FK Liepājas Metalurgs

FK Liepājas Metalurgs

Full name	Futbola Klubs Liepājas Metalurgs
Founded	1994
Dissolved	2013
Ground	Daugava Stadium Liepāja, Latvia
Capacity	5,083
League	Virslīga (1997–2013)
2013	5th
Home colours Away colours

FK Liepājas Metalurgs (Latvian: Futbola klubs "Liepājas metalurgs") was a Latvian football club in the city of Liepāja and playing in the Virslīga. They played at the Daugava Stadium (capacity 5,083). In 2005 Liepājas Metalurgs became the first team other than Skonto Riga to win the Virslīga since the league restarted in 1991. After the 2013 league season the club was dissolved due to the bankruptcy of its sole sponsor metallurgical plant Liepājas Metalurgs. The club was replaced by FK Liepāja, founded in 2014.

Based in Liepāja, FK Liepājas Metalurgs, got their name from the city's metallurgical factory, founded in 1882, the only one of its kind in the Baltic states.

The history of the club can be traced back to 1945 when two football clubs were founded in Liepāja – Daugava Liepāja and Dinamo Liepāja.

In its debut season Daugava Liepāja were runners-up in the Latvian league behind the champions FK Dinamo Rīga. In 1946 Daugava were coached by former Olimpija Liepāja defender Kārlis Tīls and with one of the best former Olimpija players Ernests Ziņģis in attack the team won its first Latvian title. Both Valdis Pultraks and Voldemārs Sudmalis were in the squad. Daugava again won the title again in 1947 and the squad included Miervaldis Drāznieks who went on to score 160 goals in the Latvian league. Daugava Liepāja also won the Latvian Cup in 1946 and 1947.

Dinamo Liepāja did not play in the Latvian top league. However, in 1948 Dinamo won the Latvian Cup with future Liepāja player Žanis Zviedris in the team.

In 1949 Daugava Liepāja and Dinamo Liepāja merged to form Sarkanais Metalurgs which, for the next decade, was the strongest club in the Latvian league. In 1949, Sarkanais Metalurgs won both the league and the Latvian Cup. More titles followed in 1951, 1953, 1954, and from 1956 to 1958. They also won the Latvian Cup three times in a row from 1953 to 1955. In 1954 after beating Daugava Rīga in a match for the chance to play in the Soviet League a united Daugava-Metalurgs club was formed which included six Metalurgs players. In 1954, they competed in the "USSR Class B 1954, 2nd zone" of the Soviet First League the second tier in Soviet football.^[1] In the Latvian league the Metalurgs team was made up of mostly the reserve squad. In 1956 Daugava did not include the Metalurgs name in the Soviet League. In 1960 Sarkanais Metalurgs were given a place in the Soviet league and continued playing in the league under various names until 1990.^[2] In 1961, the club played as LMR Liepāja.

In 1962, the club changed owners and was renamed Zvejnieks Liepāja. It was considered to be the second team for Daugava Rīga and the club's best players usually had to leave for Daugava. Also if Daugava players needed to have match practice they were sent to Liepāja. In the Soviet league Zvejnieks were usually a mid-table club. With the club playing in the Soviet and not the local league, players from other Republics of the Soviet Union came to play for Zvejnieks. In the 1960s, defender Mārtiņš Lube was the club's captain. Jurijs Romaņenkovs who went on to become the club's coach in 1989–90 played for Zvejnieks in the 1970s.

In the 1980s Vladimirs Žuks coached Zvejnieks and several bright players emerged with the club including Jānis Intenbergs, Ilmārs Verpakovskis, Alekseja Šarando, Vladimirs Babičevs and Ainārs Linards. A number of Daugava Rīga players also played for Zvejnieks including Raimonds Laizāns and Dainis Deglis.

In 1990, the club was renamed and given the name of a former Latvian club that played in the 1920s–1930s – Olimpija Liepāja. As Olimpija the club played in the Soviet league in 1990, but in 1991, after Latvia regaining its independence, they played only in the Latvian league and finished in the third place. The Olimpija period saw the emergence of Viktors Dobrecovs at the club. After the breakup of the Soviet Union the first seasons in the newly independent Latvia were difficult for Olimpija as they got financially weaker from year to year.

In 1994, the club was renamed FK Liepāja but played only one season with that name.

In 1995 FK Liepāja was merged with FC Dag Rīga to form DAG Liepāja. The club reached the 1995 Latvian Cup final where they lost 3–0 to Skonto FC. Ainārs Linards returned to the club in 1995. In the Latvian league the club finished 8th out of ten clubs in 1996.

In 1996, the club changed owners again and became Baltika Liepāja. In 1996 Māris Verpakovskis, the son of Ilmārs Verpakovskis and future Latvia national football team international made his debut for the club. For some time the club was on the brink of bankruptcy and struggled to stop the best players from leaving the club. However, the club got new funding from the local Metallurgy factory and for the 1997 season at last had a stable budget and ambitious plans again.

In 1998 Metalurgs with Jurijs Popkovs as their head coach finished second behind Skonto in the Latvian Virslīga and each season up to 2004 Metalurgs finished second in the championship. In the Latvian Cup they also lost three cup finals. In 2005 Metalurgs finally became Virslīga champions and won the first title for Liepāja in an independent Latvia since the 1930s. In 2006 Metalurgs also finally won the Latvian Cup. The next league title came in 2009.

