When Lithuania host Latvia in Kaunas and Estonia welcome the Faroe Islands to Pärnu next Saturday, the 6th of June, they will be continuing a football tradition that stretches back almost a century.
The Baltic Cup was first played in 1928, making it one of the oldest international football competitions still in existence. Created at a time when travel was expensive and international fixtures were limited, the tournament gave Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia a way to measure themselves against their closest neighbours and establish regional bragging rights.
Those early editions were rarely short of drama. In an interview about the competition with the Latvian Football Podcast – one of the projects later merged into Baltic Football News – Latvian football historian Raimonds Kaže highlights disputes over referees, tournament regulations and even the final standings that have became part of why Baltic Cup endured and grew into a heated rivalry. These included, for example, a 1933 edition, when confusion over rule changes and drawn matches led to a tournament being declared void, while disagreements between the federations were serious enough to halt football relations between Latvia and Estonia for two years. Similar tensions later emerged between Latvia and Lithuania.
The intensity reflected the importance of football in the region at the time. National teams played relatively few competitive matches, and the Baltic Cup offered one of the rare opportunities to contest a trophy and settle regional rivalries on the pitch. Attendances of several thousand spectators were common, and newspapers followed every controversy closely.
The competition disappeared following the Soviet occupation, although various tournaments involving the Baltic “soviet republics” continued under different formats. The modern Baltic Cup was revived after the restoration of independence and has since remained a regular feature of the international calendar.
Its format has changed repeatedly, and recent editions have included invited nations such as Iceland, Finland and the Faroe Islands. Yet the core idea has remained the same – bringing together the Baltic football nations in a competition with a history few countries can match.
On that account alone, this unique tournament is worth your time and attention. As Kaže noted, the Baltic Cup is one of the few surviving sporting traditions that connects today’s national teams with the football culture of the interwar republics. In a region where clubs, leagues and institutions have often changed dramatically over the decades, the competition provides a rare sense of continuity.
With just a week until kick-off, why not brush up on your Baltic Cup by revisiting our interview with Raimonds Kaže or learning more about the competition?
Tickets to Lithuania versus Latvia are available to purchase here: https://kakava.lt/renginys/baltijos-taures-pusfinalis-lietuva-latvija/12061/24945
Tickets to Estonia versus Faroe Islands are available to purchase here: https://www.jalgpall.ee/ejl/piletid/501090
