2009 Latvian Higher League

Latvian Higher League 2009 (Latvian: Virslīga) was the 18th season of top-tier football in Latvia. It began on 14 March 2009 with the first round of games and ended on 8 November 2009 with the 36th round of matches. Ventspils were the defending champions.

Latvian Higher League
Season2009
ChampionsLiepājas Metalurgs
RelegatedDinaburg FC
Daugava Riga
Champions LeagueLiepājas Metalurgs
Europa LeagueJelgava (via domestic cup)
FK Ventspils
Skonto Rīga
Baltic LeagueFK Ventspils (reigning champions)
Liepājas Metalurgs
Skonto Rīga
FK Jūrmala-VV
RFS/Olimps
Blāzma Rēzekne
Matches played138
Goals scored453 (3.28 per match)
Biggest home winVentspils 8–0 Daugava Rīga
Biggest away winDaugava Rīga 1–8 Skonto
Blāzma 0–7 Skonto
Olimps/RFS 0–7 Skonto
Highest scoringDaugava Rīga 2–8 Liepājas Metalurgs
(10 goals)
← 2008
2010 →

Due to numerous pre-season team changes, such as club mergers and withdrawals, the format of the league was changed. Since there are only 9 clubs that participate in 2009 Virslīga, every team plays 4 times against every other team, what will make every team playing 32 games. Contrary to the previous season, there is not Championship and Relegation pool.[1]

Teams

Olimps Rīga were relegated after finishing the relegation round in last place. They were replaced by First League champions FK Daugava Riga.

Blāzma won the promotion/relegation play-off against Tranzīts Ventspils with 6–1 on aggregate. However, after several mergers and withdrawals Tranzīts were also awarded a place in Virslīga, as the runners-up of First League.

FK Rīga withdrew due to unpaid debts.[2] They eventually merged with Olimps Rīga and created a new club called Olimps/RFS. The new club plays in Virslīga, what saved Olimps Rīga from relegation.[3]

On 12 January 2009 Vindava withdrew from Virslīga due to financial reasons.[4]

FK Jūrmala merged with JFC Kauguri/Multibanka, which is also a merger of JFC Kauguri Jūrmala and FK Multibanka Rīga, to a new club named FK Jūrmala-VV. The new club carried over the players and other personnel from FK Jūrmala.

Daugava Daugavpils and Dinaburg also merged and remained under the Dinaburg FC name. It is not yet certain which club's staff will operate the new club. Dinaburg also took Daugava's 2009–10 UEFA Europa League spot.[5]

Location of teams in the Latvian Higher League 2009
Club Location Stadium Capacity Current manager
Blāzma Rēzekne Sporta Aģentūras Stadions 3,000 Žanis Ārmanis
Daugava Riga Salaspils Stadium 648 Vladimirs Beļajevs
Dinaburg Daugavpils Celtnieks Stadium 4,070 Tamaz Pertia
FK Jūrmala-VV Jūrmala Slokas Stadium 5,000 Vladimirs Babičevs
Metalurgs Liepāja Daugava Stadium 5,083 Rüdiger Abramczik
Olimps/RFS Riga Daugava Stadium 5,008 Anton Joore
Skonto Riga Skonto Stadium 9,500 Paul Ashworth
Tranzīts Ventspils Ventspils 2. pamatskolas stadions 500 Igor Kichigin
FK Ventspils Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadium 3,085 Nunzio Zavettieri

League table
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 Liepājas Metalurgs (C) 32 25 4 3 96 23 +73 79 Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
2 Ventspils 32 23 5 4 89 21 +68 74 Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round
3 Skonto 32 23 4 5 98 30 +68 73 Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round
4 Jūrmala-VV 32 12 4 16 42 60 −18 40
5 Olimps/RFS 32 11 5 16 53 60 −7 38
6 Blāzma Rēzekne 32 7 5 20 30 71 −41 26
7 Tranzīts Ventspils 32 2 10 20 22 65 −43 16
8 Daugava Rīga (R) 32 3 5 24 26 116 −90 14 Qualification for relegation play-offs
9 Dinaburg[lower-alpha 1] (R) 32 15 4 13 31 39 −8 49 Relegation to Latvian First League
Source: Latvian Football Federation (in Latvian)
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th overall wins; 5th goal difference; 6th goals scored.
(C) Champion; (R) Relegated.
Notes:
  1. Dinaburg were excluded from the league due to match-fixing related to betting which involved Dinaburg's president Oļegs Gavrilovs and head coach Tamaz Pertia.[6][7]

