2012 Latvian Higher League

The league returned to a ten-team circuit after having been forced to play the 2011 season with only nine teams, following the withdrawal of SK Blāzma a few weeks before the season commenced. As a consequence of the Blāzma withdrawal, no team was directly relegated.

2011 Latvian First League champions FS METTA/Latvijas Universitāte from Riga were directly promoted. The team, which was founded by the METTA football school and the University of Latvia in 2007, entered the Higher League for the first time in their history.

JFK Olimps/RFS finished the 2011 season in ninth place and were therefore required to compete in a two-legged promotion/relegation play-off against First Division runners-up Spartaks Jūrmala. Spartaks won the play-off 4–1 on aggregate and were therefore promoted to the Higher League. Similar to METTA/LU, they made their debut at the highest level of the Latvian football pyramid. Accordingly, Olimps/RFS were relegated to the First League after five seasons at the top flight.

Ventspils

Gulbene

Daugava Riga
FS METTA
Skonto

Metalurgs

Jūrmala
Spartaks

Jelgava

Daugava

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Location of teams in the 2012 Latvian Higher League

Following the promotion of FK Spartaks, the city of Jūrmala should have featured three clubs during the 2012 season, one more than the capital, Riga, but FK Jūrmala-VV moved to Riga, changing their name to Daugava Riga.

Club	Location	Stadium	Capacity
FC Daugava	Daugavpils	Daugava Stadium	4,100
FK Daugava Rīga	Riga	Daugava Stadium	5,000
FB Gulbene	Gulbene	Gulbenes Sporta Centrs	1,500
FK Jelgava	Jelgava	Zemgales Olimpiskais Sporta Centrs	2,200
FC Jūrmala	Jūrmala	Slokas Stadium	5,000
SK Liepājas Metalurgs	Liepāja	Daugava Stadium	5,083
FS Metta/LU	Riga	Rīgas 49. vidusskola Stadium	250
Skonto FC	Riga	Skonto Stadium	10,000
FK Spartaks Jūrmala	Jūrmala	Slokas Stadium	5,000
FK Ventspils	Ventspils	Olimpiskais Stadium	3,200

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and Managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
FC Daugava	Ivan Tabanov	Jurijs Sokolovs	Erreà	—
FK Daugava Rīga	Jurijs Popkovs	Vadims Gospodars	Adidas	—
FB Gulbene	Mihails Koņevs	Alberts Nikoļskis	Erreà	Piebalga
FK Jelgava	Dainis Kazakevičs	Valērijs Redjko	Macron	LDz Cargo
FC Jūrmala	Vladimirs Pačko	Maksims Daņilovs	Givova	—
SK Liepājas Metalurgs	Jānis Intenbergs	Tomas Tamošauskas	Adidas	—
FS Metta/LU	Andris Riherts	Romāns Rožkovskis	Nike	SMS Credit.lv
Skonto FC	Marians Pahars	Germans Māliņš	Kappa	—
FK Spartaks Jūrmala	Arminas Narbekovas	Nauris Bulvītis	Masita	—
FK Ventspils	Jurģis Pučinskis	Vitālijs Smirnovs	Adidas	VK Tranzīts

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Daugava Daugavpils	Leonid Nazarenko	Sacked	2011-12-22	pre-season	Ravil Sabitov	2011-12-22
Spartaks Jūrmala	Artūrs Šketovs	Sacked	2012-02-02	pre-season	Oļegs Blagonadeždins	2012-02-02
Daugava Daugavpils	Ravil Sabitov	Sacked	2012-04-29[2]	5th	Ivan Tabanov	2012-05-05
Liepājas Metalurgs	Vladimirs Osipovs	Sacked	2012-05-01[3]	6th	Jānis Intenbergs	2012-05-24
FK Ventspils	Sergey Podpaly	Sacked	2012-05-18[4]	4th	Jurģis Pučinskis	2012-05-18
Spartaks Jūrmala	Oļegs Blagonadeždins	Sacked	2012-07-20	4th	Arminas Narbekovas	2012-07-23

Just as last season most of the matches were transmitted live via sportacentrs.com online and Sportacentrs' TV channel.^[5] In June 2012 broadcasting rights were also bought by the English company Bet365.^[6] Since 2012 league's homepage futbolavirsliga.lv has been active and since September 2012 this website has been accompanied by InStat Football system, showing information and analysis of each match individually.^[7] Since October 2012 Virslīga has also had its own analytical broadcast after each round of matches, with football experts discussing the games and future events connected to Latvian football. It's transmitted via Sportacentrs TV.^[8]

As of 7 November 2012

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Mamuka Ghonghadze	FC Daugava	18
2	Yōsuke Saito	FB Gulbene/FK Ventspils	15
3	David Cortés	FK Spartaks Jūrmala	12
	Daniils Turkovs	FK Ventspils
5	Antons Jemeļins	FK Spartaks Jūrmala	11
	Tadas Labukas	Skonto FC
	Valērijs Šabala	Skonto FC
7	Stanley Ibe	FC Daugava	10
	Valērijs Afanasjevs	SK Liepājas Metalurgs
	Vladimirs Kamešs	SK Liepājas Metalurgs
	Mārtiņš Milašēvičs	FS Metta/LU
	Patrick Twumasi	FK Spartaks Jūrmala
	Vitālijs Ziļs	FK Daugava Rīga