The 2008

Virslīga Latvian Higher League or Virslīga, also known as TonyBet Virslīga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Latvia and the highest level of the Latvian football league system. Organised by the Latvian Football F ...

season was the 17th Virslīga season. It began on 5 April 2008 with the first round of games and ended on 9 November 2008 with the final matches of the championship and relegation rounds.

Ventspils Ventspils () is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It is situated on the Venta River and ...

were the defending champions.

Season details

For the 2008 season the league has expanded to ten clubs, and the fixture format has changed. Due to expansion there was no relegation at the end of the 2007 season, and the top two clubs from the 1. līga 2007 season, champions FK Vindava (from

), and second placed

SK Blāzma SK Blāzma is a Latvian football club in Rēzekne. The club is a continuation of the city's main football club, Dižvanagi. The club competed in Virslīga in the 2008 season following promotion from the 1. Liga in 2007. History The first cl ...

(from

Rēzekne Rēzekne (, ''Rēzne'' or ''Rēzekne'' , ) is a state city in the Rēzekne River valley in the Latgale region of eastern Latvia. It is called ''The Heart of Latgale'' (Latvian ''Latgales sirds'', Latgalian ''Latgolys sirds''). Built on seven ...

) were both promoted. From the 2008 season on, the league will be held in two rounds. In the first round each club played all the other nine clubs twice, home and away starting with ''Matchday 1'' on 5 April and finishing with ''Matchday 18'' on 10 August. In the second round there were two "mini leagues", with the top six clubs after the First Round, playing each other twice and clubs in 7th to 10th place after the First Round playing each other four times. Second round matches started on 24 August and finished on 9 November. At the end of the season, the club finishing bottom of the Virslīga were automatically relegated to the 1. līga, and the champions of the 1. līga were automatically promoted, taking the place of the relegated club. The club that finished next to the bottom in the Virslīga play a two-legged playoff for the final place in the Virslīga for the next season with the club that finished second in 1. līga.

First round

Standings

Results

Second round

Championship round

Standings

Results

Relegation round

Standings

Results

Relegation play-offs

Blāzma Rēzekne, the 9th placed team in the

, and 1. līga runners-up, Tranzīts Ventspils, competed in a two-legged play-off for a spot in the Virslīga 2009. Blāzma Rēzekne won 6–1 on aggregate and thereby kept their spot in the next season of the

. ----

Topscorers

References

External links

Latvian Football Federation

Latvian Football Federation news in English
{{2008-09 in European Football (UEFA) Latvian Higher League seasons 1

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 ...