Results

First half of season
Home \ Away BLĀ DGR DIN JVV LIE RFS SKO TRA VEN
Blāzma Rēzekne 4–3 1–2 1–2 0–3 0–1 0–7 1–0 0–3
Daugava Rīga 1–1 0–3 1–1 1–4 1–5 1–7 2–0 1–5
Dinaburg FC 1–0 1–0 1–2 0–3 2–1 1–1 2–0 1–0
FK Jūrmala-VV 3–0 1–1 1–0 1–1 0–1 0–3 4–2 0–3
SK Liepājas Metalurgs 4–0 1–0 3–1 2–2 5–1 4–0 5–0 2–1
Olimps/RFS 1–1 4–0 1–1 2–3 1–2 1–8 1–1 1–5
Skonto FC 4–0 6–0 3–2 3–0 2–1 2–0 1–0 1–3
Tranzīts Ventspils 0–0 3–3 1–1 1–2 0–1 0–0 1–1 0–3
Ventspils 5–1 4–2 0–0 3–0 1–1 1–0 2–1 1–1
Source: Latvian Football Federation (in Latvian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second half of season
Home \ Away BLĀ DGR DIN JVV LIE RFS SKO TRA VEN
Blāzma Rēzekne 4–0 3–0[lower-alpha 1] 0–3 1–3 3–1 0–1 1–0 0–2
Daugava Rīga 0–3 3–0[lower-alpha 1] 0–3 2–8 0–5 0–7 2–1 0–5
Dinaburg FC 1–0 1–0 2–0 1–2 0–3[lower-alpha 1] 0–3[lower-alpha 1] 2–1 0–3[lower-alpha 1]
FK Jūrmala-VV 0–2 3–1 0–1 1–4 1–0 0–5 1–2 0–4
SK Liepājas Metalurgs 6–0 3–0 3–0[lower-alpha 1] 4–1 3–0 0–1 4–0 1–1
Olimps/RFS 3–2 7–0 0–1 2–0 1–5 0–2 2–1 0–2
Skonto FC 4–0 7–0 0–1 3–2 1–6 3–3 4–1 0–0
Tranzīts Ventspils 1–1 1–1 0–2 1–4 1–0 0–2 1–3 0–1
Ventspils 5–0 8–0 1–0 4–1 1–2 5–3 0–2 7–0
Source: Latvian Football Federation (in Latvian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:
  1. Dinaburg were excluded from the league due to match-fixing related to betting which involved Dinaburg's president Oļegs Gavrilovs and head coach Tamaz Pertia. Dinaburg's remaining matches will be awarded to their opponents with 3–0.[8][9]

Relegation play-offs

Since there are only 9 clubs participating in 2009 Virslīga, no teams will be directly relegated. 9th placed Virslīga team and runners-up of First League will compete in relegation play-offs for one spot in Virslīga 2010. The other spot will be taken by First League champions.[10] Since one of the teams were excluded from the league, the relegation play-off will be replaced with the direct promotion of the First League team placing second.

Team of the season 2009

Goalkeepers: Viktors Spole (FK Liepājas Metalurgs ), Aleksandrs Vlasovs (Skonto FC )

Defenders: Oskars Kļava (FK Liepājas Metalurgs ), Grigori Chirkin (FK Ventspils ), Deniss Ivanovs (FK Liepājas Metalurgs ), David Gamezardashvili (Skonto FC ), Tomas Tamošauskas (FK Liepājas Metalurgs ), Vitālijs Smirnovs (Skonto FC ), Deniss Kačanovs (FK Ventspils ), Dzintars Zirnis (FK Liepājas Metalurgs )

Midfielders: Jurijs Žigajevs (FK Ventspils ), Andrejs Prohorenkovs (FK Liepājas Metalurgs ), Vitālijs Astafjevs (FK Ventspils ), Jevgēņijs Kosmačovs (FK Ventspils ), Maksims Rafaļskis (FK Liepājas Metalurgs ), Igors Kozlovs (Skonto FC ), Pāvels Surņins (FK Liepājas Metalurgs ), Igor Tigirlas (FK Ventspils )

Forwards: Vits Rimkus (FK Ventspils ), Vladimir Dvalishvili (Skonto FC ), Kristaps Grebis (FK Liepājas Metalurgs ), Ģirts Karlsons (FK Liepājas Metalurgs )

See also

References
  1. Paziņo LMT Virslīgas 2009.gada sezonas kalendāru (in Latvian)
  2. Futbola kluba «Rīga» desmit gadu (in Latvian)
  3. "Olimps" apvienojas ar RFS Archived 2009-02-07 at the Wayback Machine (in Latvian)
  4. "Vindava" atsakās no spēlēšanas Virslīgā Archived 2009-02-03 at the Wayback Machine (in Latvian)
  5. "Dinaburg" un "Daugava" apvienojas Archived 2009-02-12 at the Wayback Machine (in Latvian)
  6. "Динабург" исключен из чемпионата Латвии и Балтийской Лиги (in Russian)
  7. LFF measures in FC Dinaburg case
  8. "Динабург" исключен из чемпионата Латвии и Балтийской Лиги (in Russian)
  9. LFF measures in FC Dinaburg case
  10. Visi klubi skaita naudiņu! (in Latvian)
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