FK ASK

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

was a

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 ...

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 ...

club of the Latvian army, founded in 1923. In the 1920s and 1930s it was one of the leading clubs in Latvia. In 1940s it was disbanded, a new football club of the Soviet army was created in Riga under the name FK AVN, later AVN was renamed to ASK. It became defunct in 1970.

History

Original FK ASK

ASK was founded as a football club with the Latvian army in 1923. In its first year the club earned a promotion to the top Riga division by beating Union Riga. The stadium of ASK (built in 1923) was one of the main football arenas in

Latvia national football team The Latvia national football team () represents Latvia in men's international Association football, football, and is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Latvia. They have never qualified for the FIF ...

played many matches there. In 1924 ASK finished second in Riga, but both in 1925 and 1926 it finished last and thus in 1927 it didn't earn a place in the newly founded Virsliga (first league in Latvia to have clubs from both Riga and other cities). In 1928 ASK earned a promotion to Virsliga by beating LNJS Liepāja. In 1932 ASK won its first Virsliga title (in a golden match against Riga Vanderer). As at the end of the season both clubs had equal points and it was the first such precedent in the Latvian league and no regulations existed for such situations to determine the champion, at first the position was that both clubs be awarded 1st place in the league, neither of the teams would be considered the "champion" and

Rīgas FK The Riga Football Club (''Rīgas futbola klubs'' or ''Rīgas Futbolklubs'', RFK or Rīgas FK) was a Latvian football club which was founded on December 14, 1923 in Riga. It was the strongest and most popular Latvian football club in the 1920s an ...

as the previous year's winners would retain that title. However a vote in the Latvian Football Union decided that the champion would be decided in a golden match.Latvijas kareivis, 1932-10-15 In the golden match ASK won 3:1 Rehtšprehers, Bredersons and Timpers scored for ASK, Jenihs – for Vanderer. In 1933 ASK won the Riga Football Cup, in the finals they beat Vanderer again. Through the entire 1930s ASK was always close to the top but it couldn't win another Latvian title as Olimpija Liepāja and

usually came out with more points at the end of the season, that came only during German occupation of Latvia during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1940 ASK together with other popular Latvian football clubs was disbanded by the Soviets but in 1941 it was reformed. In 1942 and 1943 it won the Latvian league, and in 1943 – the

Latvian Cup The Latvian Football Cup () is the main knockout cup competition in Latvian football. Since 2021, its full name is Responsible Gaming Latvian Football Cup (''Atbildīgas spēles Latvijas kauss'') due to the sponsorship by sports betting company ...

. In 1944 as the Soviet Army entered Riga the club was disbanded again, one of its star players – Aleksandrs Vanags later became popular while playing with

RC Strasbourg Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace, commonly known as RC Strasbourg (, ; RCS) or simply just Racing, is a French professional association football club founded in 1906 and based in the city of Strasbourg, Alsace. It became a professional club in ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

FK AVN

In 1945 a new army football club – FK AVN – was created to replace the former ASK. In the early 1950s it was one of the strongest football clubs in Latvia that won the Latvian league in 1950 and 1952 and the

in 1950–1952. Still it was a completely different club than the former ASK as it Soviet soldiers from different Soviet republics played with it. In 1953 the club was disbanded as a part of the process of eliminating army clubs all over the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. The most notable footballer of this era of the club was the goalkeeper Valentin Ivakin who only played with AVN for one year (in 1952), however later he played with top Soviet clubs –

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow () is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was the central part of the Armed Forces (sports ...

and Spartak Moscow and even made one international appearance for

USSR national football team The Soviet Union national football team () was the national football team who represented the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1992. After the breakup of the Union the team was transformed into the CIS national football team. FIFA and UEFA considers ...

. It was restored just a year later and earned promotion to the top league at the end of the 1954 season. Just one year later it was renamed to ASK Riga.

Soviet FK ASK

FK ASK had a strong dominance in the Latvian league in 1960s as it won the Latvian league 6 consecutive seasons (such a result was surpassed only in the 1990s by

Skonto FC Skonto FC was a Latvian professional Association football, 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 o ...

). Just like AVN this ASK was a club that did not rely too much on the local footballers, but at least some Latvians did get a chance to play there and one of them was future professional

Daugava Rīga FK Daugava Rīga was a Latvian football club, based at the Daugava Stadium in Riga. They played in the Latvian Higher League. The last manager of the team was Armands Zeiberliņš. From the club's foundation in 2003 till 2009 the club was kno ...

and

coach Jānis Gilis. The second half of the 1960s wasn't as good for ASK as the first one, and in 1970 it became defunct.

Honours

*Latvian top league winners: 11 (1932, 1942, 1943, 1950, 1952, 1960–1965) *

winners: 6 (1943, 1950–1952, 1959, 1960, 1966)

References

{{Reflist ASK A A 1923 establishments in Latvia 1970 disestablishments in Latvia