FK Ventpils
FK Ventpils is a football (soccer) club from Latvia.
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FK Ventspils is a Latvian Virsliga football (soccer) team. The club's home ground is the 3,200 capacity Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions in Ventspils, Latvia. In total, FK Ventspils have won three league titles and four Latvian Cups. At the end of the 2006, 2007 and 2008 seasons, they became Virsliga champions.
History
FK Ventspils was founded in 1997 with the merger of two former Ventspils clubs - FK Venta and FK Nafta. Its predecessor Venta was one of the leading clubs in the Latvian league in 1960s.
FK Venta
In 1963 Ventspils gained a place and rights to play in Latvian championship Virsliga. The next major achievement for "Venta" came in 1967, when it won the Latvian Cup. In 1969 "Venta" were champions of Latvia, in that season "Venta" got 43 points, 20 matches won, 3 drawn and 3 lost. In 1970s FK Ventpils lost its positions, in 1980s lost its financial support and became defunct for some years. In 1994 Venta returned to 1. liga but after the season many players left FK Ventpils as FK Nafta was formed. Until the merger Venta played in 1. liga.
FK Nafta
FK Nafta was formed in 1995, in the first season FK Ventpils won its 2nd league division and earned a promotion to the 1st league. In its only season there FK Ventpils finished higher than FK Venta. After the season the teams merged to form FK Ventspils
FK Ventspils
The history of the current FK Ventspils started in 1997 with the merger of Venta and Nafta. Since that time FK Ventspils has become one of the strongest Latvian clubs and it has won Virslīga in both LMT Virslīga 2006 and LMT Virslīga 2007.
Before that in 2003 FK Ventspils won the Latvian Cup for the first time . Also in 2004 and in 2005 FK Ventspils won the trophy, but only managed to finish second or third in the Latvian first division championship (Virsliga.) Finally in 2006 Roman Grigorshuk, the head coach from Ukraine, took FK Ventpils to the league championship. Before him, FK Ventpils was managed by Russian coach Boris Sinicin, an English coach Paul Anthony Ashworth, a Lithuanian coach Šauļus Širmalis and a local Latvian coach, Sergejs Semjonovs.
FK Ventspils has also made its mark in UEFA Cup history. They debuted in the Intertoto cup in 1999, when they beat Norway club Vålerenga I.F. Fotball over two legs. After that FK Ventspils only participated in the UEFA Cup, playing against a number of major clubs such as Germany side
VfB Stuttgart, Norwegian side
Rosenborg B.K, Denmark club
Brøndby IF and the English club
Newcastle United F.C.. The draw in the away match against
Newcastle (0:0) could be counted as FK Ventspils highest achievement after the LMT Virslīga 2006 championship win. FK Ventspils participated in the UEFA Champions League for the first time in 2007.
Participation in Latvian Championships
- Latvian Higher League 2008 - champions
- 2007 Virsliga - champions
- 2006 Virsliga - champions
- 2005 - 3rd
- 2004 - 3rd
- 2003 - 3rd
- 2002 - 2nd
- 2001 - 2nd
- 2000 - 2nd
- 1999 - 3rd
- 1998 - 3rd
- 1997 - 4th
European record
Players
As of June 18, 2009
(c)
Famous players
- Vits Rimkus
- Vladimirs Koļesņičenko
- Māris Smirnovs
- Igors Korabļovs
- Kaspars Gorkšs
- Andris Vaņins
- Jean-Paul Ndeki
- Zurab Menteshashvili
- Igor Tsigirlash
- Andrius Zuta
- Vitālijs Astafjevs
Managers
Figures correct as of July 13 2009.
- 1997 Roberto Vincente
- 1997-1998 Sergei Borovski
- 1998 Sauļus Cekanavičus
- 1999-2000 Boris Sinicin
- 2000 Sauļus Cekanavičus
- 2001-2003 Paul Ashworth
- 2003-2004 Sauļus Širmelis
- 2005 Sergejs Semjonovs
- 2005- Roman Hryhorchuk
Related pages
Dinaburg Daugavpils, Ditton Daugavpils, Dizvanagi, FK Jurmala, FK Riga, FK Ventpils, Futbola Klubs Vindava, Metalurgs Liepaya, Olimps, Skonto Riga