The Baltic League (officially known as the Triobet Baltic League) was a Baltic men's football club tournament held four times between the top club sides from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Launched in 2007 inspired by the now defunct Scandinavian tournament Royal League and by the Baltic Basketball League.
History
The first two tournaments were held between top four club sides from each country. For 2009–10 the competition was expanded to 16 teams, with five sides from every Baltic state taking part. One additional slot was allocated to the sixth best team from the country of the previous winner.
A similar competition was the Baltic Champions Cup which featured the league champions of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The inaugural tournament in 2007 finished as a two legged final. This format was abandoned for the second tournament and subsequent finals were played as a single match at the home of one of the finalists. After this format was introduced, the team hosting the match did not win despite the added home advantage.
The first two tournaments were played from Spring to Summer with 12 entrants but this changed to a longer Winter to Summer tournament with four more clubs taking part.
Finals SeasonWinnerScoreRunner-upVenue(s)Referee2007 Metalurgs 8 – 2 (aggregate) 3 – 1, 5 – 1 VentspilsVentspils Olimpiskais Stadions, Ventspils Daugava Stadium, Liepāja Kristo Tohver Audrius Žuta2008 Kaunas2 – 1 SkontoSkonto Stadions, Riga Hannes Kaasik2009–10 Ventspils3 – 3 (a.e.t.)5 – 3 (pen.) SūduvaSūduva Stadium, Marijampolė Sten Kaldma2010–11 Skonto1 – 1 (a.e.t.)5 – 4 (pen.) VentspilsVentspils Olimpiskais Stadions, Ventspils Nerijus Dunauskas
Statistics
Performances by club Club1st2ndSeasons Won Ventspils 1 2 4 2009–10 Skonto 1 1 4 2010–11 Metalurgs 1 0 4 2007 Kaunas 1 0 2 2008 Sūduva 0 1 3 Ekranas 0 0 4 Flora 0 0 4 Levadia 0 0 4 Trans 0 0 4 Dinaburg 0 0 2 Žalgiris 0 0 2 TVMK 0 0 2 Vėtra 0 0 2 Banga 0 0 2 Jūrmala 0 0 2 Kalju 0 0 2 Sillamäe Kalev 0 0 2 Šiauliai 0 0 2 Tauras 0 0 2 Rīga 0 0 1 Olimps 0 0 1 Blāzma 0 0 1
By country Country1st2ndSeasons Won 3 3 2007, 2009–10, 2010–11 1 1 2008 0 0
All-time top goalscorers #PlayerGoals1 Aleksandrs Cauņa10 Ģirts Karlsons103 Ričardas Beniušis84 Rafael Gaúcho75 Genādijs Soloņicins6 Egidijus Varnas67 Mindaugas Kalonas5 Mihails Miholaps5 Andrejs Perepļotkins510 Viktors Dobrecovs4 Aleksandr Dubõkin4 Vladimir Dvalishvili4 Oļegs Laizāns4 Vīts Rimkus4 Serhij Sernecki4 Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko4 Aleksejs Višņakovs4
References