Baltic League

Baltic League

Founded	2007
Folded	2011
Country	Estonia  Latvia  Lithuania
Number of teams	12 (2007–2008) 16 (2009–2011)
Last champions	Skonto (2010–11)
Most championships	Metalurgs Kaunas Ventspils Skonto (1 title)
TV partners	Viasat Sport Baltic

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

Season	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Venue(s)	Referee
2007	Metalurgs	8 – 2 (aggregate) 3 – 1, 5 – 1	Ventspils	Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions, Ventspils Daugava Stadium, Liepāja	Kristo Tohver Audrius Žuta
2008	Kaunas	2 – 1	Skonto	Skonto Stadions, Riga	Hannes Kaasik
2009–10	Ventspils	3 – 3 (a.e.t.) 5 – 3 (pen.)	Sūduva	Sūduva Stadium, Marijampolė	Sten Kaldma
2010–11	Skonto	1 – 1 (a.e.t.) 5 – 4 (pen.)	Ventspils	Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions, Ventspils	Nerijus Dunauskas

Statistics

Performances by club

Club	1st	2nd	Seasons	Seasons 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

Country	1st	2nd	Seasons Won
Latvia	3	3	2007, 2009–10, 2010–11
Lithuania	1	1	2008
Estonia	0	0

All-time top goalscorers

#	Player	Goals
1	Aleksandrs Cauņa	10
	Ģirts Karlsons	10
3	Ričardas Beniušis	8
4	Rafael Gaúcho	7
5	Genādijs Soloņicins	6
	Egidijus Varnas	6
7	Mindaugas Kalonas	5
	Mihails Miholaps	5
	Andrejs Perepļotkins	5
10	Viktors Dobrecovs	4
	Aleksandr Dubõkin	4
	Vladimir Dvalishvili	4
	Oļegs Laizāns	4
	Vīts Rimkus	4
	Serhij Sernecki	4
	Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko	4
	Aleksejs Višņakovs	4

External links