FK Grobiņa

The club played for many seasons in Latvia’s second division, the Nākotnes Līga, before moving up to the top league, Virslīga, in 2023. This promotion brought a lot of excitement, especially because of their ideological rivalry with nearby FK Liepāja and because both clubs are part of the city of Liepāja municipal football school system. This is why, in 2024 season, both clubs had “Liepāja” as their back of shirt sponsor, why Grobiņa plays at Daugava Stadium in Liepāja and why they had LFS added to their name since getting promoted (LFS = Liepaja Football School). This was, however, removed for the following season as Grobiņa also changed name to FK Grobiņa and stepped on a path towards becoming a fully professional club.

The town of Grobiņa is located only 7km away from the city of Liepāja and is connected to it by a bicycle path and serviced by bus number 912, which is the name their fans chose to adopt (912 Ultras) upon their club’s promotion to the highest tier of Latvian football. Grobiņa itself, despite now being little more than a suburb of Liepāja, is a historic place and used to be an important Viking settlement back in the 9th century, a heritage embraced and celebrated today via various cultural and recreational events. The town mascot is heron, which also appears on the crest of the football club.

Unlike their larger rivals, the team is well-known for relying and developing local players from the Liepāja football academy. This focus on local talent has earned them many loyal fans, especially after their famous victory over FK Liepāja in a 2023 Latvian Cup derby match, while they were still playing in the second tier. That game gained so much recognition because wasn’t just about football, it highlighted diametrically opposite philosophies of the two clubs and brought back glimpses of the glorious past of local football, when clubs such as Sarkanais Metalurgs (1949-1961) or Liepājas Metalurgs (1997-2014) oft dominated Latvian football with squads composed of majority local players.

The rivalry with FK Liepāja grew after FK Grobiņa joined the Virslīga. The ‘Liepāja Derby’, sometimes also called the ‘South Courland Derby’, now draws crowds not seen for up to two decades, with up to 2,500 people attending the matches, thus demonstrating the growing passion for the team in the region.