The 2020 A Lyga was the 31st 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 began on 6 March and was planned to end on 7 November 2020. On 12 March all sports events were postponed for two weeks in the light of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Teams

FK Sūduva Marijampolė FK or fk may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Flyer Killer, fictional automated robots in the ''Terminator'' film franchise * Fox Kids, a former American children's television programming block * Funky Kong, a video game character Place * F ...

begin the season as defending champions having won their third consecutive league title last year. Three clubs dropped out of A Lyga last season - Stumbras folded in the summer, while Atlantas and

Palanga Palanga (; ; ) is a resort town, resort city in western Lithuania, on the shore of the Baltic Sea. Palanga is the busiest and the largest summer resort in Lithuania and has sand, sandy beaches (18 km, 11 miles long and up to 300 metres, 10 ...

were disqualified after the end of the season after investigation revealed numerous match-fixing incidents.

Licensing process

The top 5 previous season's teams -

FK Žalgiris Futbolo klubas Žalgiris, commonly known as FK Žalgiris, Žalgiris Vilnius or simply Žalgiris, is a Lithuanian professional association football, football club based in Vilnius. The club competes in the A Lyga, the top flight of Football in L ...

FK Riteriai Futbolo Klubas Riteriai, also known as FK Riteriai or as Riteriai, is a Lithuanian professional association football, football club based in Vilnius. Until 21 February 2019, the club was based in Trakai and was known as FK Trakai. The team won t ...

FK Kauno Žalgiris Futbolo klubas Kauno Žalgiris (''Football club Kauno Žalgiris'') is a professional football club based in Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states b ...

and FK Panevėžys met licensing criteria and received a straight pass to their licenses. Disqualified FK Palanga and

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 ...

appealed the disqualification decision and expressed interest in playing in A Lyga. Their appeals were rejected. Five of the

I Lyga The LFF Pirma Lyga, TOPsport Pirma Lyga, or Pirma Lyga, is the second tier of professional Lithuanian football championship. Format Organized by the Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF), I Lyga is contested by 16 teams, with the top team gain ...

teams applied for A Lyga licenses -

FK Banga Gargždai FK Banga Gargždai is a Lithuanian professional association football, football club from the city of Gargždai. History FK Banga was founded in 1966. During the period from 1966 to 1990, the club was in the Soviet Lithuanian football champion ...

FC Džiugas FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakis ...

, Vilniaus Vytis, DFK Dainava and FC Hegelmann Litauen. The previous year's I Lyga winners

failed to meet A Lyga licensing criteria, and their application was rejected.

will continue playing in I Lyga this season.

won the play-off match against FK Palanga and earned the right to play in A Lyga. Their A Lyga license was granted upon appeal. Vilniaus Vytis and DFK Dainava did not earn promotion to A Lyga, however they were hoping for exceptions which are common in Lithuanian football. In this instance their applications were rejected on the grounds of failing to meet several critical criteria. FC Hegelmann Litauen withdrew their application prior to the licensing committee's meeting. This meant that only six teams will play in the 2020 A Lyga championship. The LFF announced that four

teams will qualify for promotion to A Lyga next season.

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes

Regular season

On 12 March all sports events were postponed for two weeks in the light of the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

League table

Fixtures and results

Rounds 1–10

Rounds 11–20

Season statistics

Top scorers

References

External links

* {{2020–21 in European football (UEFA) LFF Lyga seasons 2020 in Lithuanian football