The Latvian Second League ( or ''Otrā līga''), currently known for sponsorship reasons as Altero.lv LIIGA, is the third 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 ...

and is organised by the Latvian Football Federation.

Competition format

Regional stage

There are 16 clubs in the Second League. There are 2 regions, West and East, with both divisions containing 8 teams which must play home and away games against their regional opponents. From each region, 4 teams advance to the promotion round, whereas the other 4 teams advance to the relegation round. This stage of the league is typically contested from April to August.

Promotion/relegation stage

The promotion round involves additional matches among the best 8 teams in the league, allowing two of the best teams to be promoted to the First League at the conclusion of the season. Additionally, the third-finishing team contests a two-legged playoff against the third-from-bottom-team in the First League, with the winner of the playoff securing an additional First League berth for the next season. From 2009 to 2017, the winners of the Latvian Second League in odd years also qualified for the

UEFA Regions' Cup The UEFA Regions' Cup is a association football, football competition for Amateur sports#Association football, amateur teams in Europe, run by UEFA. It was held for the first time in 1999 UEFA Regions' Cup, 1999 and has been played biennially sinc ...

. The relegation round, contested by the bottom 4 teams of each of the two divisions, sees the bottom 4 of those total 8 teams relegated to the Third League.

Past Second League winners

References

External links

Latvian Football Federation website
{{UEFA third leagues 3 Third-level football leagues in Europe