2024 Latvian Higher League

The 2024 Latvian Higher League, known as the TonyBet Virslīga for sponsorship reasons, was the 33rd season of top-tier football in Latvia. The season began on 8 March 2024 and ended on 9 November.^[1][2]

Latvian Higher League

Season	2024
Dates	8 March – 9 November 2024
Champions	RFS
Relegated	Valmiera
Champions League	RFS
Conference League	Auda Daugavpils Riga
Matches played	154
Goals scored	454 (2.95 per match)
Top goalscorer	Reginaldo Ramires (25 goals)
← 2023 2025 → All statistics correct as of 2 October 2024.

The winners (RFS, their second consecutive title win and third overall) qualified for the 2025–26 Champions League first qualifying round. The runners-up (Riga) qualified for the 2025–26 Conference League second qualifying round, with the third and fifth-placed teams (Auda and Daugavpils) qualifying for the first qualifying round. The ninth-placed team (Grobiņa) qualified for the Latvian Higher League play-off, winning and retaining their place in the league. The fourth-placed team (Valmiera) were relegated to the 2025 Latvian First League at the end of the season after being refused a Latvian Higher League license, giving a reprieve to the bottom-placed team (Jelgava).

Teams

The league consisted of ten teams; the top nine clubs from the previous season, and one team promoted from the Latvian First League. RFS entered the season as defending champions.

Grobiņa were promoted as champions of the 2023 Latvian First League, replacing the 2023 Latvian Higher League bottom-placed team (Super Nova).^[3]

Riga

Valmieras FK

Jelgava

Liepāja

Daugavpils

Tukums

Auda

Grobiņa

Riga teams:
Metta
RFS
Riga

Locations of the 2024 Latvian Higher League teams

2024 Virslīga competitors

Club	Seasons in Virsliga	2023 position	Stadium	Capacity
Auda	3	3rd	Audas Stadions	520
Daugavpils	11	7th	Esplanādes stadions	1,980
Grobiņa	0	1st in Latvian First League	Grobiņa Stadium	200
Jelgava	2	6th	Zemgale Olympic Center	2,500
Liepāja	11	5th	Daugava Stadium (Liepāja)	4,022
Metta	13	9th	Daugava Stadium (Riga)	10,461
RFS	9	1st	LNK Sporta Parks	2,300
Riga	9	2nd	Skonto Stadium	8,087
Tukums 2000	3	8th	Tukuma Pilsētas Stadions	1,000
Valmiera	7	4th	Jāņa Daliņa Stadions	1,250

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	RFS (C)	36	29	3	4	103	25	+78	90	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Riga	36	27	6	3	99	23	+76	87	Qualification for the Conference League second qualifying round[a]
3	Auda	36	18	6	12	63	34	+29	60	Qualification for the Conference League first qualifying round
4	Valmiera (R)	36	19	7	10	75	39	+36	55[b]	Relegation to the Latvian First League[c]
5	Daugavpils	36	11	9	16	43	60	−17	42	Qualification for the Conference League first qualifying round
6	Liepāja	36	10	9	17	37	56	−19	39
7	Metta	36	10	6	20	34	76	−42	36
8	Tukums 2000	36	9	8	19	38	81	−43	35
9	Grobiņa (O)	36	8	5	23	34	78	−44	29	Qualification for the Latvian Higher League play-off
10	Jelgava	36	6	7	23	28	82	−54	25	Reprieved from relegation

Source: LFF, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Goal difference; 5) Goals scored; 6) Fair-play ranking; 7) Play-off.^[7]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. The 2024 Latvian Football Cup winners qualified for the Conference League second qualifying round. Since the cup winners (RFS) qualified based on league position, the Conference League spot was passed to the second-placed team, and the second Conference League first qualifying round spot was passed to the fourth-placed team.
2. On 19 April, Valmiera were deducted three points, with an additional six points and a suspended 25 points deduction being issued on 11 October due to licensing regulation breaches.^[4][5]
3. Valmiera were relegated at the end of the season after being refused a Latvian Higher League license; Jelgava were reprieved from relegation.^[6]

Results

Teams play each other four times (twice at home and twice away).

