Football in Lithuania
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Football is one of the top two most popular sports in Lithuania by the quantity of active sportsmen.[1] However, with only 52,000 match spectators a year (2019) in all top league matches, it falls far behind country's most popular sport, basketball. Other variations of football like futsal, 5-a-side to 8-a-side football, beach soccer have become fairly popular as well.
Football in Lithuania | |
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Country | Lithuania |
Governing body | Lithuanian Football Federation |
National team(s) | men's national team |
First played | 1892; 132 years ago (1892) |
Registered players | 25,287 (2018) ~30,000 (2021) |
Club competitions | |
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International competitions | |
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The former Soviet republic made their return as an independent football nation in 1992.[2][3] In the qualification for the Euro 2004, Lithuania held Germany to a 1–1 draw in Germany and won against Scotland. In the qualification for Euro 2008 they played away to the 2006 World Cup winners Italy and drew 1–1. They also defeated Romania 3–0 in Lithuania, in another shock performance.[4]