The 2012 A Lyga, also known as ''General Financing A Lyga'' for sponsoring purposes, was the 23rd season of the

A Lyga The A Lyga is the top division of professional football in Lithuania. It is organized by Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF) (). History The first football league was established in Lithuania in 1924, and in various forms existed until 1939. ...

, the top-tier

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 ...

league of

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. The season started on 10 March 2012 and ended on 11 November 2012. Ekranas were the defending champions.

Changes from 2011

The league changed its number of teams for the third time in a row, reducing it from twelve teams in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

to ten sides. As a consequence, the schedule expanded from 33 to 36 matches per team, which each team playing every other team four times in total, twice at home and twice away.

Teams

On 2 February 2012, the

Lithuanian Football Federation The Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF; ) is the governing body of football in Lithuania. The Federation is responsible for football development in the country and for the national teams, including the Lithuania national football team. It is bas ...

announced the teams which had passed the licensing criteria for the 2012 season. Among them were the best eight teams of the 2011 season, eleventh-placed

FK Atlantas FK Atlantas was a Lithuanian professional football club based in the port city of Klaipėda. The club's name has changed several times. It was established in 1962 as ''Granitas'', and became ''PSK Aras'' in 1993. Since 1996, when FK Sirijus Kl ...

from

Klaipėda Klaipėda ( ; ) is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. It is the List of cities in Lithuania, third-largest city in Lithuania, the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, fifth-largest city in the Baltic States, and the capi ...

and 2011 First League champions

FK REO Vilnius FK REO Vilnius was a Lithuanian football team, based in the town of Vilnius. The club participated in the 2012 A Lyga, the top flight of Lithuanian football, but dissolved half-way through the season due to unpaid debts, pulling out of the leagu ...

. Tenth-placed side

FBK Kaunas Kauno futbolo ir beisbolo klubas, commonly known as FBK Kaunas, was a Lithuanian football club from the city of Kaunas. History Banga Kaunas (1960–1993) The roots of the club can be traced back to 1960 when Banga Kaunas was founded and they p ...

were only granted a First League licence, while

FK Mažeikiai FK Mažeikiai was a Lithuanian football club from city of Mažeikiai. History In 1992, the club ROMAR Mažeikiai was founded in Mažeikiai – an acronym for Romas Marcinkevičius, the main investor of the club. In 1993, ROMAR finished the le ...

and FC Klaipėda did not apply for a licence in any of the top two Lithuanian football leagues. In July 2012, LFF banned REO from registering new players due to the club's debts to referees. On 21 July 2012, REO failed to appear on the match against Ekranas, and the game was awarded 3–0 to Ekranas with REO receiving a fine of 6000 Lithuanian Litas. REO have withdrawn from the competition in August 2012, after they were unable to attract investors. Since they have played more than half of matches in the season, according to the LFF rulebook, those matches were considered valid and all REO's upcoming matches were awarded 3–0 to their opponents.

Changes from 2011

Teams

Stadiums and locations

League table

Results

First half of season

Second half of season

Top goalscorers

References