FK Venta Ventspils - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

FK Venta was a Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

n football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

club based in Ventspils

Ventspils

Ventspils is a city in northwestern Latvia in the Courland historical region of Latvia, the sixth largest city in the country. As of 2006, Ventspils had a population of 43,806. Ventspils is situated on the Venta River and the Baltic Sea, and has an ice-free port...

. They were established in 1964

1964 in football (soccer)

The following are the football events of the year 1964 throughout the world.-Events:*Copa Libertadores 1964: Won by Independiente after defeating Nacional on an aggregate score of 1-0....

and were named after the Venta River

Venta River

Venta River is a river in north-western Lithuania and western Latvia. Its source is near Kuršėnai in the Lithuanian Šiauliai County. It flows into the Baltic Sea at Ventspils in Latvia....

, in 1967

1967 in football (soccer)

The following are the football events of the year 1967 throughout the world.-Events:*January 28 – In the Scottish Cup Berwick Rangers F.C. beat Rangers F.C. 1-0 to cause one of the biggest shock results in Scottish Football....

, they won the Latvian cup(the following year they lost in the finals). In 1969

1969 in football (soccer)

The following are the football events of the year 1969 throughout the world.-Events:*Copa Libertadores 1969: Won by Estudiantes de La Plata after defeating Nacional on an aggregate score of 3–0....

they won the Latvian championship. In 2004 after earning promotion to Virslīga

Virsliga

-Past Virslīga winners:-Top scorers:-Riga football league winners:* 1910 Union Riga* 1911 British FC Riga* 1912 Union Riga* 1913 British FC Riga* 1914 British FC Riga* 1915 British FC Riga-Champions of Latvia before Virslīga:* 1922 Ķeizarmežs...

the club moved to Kuldīga

Kuldiga

Kuldīga is a town in western Latvia. It is the center of Kuldīga municipality with a population of approximately 13,500.Kuldīga was first mentioned in 1242. It joined the Hanseatic League in 1368...

(as Ventspils already had one Virslīga club - FK Ventspils

FK Ventspils

FK Ventspils is a Latvian football club, based at Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions in Ventspils city and is one of the most popular football clubs in the country. FK Ventspils plays in the Latvian Virsliga. They are the current champions of the tournament....

). In 2005 the club went bankrupt.

Club history

The club was founded in 1964 as Naftas bāze, in its debut season in the Latvian league it finished 6th from 14 teams. In 1965 the club name was changed to Osta and it earned silver medals in the Latvian league. In 1967 Osta won the Latvian Cup 2:0 against Elektrons Rīga

Elektrons Riga

Elektrons Rīga was a Latvian football club from Riga that was one of the leading clubs in the Latvian league in 1970s and 1980s.-History:...

. In 1968 the club was renamed to - FK Venta, it reached the cup finals again in 1968 and 1969 but lost both times.

In 1969 Venta won the first Latvian league title for Ventspils under Vladimirs Čikiņovs, a former FK Daugava Rīga

FK Daugava Riga

Previously FK Daugava 90 is a Latvian football club located in Riga and currently playing in Latvian First League. Formerly under the name Daugava the team was the headliner of Latvian football where played most of the countries top players but with the collapse of the Soviet Union the team ceased...

footballer. Half of the 1969 league winners were local Ventspils footballers, while the others were from various places, mostly from Belarus

Belarus

Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

. As the Latvian league was officially an amateur competition, for 3 months a year the Venta players had to work in the city port

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

. In 1970 Venta finished second in the league but then the results started to decline and after the 1982 season the club lost most of its financial support. Venta could not complete the 1983 season and was expelled from the league after having lost its first 19 matches.

Until 1988 Venta mostly under different names played in the lower Latvian leagues, but in 1988 it returned to the top Latvian league under the name Zvezda, in their squad it had one of the future defenders of the Latvia national football team

Latvia national football team

The Latvian national football team is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Latvia and represents the country in international football competitions, such as the World Cup and the European Championships. So far, they have never qualified for a FIFA World...

- Mihails Zemļinskis

Mihails Zemlinskis

Mihails Zemļinskis is a former Latvian football player. Born in Riga, he didn't play for a club other than Skonto FC except for two short spells in Hungary and Israel...

