2008 Latvian Higher League

The 2008 Virslīga season was the 17th Virslīga season. It began on 5 April 2008 with the first round of games and ended on 9 November 2008 with the final matches of the championship and relegation rounds. Ventspils were the defending champions.

Ventspils
Vindava

Olimps
Rīga
Skonto

Dinaburg
Daugava

Metalurgs

Jūrmala

Blāzma

Location of teams in the Latvian Higher League 2008

Latvian Higher League

Season	2008
Champions	FK Ventspils
Relegated	JFK Olimps/RFS
UEFA Champions League	FK Ventspils
UEFA Europa League	FK Liepajas Metalurgs Skonto FC Dinaburg FC
Top goalscorer	Vits Rimkus (15 goals)
← 2007 2009 →

Season details

FK Ventspils - champions for third time in the row

For the 2008 season the league has expanded to ten clubs, and the fixture format has changed. Due to expansion there was no relegation at the end of the 2007 season, and the top two clubs from the 1. līga 2007 season, champions FK Vindava (from Ventspils), and second placed SK Blāzma (from Rēzekne) were both promoted. From the 2008 season on, the league will be held in two rounds.

In the first round each club played all the other nine clubs twice, home and away starting with Matchday 1 on 5 April and finishing with Matchday 18 on 10 August.

In the second round there were two "mini leagues", with the top six clubs after the First Round, playing each other twice and clubs in 7th to 10th place after the First Round playing each other four times. Second round matches started on 24 August and finished on 9 November.^[1][2]

At the end of the season, the club finishing bottom of the Virslīga were automatically relegated to the 1. līga, and the champions of the 1. līga were automatically promoted, taking the place of the relegated club. The club that finished next to the bottom in the Virslīga play a two-legged playoff for the final place in the Virslīga for the next season with the club that finished second in 1. līga.^[1]

First round

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ventspils	18	12	4	2	33	6	+27	40	Qualification for championship round
2	Skonto	18	11	3	4	28	19	+9	36
3	Dinaburg	18	9	5	4	22	13	+9	32
4	Rīga	18	9	3	6	28	27	+1	30[a]
5	Liepājas Metalurgs	18	7	9	2	27	17	+10	30[a]
6	Daugava Daugavpils	18	6	6	6	27	22	+5	24
7	Vindava Ventspils	18	4	5	9	14	27	−13	17	Qualification for relegation round
8	Jūrmala	18	3	7	8	15	27	−12	16
9	Blāzma Rēzekne	18	2	4	12	8	26	−18	10
10	Olimps/RFS	18	1	6	11	12	30	−18	9

Source: Latvian Football Federation (in Latvian)
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored.
Notes:

1. RĪG 2–2 LIE; LIE 2–2 RĪG

Results

Home \ Away	BLĀ	DGD	DIN	JŪR	LIE	RFS	RĪG	SKO	VEN	VIN
Blāzma Rēzekne		1–1	0–2	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–2	0–3	1–1
FC Daugava Daugavpils	2–0		0–1	0–0	4–1	3–1	6–1	1–3	1–4	1–1
Dinaburg FC	2–1	0–3		2–2	0–0	1–0	2–0	3–0	0–1	1–1
FK Jūrmala	1–0	0–0	0–0		1–1	1–1	1–3	1–1	0–1	2–1
SK Liepājas Metalurgs	1–0	2–0	1–0	7–2		1–1	2–2	1–2	0–0	2–0
Olimps/RFS	1–1	0–0	0–2	2–1	1–3		1–3	0–1	1–3	0–1
FK Rīga	2–1	1–0	1–1	3–1	2–2	3–1		1–2	1–0	1–2
Skonto FC	1–0	3–1	0–3	2–1	2–2	3–1	1–2		1–0	3–0
Ventspils	3–0	2–2	3–0	2–0	0–0	0–0	2–0	1–0		1–0
Vindava Ventspils	2–0	1–2	0–2	0–1	0–0	2–0	1–2	1–1	0–7

Source: Matchday 1–9 results Matchday 10–18 results (in Latvian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second round