After the 2013 league season the club was dissolved due to the bankruptcy of its sole sponsor metallurgical plant Liepājas Metalurgs. There were talks held with potential investors about salvation of the club, but due to lack of suitable options a decision was made to end its existence. The club was replaced by FK Liepāja, founded in 2014.

• Virslīga
  • Champions (2): 2005, 2009
• Virslīga
  • Runners-up (8): 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011
• Latvian Cup
  • Champions (9): 1946, 1947, 1948, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1963, 1964, 2006
• Baltic League
  • Champions (1): 2007
• Latvian–Soviet League
  • Champions (9): 1946, 1947, 1949, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958

Sarkanais Metalurgs

Zvejnieks Liepaja

Olimpija Liepāja

Liepājas Metalurgs

Olimpija Liepāja

Olimpija Liepāja

FK Liepāja

DAG Liepāja

FK Liepāja / FK Baltika

FK Liepājas Metalurgs

Season	Division (Name)	Pos./Teams	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Latvian Football Cup
1997	1st (Virslīga)	5/(9)	24	9	4	11	27	32	31	did not participate
1998	1st (Virslīga)	2/(8)	28	17	6	5	62	25	57	Runner-up
1999	1st (Virslīga)	2/(8)	28	19	3	6	75	25	60	semi-finals
2000	1st (Virslīga)	3/(8)	28	16	7	5	51	25	55	Runner-up
2001	1st (Virslīga)	3/(8)	28	20	4	4	60	24	64	semi-finals
2002	1st (Virslīga)	3/(8)	28	15	6	7	56	31	51	Runner-up
2003	1st (Virslīga)	2/(8)	28	22	2	4	100	29	68	1/4 finals
2004	1st (Virslīga)	2/(8)	28	21	3	4	85	27	66	semi-finals
2005	1st (Virslīga)	1/(8)	28	22	5	1	85	19	71	Runner-up
2006	1st (Virslīga)	2/(8)	28	18	6	4	66	20	62	Winner
2007	1st (Virslīga)	2/(8)	28	18	4	6	42	21	58	1/4 finals
2008	1st (Virslīga)	2/(10)	28	14	11	3	48	25	53	1/4 finals
2009	1st (Virslīga)	1/(9)	32	25	4	3	96	23	79	1/4 finals
2010	1st (Virslīga)	3/(10)	27	19	4	4	70	20	61	1/4 finals
2011	1st (Virslīga)	2/(9)	32	22	4	6	74	26	70	Runner-up
2012	1st (Virslīga)	4/(10)	36	21	7	8	60	33	70	Runner-up
2013	1st (Virslīga)	5/(10)	27	11	7	9	54	35	40	semi-finals

Season	Competition	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1998/99	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	1R		Keflavík	4–2	0–1	4–3
		2R		Braga	0–0	0–4	0–4
1999/00	UEFA Cup	QR		Lech Poznań	3–2	1–3	4–5
2000/01	UEFA Cup	QR		Brann	1–1	0–1	1–2
2001	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1		Cork City	1–0	2–1	3–1
		2		Heerenveen	3–2	1–6	4–8
2002/03	UEFA Cup	QR		Kärnten	0–2	2–4	2–6
2003/04	UEFA Cup	QR		Dinamo București	1–1	2–5	3–6
2004/05	UEFA Cup	1QR		Tórshavn	8–1	3–1	11–2
		2Q		Östers	1–1	2–2	3–3 (a)
		1		Schalke 04	0–4	1–5	1–9
2005/06	UEFA Cup	1QR		Runavík	3–0	3–0	6–0
		2QR		Genk	2–3	0–3	2–6
2006/07	UEFA Champions League	1QR		Aktobe	1–0	1–1	2–1
		2QR		Dynamo Kyiv	1–4	0–4	1–8
2007/08	UEFA Cup	1QR		Dinamo Brest	1–1	2–1	3–2
		2QR		AIK	3–2	0–2	3–4
2008/09	UEFA Cup	1QR		Glentoran	2–0	1–1	3–1
		2QR		Vaslui	0–2	1–3	1–5
2009/10	UEFA Europa League	2QR		Dinamo Tbilisi	2–1	1–3	3–4
2010/11	UEFA Champions League	2QR		Sparta Prague	0–3	0–2	0–5
2011/12	UEFA Europa League	2QR		Red Bull Salzburg	1–4	0–0	1–4
2012/13	UEFA Europa League	1QR		La Fiorita	4–0	2–0	6–0
		2QR		Legia Warsaw	2–2	1–5	3–7
2013/14	UEFA Europa League	1QR		Prestatyn Town FC	1–2	2–1	3–3 (3–4 p)

Rank	Country	Team	Points
282		FC Honka Espoo	3.701
283		NK Olimpija Ljubljana	3.691
284		FC Differdange 03	3.675
285		Liepājas Metalurgs	3.658
286		Örebro SK	3.625

Role	Sponsors
General sponsors	Liepājas Metalurgs (bankruptcy in 2013)
Kit manufacturer	Adidas

FK Liepājas Metalurgs players who have either appeared for their respective national team at any time or received an individual award while at the club.

The women's team played in the Latvian highest league and won the championship in 2010 and 2012. It represented Latvia at the 2011–12 UEFA Women's Champions League.^[3] It was the first time a team from Latvia had entered the competition since its creation in 2001–02.

• FK Liepāja

• Latvian Football Federation website (in Latvian and English)
• Soccerway.com (in English)