised in partnership with an NGO as "Latvijas Futbola virslīga", adopting the NGO's name in the 2012 season. From 2013 to 2015, the league was known as the SMScredit.lv Virslīga due to a contract with the online microfinance company ''SMScredit''. In March 2016, it was announced that the Virslīga would be sponsored by SynotTip

Sports Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar *Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of ...

on a three-year contract. They were succeeded by

betting Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three ele ...

firm Optibet on a two-year contract, beginning with the Optibet Virslīga

2019 season Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * '' Dici ...

, which lasted until 2024. In 2024 Optibet was replaced by TonyBet.

Clubs (2024)

Titles by year

Source:

Riga Football League

* 1908 British FC * 1909 RV Union * 1910 RV Union * 1911 Britannia FC * 1912 RV Union * 1913 SV Kaiserwald * 1914 Britannia FC * 1915 Britannia FC

Latvian Championship 1922–1940 (independent)

* 1922 Kaiserwald Riga * 1923 Kaiserwald Riga * 1924

RFK Riga The Riga Football Club (''Rīgas futbola klubs'' or ''Rīgas Futbolklubs'', RFK or Rīgas FK) was a Latvian football club which was founded on December 14, 1923 in Riga. It was the strongest and most popular Latvian football club in the 1920s and ...

* 1925

* 1926

* 1927

Olimpija Liepāja Olimpija Liepāja was a Latvian football club. It was based in Liepāja and founded in 1922. It won the Latvian Top League on seven occasions between 1927 and 1939, becoming the first non-Riga team to win the title. Otto Fischer moved in 1936 ...

* 1928

* 1929

* 1930

* 1931

* 1932

ASK Riga ASK Rīga is a former professional basketball club that was based in Riga, Latvia. "ASK" stood for "Armijas Sporta Klubs" (in English: Army Sports Club). History BK Rīga was then founded in 2004 as an attempt to revive the defunct club ...

* 1933

* 1934

* 1935

* 1936

* 1937 ''Not played'' * 1938

* 1939

* 1940

Football Championship of Latvian SSR 1942–1990

* 1942

* 1944

* 1945 Dinamo Riga * 1946 Sarkanais Metalurgs Liepāja * 1947 Sarkanais Metalurgs Liepāja * 1948 SA Riga * 1949 Sarkanais Metalurgs Liepāja * 1950 AVN Riga * 1951 Sarkanais Metalurgs Liepāja * 1952 AVN Riga * 1953 Sarkanais Metalurgs Liepāja * 1954 Sarkanais Metalurgs Liepāja * 1955 Darba rezerves (local Trudovye Rezervy section) * 1956 Sarkanais Metalurgs Liepaja * 1957 Sarkanais Metalurgs Liepaja * 1958 Sarkanais Metalurgs Liepaja * 1959 RER Riga * 1960 SKA Riga * 1961 SKA Riga * 1962 SKA Riga * 1963 SKA Riga * 1964 SKA Riga * 1965 SKA Riga * 1966 ESR-Enerģija Riga * 1967 ESR-Enerģija Riga * 1968

Starts Brocēni Starts Brocēni is a Latvian football club. Currently it plays in the 2nd Latvian league under the name Saldus FK/Brocēni. It was one of the leading Latvian clubs in the 1960s and 1970s. History CSK Brocēni The club was founded in 1961 in the ...

* 1969 Venta Ventspils * 1970 VEF Riga * 1971 VEF Riga * 1972 Jūrnieks Riga * 1973 VEF Riga * 1974 VEF Riga * 1975 VEF Riga * 1976 Enerģija Riga * 1977 Enerģija Riga * 1978 Ķīmiķis Daugavpils * 1979 Elektrons Riga * 1980 Ķīmiķis Daugavpils * 1981 Elektrons Riga * 1982 Elektrons Riga * 1983 VEF Riga * 1984 Torpedo Riga * 1985 Alfa Riga * 1986 Torpedo Riga * 1987 Torpedo Riga * 1988

RAF Jelgava RAF Jelgava was a Latvian football club based in Jelgava. The foundation of the club is considered in 1988 and for the first two years there were two teams of RAF Jelgava which in 1990 merged into one. One of those played in the lower Soviet leag ...

* 1989

* 1990 Gauja Valmiera

Since independence in 1991

*1991

Skonto Riga Skonto FC was a Latvian professional football club, active from 1991 until 2016. The club played at the Skonto Stadium in Riga. Skonto won the Virsliga in the first 14 seasons of the league's resumption (15 in total), and often provided the cor ...

*1992

*1993

*1994

*1995

*1996

*1997

*1998

*1999

*2000

*2001

*2002

*2003

*2004

*2005 Liepajas Metalurgs *2006

FK Ventspils FK Ventspils was a Latvian professional football club based at Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions in Ventspils. It was one of the most prominent football clubs in the country. The club played in the Latvian Virslīga since 1997. It folded in July ...

*2007

*2008

*2009 Liepajas Metalurgs *2010

*2011

*2012

Daugava Daugavpils FC Daugava was a Latvian football club, based at the Daugava Stadium, in the city of Daugavpils. It was founded as FC Ditton in 2001. They lastly played in the Latvian Second League in 2015. They were one of two simultaneous clubs with the nam ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

FK Liepaja *

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

JPFS/FK Spartaks Jurmala *

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

JPFS/FK Spartaks Jurmala *

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Riga FC Riga Football Club, commonly referred to as Riga FC, is a Latvian Association football, football club, founded in 2014. The club is based at the Skonto Stadium in Riga. Since 2016 Latvian Higher League, 2016, the club has been playing in the Latv ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

RFS *

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 ...

