Season 2012 Champions League FC Daugava Champion FC Daugava Relegated FB Gulbene Matches played 180 | Champions FC Daugava Top goalscorer Mamuka Ghonghadze (18) Location Latvia Goals scored 494 | |
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Europa League Skonto Riga
FK Ventspils
SK Liepājas Metalurgs Biggest home win Jūrmala 6-1 Daugava Daugavpils
Skonto Rīga 5-0 Metta/LU
Ventspils 5-0 Daugava Rīga People also search for 2013 Latvian Higher League | ||
The 2012 Latvian Higher League was the 21st season of top-tier football in Latvia. It began on 24 March 2012 and ended on 10 November 2012. FK Ventspils are the defending champions.
Contents
- Teams
- Stadiums and locations
- Personnel and kits
- Broadcasting
- League table
- Relegation play offs
- Top scorers
- References
The league comprised ten teams, one more than in the previous season.
Teams
The league returned to a ten-team circuit after having been forced to play the 2011 season with only nine teams, following the withdrawal of SK Blāzma a few weeks before the season commenced. As a consequence of the Blāzma withdrawal, no team was directly relegated.
2011 Latvian First League champions FS METTA/Latvijas Universitāte from Riga were directly promoted. The team, which was founded by the METTA football school and the University of Latvia in 2007, entered the Higher League for the first time in their history.
JFK Olimps/RFS finished the 2011 season in ninth place and were therefore required to compete in a two-legged promotion/relegation play-off against First Division runners-up Spartaks Jūrmala. Spartaks won the play-off 4–1 on aggregate and were therefore promoted to the Higher League. Similar to METTA/LU, they made their debut at the highest level of the Latvian football pyramid. Accordingly, Olimps/RFS were relegated to the First League after five seasons at the top flight.
Stadiums and locations
Following the promotion of FK Spartaks, the city of Jūrmala should have featured three clubs during the 2012 season, one more than the capital, Riga, but FK Jūrmala-VV moved to Riga, changing their name to Daugava Riga.
Personnel and kits
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and Managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Broadcasting
Just as last season most of the matches are transmitted live via sportacentrs.com online and sportacentrs TV channel. In June 2012 broadcasting rights were also bought by the English company Bet365. Since 2012 league's homepage futbolavirsliga.lv has been active and since September 2012 this website has been accompanied by InStat Football system, showing information and analysis of each match individually. Since October 2012 Virslīga has also had its own analytical broadcast after each round of matches with football experts discussing about the games and future events connected to Latvian football. Its transmitted via sportacentrs TV.
League table
Source: LFF:Virslīga 2012
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
1Winners of the 2012–13 Latvian Football Cup.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.
Relegation play-offs
The 9th-placed sides will face the runners-up of the 2012 Latvian First League in a two-legged play-off, with the winner being awarded a spot in the 2013 Higher League competition. The dates and exact sequence of these matches are still to be determined.