Home \ Away	AUD	DAU	GRO	JEL	LIE	MLU	RFS	RIG	TUK	VAL	AUD	DAU	GRO	JEL	LIE	MLU	RFS	RIG	TUK	VAL
Auda		1–0	0–1	0–1	1–1	4–0	1–2	1–2	2–0	3–1		1–0	2–0	3–0	2–0	5–0	1–3	2–2	1–1	0–1
Daugavpils	0–3		2–0	1–0	0–0	4–0	1–1	0–2	3–1	1–6	1–2		4–0	3–0	0–2	1–1	0–3	0–5	4–1	3–3
Grobiņa	1–1	1–3		4–2	3–2	3–0	0–4	0–1	2–1	0–2	2–2	3–0		2–3	1–3	1–2	0–2	0–6	1–2	1–4
Jelgava	0–0	0–0	2–1		1–1	0–1	1–2	1–5	2–3	0–3	1–3	0–0	2–0		2–2	1–0	0–2	0–2	0–0	0–4
Liepāja	1–0	1–1	3–0	0–1		1–2	0–3	1–1	0–2	0–3	2–1	3–3	0–1	3–0		1–5	1–3	0–3	3–1	0–0
Metta	1–3	0–1	1–1	3–0	2–0		0–6	1–2	1–1	0–2	0–4	3–2	2–1	2–0	1–2		1–2	2–4	0–0	1–1
RFS	2–1	5–0	5–0	5–1	4–1	2–0		2–2	5–0	0–1	1–2	4–1	3–0	7–0	2–0	5–1		1–2	4–1	4–1
Riga	1–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	4–0	5–0	1–2		3–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	6–1	6–1	1–0	4–0	0–0		10–1	1–0
Tukums 2000	1–4	1–2	2–0	2–1	0–0	0–0	0–1	2–1		1–2	0–3	0–0	1–2	3–3	2–1	0–1	1–4	0–5		3–2
Valmiera	2–1	0–1	1–1	4–0	0–1	3–0	2–0	2–1	6–1		2–3	4–1	0–0	3–2	0–1	4–0	1–2	2–2	2–3

Source: LFF, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Latvian Higher League play-off

The ninth-placed club (Grobiņa) faced the third-placed club from the 2024 Latvian First League (JDFS Alberts) in a two-legged play-off for the final place in the 2025 Latvian Higher League.

First leg

Grobiņa v JDFS Alberts

20 November 2024	Grobiņa	2–3	JDFS Alberts	Grobiņa
11:00 BST	Sdaigui 15' Halata 20'		Indrāns 16' Zegele 40' Andersons 43'	Stadium: Grobiņa Stadium

Second leg

JDFS Alberts v Grobiņa

23 November 2024	JDFS Alberts	0–2 (3–4 agg.)	Grobiņa	Riga
10:00 BST			Gaučis 36', 42'	Stadium: Daugavgrīvas vidusskolas stadions

Statistics

Top scorers

As of 10 January 2025^[8]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Reginaldo Ramires	Auda/Riga	25
2	Alioune Ndoye	Valmiera	22
3	Marko Regža	Riga	18
4	Jānis Ikaunieks	RFS	16
5	Abdulrahman Taiwo	Riga/Auda	12
6	Ismaël Diomandé	RFS	11
	Joseph Oloko Ede	Jelgava
8	Darko Lemajić	RFS	10
	Lūkass Vapne	Valmiera
	Mohamet Corréa	Metta

Attendances

#	Football club	Average attendance[9]
1	Riga FC	1,200
2	FK Liepāja	595
3	Grobiņas SC	559
4	FK RFS	493
5	Valmiera FC	450
6	BFC Daugavpils	436
7	FK Metta	319
8	FS Jelgava	286
9	FK Tukums 2000	261
10	FK Auda	229