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 ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

RFS *

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

RFS *

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

Topscorers (1992–present)

Notable managers and players

File:Aleksandrs_Starkovs.jpg,

Aleksandrs Starkovs Aleksandrs Starkovs (born 26 July 1955) is a Latvian football coach and a former footballer who played as a forward. Most recently he coached FK Liepāja. Starkovs has managed clubs such as Spartak Moscow in Russia, FK Baku in Azerbaijan and ...

has won 12 league titles since independence with Skonto as a manager. File:Roman_Hryhorchuk_11.08.2013.1.jpg, Three times winner with

Ventspils Ventspils () is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It is situated on the Venta River and ...

Ukrainian

Roman Hryhorchuk Roman Yosypovych Hryhorchuk (; born 22 March 1965) is a Ukrainian professional football manager and former player. Early life Since the fourth grade, around 11 years of age, Hryhorchuk was interested in handball and competed for local village ...

is the first manager who reached

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

group stage in Virslīga history. File:Māris_Verpakovskis.jpg, First-ever Latvian who scored in

Euros The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

Māris Verpakovskis Māris Verpakovskis (born 15 October 1979), is a Latvian retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He played for the Latvia national team at UEFA Euro 2004 and is the only Latvian player to score at the end stage of a major inte ...

has won league titles with both Skonto and

Liepāja Liepāja () (formerly: Libau) is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Courland region and the third-largest in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an ...

. File:Marians_Pahars.jpg, Ukrainian born

Marians Pahars Marians Pahars (born 5 August 1976) is a Latvian professional football manager and a former player. As a player, he spent the majority of his career operating as a striker for English club Southampton, where he played in the Premier League an ...

has won 5 league titles before moving to

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

. File:Viktor_Skripnik.jpg,

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

winner Ukrainian

Viktor Skrypnyk Viktor Anatoliyovych Skrypnyk (; born 19 November 1969) is a Ukrainian professional football manager and former player who has been the manager of Ukrainian Premier League club Zorya Luhansk since 2025. As a player, he played as a left-back and h ...

has won league title with

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 ...

as a manager. File:Aleksandrs Koliņko.jpg,

Aleksandrs Koliņko Aleksandrs Koliņko (born 18 June 1975) is a Latvian professional football coach and a former player. He is the manager of Latvian Higher League club Super Nova. Club career Koliņko was born in Riga and started his career in 1994, playing f ...

, best known for playing for

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

has won 6 league titles totally with Skonto as a player and Spartaks as an assistant manager.

Most titles

This is a list of clubs, in order of most titles won in championships in independent Latvia (1922–1940 and 1991 to date). Teams in bold are part of 2020 Virslīga. Virsliga 2008 Ventspils

By club

Transfers Virslīga

Transfers from Virslīga

Transfers to Virslīga

Rivalries

The most well-known rivalry is the '' Kurzeme derby'' (Kurzemes derbijs) between

and

. The two biggest clubs in

Kurzeme Courland is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia. Courland's largest city is Liepāja, which is the third largest city in Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland as they were ...

have played 86 matches between themselves with a record of 31–28–27 (including Metalurgs) in favor of Liepāja prior to the 2019 Virslīga. Since 2016, the ''Riga Derby'' (Rīgas derbijs) was started between

and

Rīgas FS Rīgas Futbola skola (Latvian for ''Riga Football School'', also Rīgas FS or RFS) is a Latvian women's football club from Riga. The women play in the top level Latvian Women's League and won the championship in 2013 and 2014. They won their thi ...

as two clubs were promoted at the same time. A 2019 match in

Skonto Stadium Skonto Stadium () is a football stadium in Riga, Latvia. The stadium was built in 2000 and currently has 8,087 seats in total (open for spectators & VIP guests on matchdays). It is the 2nd-largest stadium in Latvia, behind Daugava Stadium, also ...

between the two sides broke a ten-year attendance record.

Virslīga clubs in international competitions

UEFA competitions UEFA competitions (), referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur association football and futsal. Th ...

was the Latvian first club who qualified for the group stage of a

club competition, reaching the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League group stage. Skonto reached the

last qualifying stage for a number of times in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but lost to teams like

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

in 1998 and Chelsea in 1999. RFS qualified for the

2022-23 UEFA Europa Conference League The symbol , known in Unicode as hyphen-minus, is the form of hyphen most commonly used in digital documents. On most keyboards, it is the only character that resembles a minus sign or a dash, so it is also used for these. The name ''hyphen-min ...

group stage, finishing in fourth place with 2 points. Most recently,

FK RFS FK RFS (FC RFS) is a professional Latvian association football, football club based in Riga. The club competes in Latvian Higher League, Virslīga, the top tier of the Latvian football league system. Founded in 2005, the club has worn a blue h ...

qualified for the

2024–25 UEFA Europa League The 2024–25 UEFA Europa League was the 54th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 16th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. This was the first season played under ...

Commonwealth of Independent States Cup The Commonwealth of Independent States Cup () is a defunct annual regional association football tournament, recognized by FIFA. The tournament was initially established for football clubs of the former Soviet Union republics in 1993 (a year late ...

* Skonto **''Runners-up'' (3):

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

. *

**''Runners-up'' (1):

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Baltic League The Baltic League (officially known as the Triobet Baltic League) was a Baltic men's football club tournament held four times between the top club sides from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Launched in 2007 inspired by the now defunct Scandinavi ...

* Metalurgs **Champions (1): 2007. *

**Champions (1): 2010. **''Runners-up'' (2): 2007, 2011. * Skonto **Champions (1): 2011. **''Runners-up'' (1): 2008.

References

External links

https://www.futbolavirsliga.tv
Association Virsliga in Latvia

Virsliga fixtures, including kick off times, at worldfootball.net
{{Authority control 1

Summer association football leagues it:Campionato lettone di calcio