Policijas FK or FK Policija (later known as PFK Daugava) 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 based in

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 ...

that played in the

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 ...

from 1999 to 2002.

History

The football club of the Latvian police forces was founded in 1994. Until 1998 it played in the lower divisions of Latvian football as a completely

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

team. In 1998 Policijas FK for the first year played in 1. līga and won the tournament. In 1999 Policijas FK coached by Georgijs Gusarenko debuted in

. The club's main star was veteran goalkeeper

Raimonds Laizāns Raimonds Laizāns (born 5 August 1964) is a former Latvian football goalkeeper who played for the Latvia national football team in the 1990s. Club playing career Raimonds Laizāns started playing football at the Daugava sports school in Riga at ...

. Over 28 matches in 1999 Policijas FK scored 25 goals and succeeded 93 (even more than absolute league outsiders FK Rēzekne). This gave the club the 7th place in Virslīga of 8 teams. The club also suffered two dramatic losses against

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 ...

– 0:9 and 0:12. For the 2000 season Policijas FK got several former

players including goalkeeper

Andrejs Pavlovs Andrejs Pavlovs (born 22 February 1979) is a Latvian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Pavlovs started his professional career at Policija Rīga. In 2001, he joined Skonto Rīga, but was mostly back-up fo ...

and former

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 ...

player

Vladimirs Babičevs Vladimirs Babičevs (born 22 April 1968) is a Latvian association football, football manager and a former footballer. Currently, he is the manager of the Latvia national under-19 football team. Babičevs has played 51 matches for Latvia nationa ...

. Another former Skonto (and

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 ...

) star

Jurijs Ševļakovs Jurijs Ševļakovs (born 24 January 1959 in Moscow, Soviet Union) is a former Latvian football defender, now a football manager. Club playing career His player career began in PFC CSKA Moscow, CSKA Moscow where he played a couple of games in th ...

took up the coaching position. Still Policijas FK couldn't make an impression in the league – another 7th-place finish. After the club which was in financial trouble was merged with another struggling

side –

and was renamed to PFK Daugava. In the middle of the season Ševļakovs was replaced by Vladimirs Žuks. After the season Jurijs Popkovs took up the head coach position with the merged club. The 2001 season proved to be the most successful in the history of the police football club – it finished 5th in the Latvian league and even had a relatively good scored-succeed goal balance – 38 against 39. Aleksands Sergejevs was the club's best goalscorer with 9 goals, followed by

Edijs Daņilovs Edijs is a Latvian masculine given name. Edijs is often also a diminutive of the given names Edgars, Eduards, Edmunds, and Edvīns. People bearing the name Edijs include: * Edijs Brahmanis (born 1983), ice hockey player *Edijs Jurēvics E ...

with 8 goals. Goalkeeper Pāvels Doroševs who joined the club in the middle of the season was also a huge contributor to the club's success. The 2002 season when the club ran into major financial difficulties proved to be the last one for the club. It finished in the 6th place in Virslīga but after the season the club went bankrupt.

Notable players

Former players for Policijas FK included football agent Romans Bezzubovs, who was killed in 2021.

References

{{reflist Football clubs in Riga Defunct football clubs in Latvia Association football clubs disestablished in 2002 Association football clubs established in 1994 1994 establishments in Latvia 2002 disestablishments in Latvia