The Latvian Third League () is the fourth tier of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. It is organised by the

Latvian Football Federation The Latvian Football Federation ( ; LFF ) is the governing body of football in Latvia with its headquarters located in the Rimi Sports Centre in Riga. Its activities include the organizing of the Latvian football championship ( Optibet Virslī ...

History

In 2019, the

changed the Latvian football league system by expanding it to a fourth tier, the Third League. The aim was to greatly reduce the number of teams in the Second League and increase the prestige of the higher levels of the league system. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia, the inaugural 2020 season did not fully proceed as planned. The first edition of the Third League, held in accordance with the newly established format, took place in 2021.

Competition format

Regional stage

There are four regional divisions (West, Center, North, and East) in the Third League, each containing approximately 10 teams (though the exact number in each division varies by season), which must play home and away games against their regional opponents. From each region, two teams advance to the promotion round, whereas the other teams do not continue the season. This stage of the league is typically contested from April to September. As this is the lowest level of Latvian football, no relegation takes place within the league.

Promotion stage

The promotion round involves additional matches between the top two teams of each regional division, allowing four of the best teams to be promoted to the Second League at the conclusion of the season. This takes place in a

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

format, starting from the quarterfinals. Semi-finalists are automatically promoted to the Second League for next season, and contest additional matches in order to determine the exact placement of each team and the league winners.

Past Third League winners

References

External links

Latvian Football Federation website

Latvian Third League website
{{UEFA fourth leagues 4 Fourth-level football leagues in Europe