Country Latvia Number of teams 15 Promotion to Latvian Higher League | Founded 1992 Level on pyramid 2 Relegation to Latvian Second League | |
The Latvian First League or komanda.lv First league for sponsorship reasons (Latvian: Latvijas Pirmā līga, 1. līga) is the second tier of football in Latvia and is organised by the Latvian Football Federation. From 2007 to 2008, the tournament was known as the Traffic 1. līga, due to its sponsorship by the "Traffic auto advert" advertising company.
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Format
There are 15 clubs in the First League. During the course of the season each club plays the every other club twice, once at home and once away, with a total of 28 games. At the end of the season, the highest placed club is automatically promoted to the Virslīga. The second lowest placed club in the Virslīga and the second placed club in the First League compete in a Play-off over two matches for the remaining place in the following season's Virslīga. However, for the 2009 season, the Virslīga was expanded to 9 clubs. Therefore there was no relegation and the top two clubs in the First League, FK Daugava (champions) and FC Tranzīts (runners-up) were promoted to the Virslīga. The club finishing at the bottom of the First League is relegated to the Second League.
First League clubs (2016)
15 clubs are taking part in the 2016 First League season.