Today, the annual press conference was held before the 2025 season of the Latvian Virslīga. The event featured Maksims Krivuņecs, the president of the Virslīga, and Vadims Ļašenko, the president of the Latvian Football Federation, along with coaches and representatives from the ten Virslīga teams. They answered questions from the press regarding the upcoming season.
Baltic Football News attended this press conference, during which Maksims Krivuņecs announced that the Virslīga budget has reached 750,000 euros – an increase of 50,000 euros from the previous year.
Krivuņecs also highlighted that the league’s engagement with audiences has grown significantly over the years – using a proxy of unique viewers for highlight videos, which grew from 3,000 when he took over in 2018 to 10,000 today. He expressed his hopes for improvements not only in financial aspects but also in how information about the Virslīga is communicated. The goal is to make it more convenient for fans to follow the league and to enhance the viewing experience for television audiences by introducing in-game statistics – something that has been planned for the previous year but never took effect. To facilitate fan engagement, Virslīga plans to release its own mobile application and integrate various aspects of the football fan experience – from watching matches to playing fantasy football – into a single digital ecosystem.
Additionally, the president of the Latvian Football Federation addressed previous concerns regarding the sudden increase in foreign player fees and the earlier conflict between Krivuņecs and Ļašenko. He acknowledged lapses in communication at the time and stated that these issues are now resolved and that a joint working group has been established to evaluate and advise on the implementation of the new system, and relations between the two parties are positive.
Virslīga season 2025 will kick off on Wednesday as FK Auda will host defending champions FC RFS at Mežaparks Sport Village at 18:00 Riga time.