. However the sides results were poor and in 1989 under the Venta name the club left the top league. With the collapse of the Soviet Union for several years Venta went into total oblivion, until it re-emerged in the 1st Latvian league in 1994. After the 1994 season the club split into two halves - one of them as Venta continued playing in the first league, but another as FK Nafta appeared in the 2nd Latvian league. In 1996 Venta finished in the 1st league lower than Nafta. After the 1996 season Venta and Nafta merged into FK Ventspils

FK Ventspils

which got a promotion to Virslīga

Virsliga

(thanks to decline of playing in Virslīga by FK Vecrīga).

Later Ventspils emerged as a new football club under the name of Venta. In 2004 they finished second in the Latvian 1. liga

1. Liga

1. Liga is the third-highest ice hockey league in Switzerland, behind Nationalliga A and Nationalliga B. Thirty-six teams compete in three divisions – East Switzerland, Central Switzerland and West Switzerland.-East Switzerland:*EHC Arosa*GDT Bellinzona...

and played playoffs against the team that finished 7th in the league above them (Virslīga

Virsliga

), FC Ditton-2

FC Ditton-2

Ditton-2 is a Latvian association football team from Daugavpils city. It is a farm-team of Ditton.-Squad changes during 2006 season:In:Out:...

. They won both legs 1:0 and were consequently promoted. Before the 2005 season the club moved to Kuldīga

Kuldiga

and stated its great ambitions to become one of the leading Latvian clubs over a few years, it bought several popular footballers both from Latvia and from other post-Soviet countries - including former Arsenal London defender Oleg Luzhny, Valentīns Lobaņovs

Valentins Lobanovs

Valentīns Lobaņovs is a former football midfielder from Latvia. He has played 58 international matches and scored 1 goal for the Latvia national team. He debuted in 1994, and played at the Euro 2004. He started his career in Skonto FC and later played for Metallurg Lipetsk, Metallurg Krasnoyarsk,...

and Aliaksandr Khatskevich

Aliaksandr Khatskevich

Alyaksandr Khatskevich is a Belarusian football player and a former member of the Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv.-International goals:-External links:*...

- a FC Dynamo Kiev veteran. However the clubs finances soon proved to be a bubble, the famous players soon left the club, by midseason it barely had enough footballers to form a starting 11 and after the season it went bankrupt.

Notable former players

Mihails Zemļinskis

Mihails Zemlinskis

Mihails Zemļinskis is a former Latvian football player. Born in Riga, he didn't play for a club other than Skonto FC except for two short spells in Hungary and Israel...

Valentīns Lobaņovs

Valentins Lobanovs

Oleh Luzhny

Oleh Romanovych Luzhny is a retired Ukrainian footballer and former interim manager of FC Dynamo Kyiv. His name is alternatively Romanised as Oleg Luzhny.-Dynamo Kyiv:...

Yuriy Benio

Yuri Benio

Yuriy Benio is a professional Ukrainian former defender and current football assistant coach for FC Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka. He played for FC Karpaty Lviv, FC Shakhtar Donetsk, FC Metalurh Zaporizhia and Arsenal Kyiv in the Ukrainian Premier League.-External links:* * *...

Maciej Nalepa

Maciej Nalepa is a Polish football goalkeeper.-Club:Nalepa previously played for Ukrainian sides FC Karpaty Lviv and FC Kharkiv.In February 2011, he joined Odra Wodzisław.-External links: * *...

Aliaksandr Khatskevich

Alyaksandr Khatskevich is a Belarusian football player and a former member of the Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv.-International goals:-External links:*...

Igors Sļesarčuks

Igors Slesarcuks

Igor Slesarchuk is a Latvian-Russian football striker, currently playing for FC Vitebsk in Belarus.Previously he played for FC Mashuk-KMV Pyatigorsk in the Russian First Division, for Skonto Riga, FK Venta and FK Ventspils in Latvia and other clubs from Belarus, Russia and Estonia.Despite being...

Ģirts Karlsons

Girts Karlsons

Ģirts Karlsons is Latvian football striker currently playing for Azerbaijani club FC Inter Baku.-Club career:Karlsons started his career at FK Liepājas Metalurgs in 1998. He spent the next six season with the club...

Jean-Paul Ndeki

Jean-Paul Ndeki is a footballer who currently plays for AEP Paphos FC.-Playing career:-Personal:His brother, Edouard Oum Ndeki, was a professional footballer who played in Turkey and Greece.-References:...

Honours

Latvian top league:
- Winners: 1 (1969)
- Runners-up: 2 (1965, 1970)
Latvian Cup:
- Winners: 1 (1967)
- Runners-up: 2 (1968, 1969)

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