Championship round

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ventspils (C)	28	19	6	3	53	14	+39	63	Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
2	Liepājas Metalurgs	28	14	11	3	48	25	+23	53	Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round[a]
3	Skonto	28	15	7	6	43	31	+12	52
4	Dinaburg	28	10	8	10	32	31	+1	38	Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round[a]
5	Daugava Daugavpils	28	10	7	11	40	35	+5	37
6	Rīga	28	10	3	15	36	55	−19	33

Source: Latvian Football Federation (in Latvian)
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions
Notes:

1. Daugava Daugavpils won the Latvian Football Cup 2008 competition, thereby qualifying for UEFA Europa League 2009–10 second qualification round. However, Daugava Daugavpils merged with Dinaburg, so the Europa League spots were redistributed based on league position.

Results

Home \ Away	DGD	DIN	LIE	RĪG	SKO	VEN
FC Daugava Daugavpils		2–0	1–2	2–0	2–1	0–2
Dinaburg FC	3–3		0–0	3–1	0–1	0–3[a]
SK Liepājas Metalurgs	3–1	3–1		3–0	0–0	1–2
FK Rīga	0–2	3–2	1–4		1–2	0–2
Skonto FC	1–0	1–1	2–3	3–1		2–2
Ventspils	1–0	1–0	0–2	5–1	2–2

Source: Latvian Football Federation (in Latvian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

1. The match originally finished 0–0, but was eventually awarded with as won by a score of 3–0 to Ventspils because Dinaburg FC fielded player who was not in match protocol.^[3]

Relegation round

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Jūrmala	30	10	10	10	35	34	+1	40
2	Vindava Ventspils	30	9	9	12	27	41	−14	36
3	Blāzma Rēzekne (O)	30	5	8	17	20	43	−23	23	Qualification for relegation play-offs
4	Olimps/RFS (R)	30	2	11	17	22	47	−25	17	Relegation to Latvian First League

Source: Latvian Football Federation (in Latvian)
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored.
(O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated

Results

First and second games Home \ Away BLĀ JŪR RFS VIN Blāzma Rēzekne 2–1 1–1 0–1 FK Jūrmala 2–0 2–0 3–0 Olimps/RFS 0–0 1–1 0–2 Vindava Ventspils 2–0 0–0 1–0 Source: Latvian Football Federation (in Latvian) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Third and fourth games Home \ Away BLĀ JŪR RFS VIN Blāzma Rēzekne 1–3 1–0 2–2 FK Jūrmala 2–1 3–0 0–0 Olimps/RFS 2–2 0–2 5–1 Vindava Ventspils 1–2 2–1 1–1 Source: Latvian Football Federation (in Latvian) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation play-offs

Blāzma Rēzekne, the 9th placed team in the Virslīga, and 1. līga runners-up, Tranzīts Ventspils, competed in a two-legged play-off for a spot in the Virslīga 2009. Blāzma Rēzekne won 6–1 on aggregate and thereby kept their spot in the next season of the Virslīga.

Tranzīts Ventspils	1 – 5	Blāzma Rēzekne
Baturinskis 42'	Report (in Latvian)	Gramovičs 55', 64', 74' (pen.) Kurakins 70' Silovs 86'

15 November 2008

14:00 GMT+2

2. pamatskolas stadions, Ventspils

Attendance: 250

Referee: Vadims Direktorenko (Riga)

---

Blāzma Rēzekne	1 – 0	Tranzīts Ventspils
Silovs 78'	Report (in Latvian)

18 November 2008

13:00 GMT+2

Sporta Aģentūras Stadions, Rēzekne

Attendance: 338

Referee: Andrejs Sipailo

Topscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Vits Rimkus (LAT)	FK Ventspils	14
2	Kristaps Grebis (LAT)	FK Liepājas Metalurgs	13
	Oļegs Malašenoks (LAT)	FK Jūrmala
4	Andrejs Butriks (LAT)	FK Ventspils	11
5	Mikalay Ryndzyuk (BLR)	Dinaburg FC	9
	Vladimir Dvalishvili (GEO)	Skonto FC