The 2011 Latvian Higher League ( lv, Virslīga 2011) was the 20th season of top-tier football in

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

. It began on 15 April 2011 and ended on 5 November 2011. The competition was won by FK Ventspils, who thus qualified for the

2012–13 UEFA Champions League The 2012–13 UEFA Champions League was the 58th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 21st season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was p ...

. Runners-up Liepājas Metalurgs and third-placed sides

Daugava Daugavpils FC Daugava was a Latvian football club, based at the Daugava Stadium, in the city of Daugavpils. They lastly played in the Latvian Second League in 2015. They were one of two clubs with the name ''Daugava'' and should not be confused with FK ...

earned spots for the

2012–13 UEFA Europa League The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played at the Amsterdam Aren ...

. On the bottom end of the table,

JFK Olimps/RFS JFK Olimps was a Latvian football club, playing in the top division of Latvian football. The club was from the city of Riga. According to a study from January 2011, the club was the youngest team in Europe, with an average age of 19.02 years. ...

were relegated after losing their play-off series against Spartaks Jūrmala. All nine clubs played every other club four times during the course of the season: twice at home and twice away. In addition, there will be no direct relegation to the Latvian First League this year.

Teams

Jaunība Rīga finished the previous year's competition in tenth place and were relegated to the Latvian First League. This ended a one-year stay in the top flight. Promoted to the Higher League from the First Division automatically were the previous season's First Division champions, Gulbene 2005, who are taking part in the top flight for the first time in their history in 2011.

FC Tranzit FC Tranzit was a Latvian football club that is based in Ventspils. Prior to 2010 it was known as FC Tranzīts.FC Jūrmala FC Jūrmala is a Latvian association football, football club that is based in Jūrmala. They play in the Latvian First League. Club plays its home matches at the Slokas Stadium in Jūrmala with capacity of 5,000 people. Until 2015 FC Jūrmala was ...

. However, before this playoff took place, Tranzit informed the Latvian Football Federation that they were forfeiting their place in the Higher League altogether, ending a two-year stay in the top flight. Therefore, FC Jūrmala were promoted to the Higher League automatically. Like Gulbene, they are competing in the top flight for the first time in their history in 2011. Finally, SK Blāzma decided to withdraw from the league during the off-season. This ended a three-year stay in the top flight. At a meeting on 28 January 2011, the LFF decided that they would not be replaced in this year's competition.

Team summaries

League table

Results

First half of season

Second half of season

Relegation play-offs

At the season's end, the 9th place club in the Latvian Higher League will face the runners-up of the Latvian First League in a two-legged playoff, with the winner being awarded a spot in the 2012 Higher League competition. ----

Top goalscorers

''Source
LMT Virslīga 2011
''

Awards

Team of the Tournament

''sportacentrs.com'' version:'' __________________________________________________________________________________________________ '' Latvian Football Federation version:''

Individual nominations

''Players selected by sportacentrs.com:'' Best foreign player: Daniel Ola ( Jūrmala) Best young player (U-21): Arevshat Khachatryan ( Gulbene) Best coach: Tamaz Pertia (

/ Olimps/RFS) Surprise of the season:

Oļegs Laizāns Oļegs Laizāns (born 28 March 1987) is a Latvian football midfielder currently playing for Super Nova and the Latvia national football team. Club career Early career, Skonto and loans As a young player Oļegs Laizāns played for JFC Skonto, ...

( Ventspils) Player of the season: Jurģis Kalns ( Liepājas Metalurgs) ''Players selected by LFF:'' Best goalkeeper:

Germans Māliņš Germans Māliņš (born 12 October 1987) is a Latvian professional footballer, currently playing for JDFS Alberts. Club career Skonto Riga Born in Riga, as a youth player Māliņš played for his local club FK Auda, before moving to JFC Sko ...

(

Skonto Riga Skonto FC was a Latvian football club, active from 1991 until 2016. The club played at the Skonto Stadium in Riga. Skonto won the Virsliga in the first 14 seasons of the league's resumption (15 in total), and often provided the core of the Lat ...

) Best defender: Pāvels Mihadjuks ( Liepājas Metalurgs) Best midfielder:

( Ventspils) Best forward: Nathan Júnior (

) Best coach:

Sergei Podpaly Sergei Ivanovich Podpaly (russian: Серге́й Иванович Подпалый; born 13 September 1963) is a Russian association football coach and former player. He works as a director of sports for FC Arsenal Tula. Honours * Russian Prem ...

( Ventspils) Top scorer: Nathan Júnior (

) ''(22 goals)'' Best young player (U-21):

Valērijs Šabala Valērijs Šabala (born 12 October 1994) is a Latvian footballer, who plays for B36 Tórshavn of the Faroe Islands Premier League. Club career Early career As a youth player Šabala was a member of Daugava Rīga academy. With the club win ...

(

) Player of the season:

( Ventspils)

Team awards

''Players selected by LFF:'' Best match organization: Jelgava Fair-play award: Gulbene

References

External links

Latvian Football Federation

Latvian Football Federation news
{{2011–12 in European football (UEFA) Latvian Higher League seasons 1