A football gladiator duel worth 30 million euros in the heart of Riga

The 2023 Latvian football championship ended with a heartbreaking drama on a wet November day in Valmiera – “Riga FC”, which has been leading the Premier League for almost the entire season, could not beat the unmotivated “Valmiera” in the final match and missed “RFS”, which celebrated an emotional triumph. The failure cost coach Tomislav Stipić his job. The budget of the “Riga FC” club, according to unofficial data, ranges from 18 to 23 million euros per year, while it is about 7-8 million euros for “RFS”. The difference is two and a half and more times, however, the “RFS” club stands out with a smart club management model, finding competitive footballers in terms of quality of play, who pay several times cheaper than “Riga FC” footballers in relevant positions.

“Riga FC” chooses experienced, ready masters, while “RFS” tries to find talented footballers who can be resold (common football business model all over the world). This is how RFS sold Serbian Andrej Ilic to Norway’s Valerenga for €1.1m last season, who was resold to rich French Championship club Lille after only a few months, and RFS earned another €500,000. euro as a premium for resale, which was agreed in the deal with the Norwegian club. Meanwhile, “Rīga FC” opened its wallet wide last year and bought the Costa Rican striker Antoni Contreras, who is one of the best strikers ever to play in the Latvian championship, for about one million euros. His annual salary, according to unofficial data, is about 430 thousand euros after taxes. This confirms the scope in which “Rīga FC” can operate.

Russian billionaire against “LNK group”

Many readers must be wondering who is paying for it, whether someone once again absorbed the resources of the Latvian state, local governments or their companies by organizing a “feast during the mayor”? I can reassure you, everything is 100 percent done with private funds.

“Riga FC” is owned by Russian billionaire Sergey Lomakin. According to various estimates, Lomakina’s total wealth is at least 1.7 billion US dollars. He loves football and managing the club is his free time and hobby.

On the other side of the field is “RFS” and its owner Artjoms Milovs. For him, like Lomakin, football is a passion and love. Milov usually watches the matches in the stands together with the club’s sports director Aleksandars Usova and the club’s general director, Latvian football legend Māris Verpakovski. Verpakovskis and Usov are two of the keys to the club’s success – gentlemen who “know clothes”, go to Africa and South America to find the best young football talents for their club. The other key to the success of “RFS” is stability – Milov has a lot of trust in the head coach Viktors Moroz. Morozs is a long-time head coach of the club, won the Latvian championship with it several times, reached the historic UEFA Conference League group stage (European Cup competition, where they compete against national teams of other countries). It was only the second time in the history of Latvian football clubs that a team reached the group stage, before that it was done by “Ventspils” in 2009. Milov trusts Moroz even in moments of failure. Artjoms Milovs and his family are the owners of “LNK Group”, it is a multi-sector company in Latvia. One of its core areas of activity is construction.

Strategically important game Lomakina “Riga FC”

The ten best Latvian teams play in the Latvian football championship “Tonybet Virsliga”, each team meets each other four times in the championship and plays a total of 36 games in the season. After adding up the points obtained in all matches, the team with the most points will become champions and will win the right to participate in next year’s UEFA Champions League qualification round, Europe’s most prestigious football club tournament.

The season started in the middle of March, and already in the first three games, the two main favorites of the season “Riga FC” and “RFS” experienced losses – both unexpectedly lost to “Valmiera”, which is in financial turbulence. Just now, “Riga FC” unexpectedly lost to “Tukum”. Another loss may be the last for Finnish coach Simo Valakari at the helm of Riga FC, who has been coaching the club since January. At the moment, news about the composition of “Riga FC” is scarce, the club maintains a line of mystery and intrigue.

Meanwhile, “RFS” before the Riga “derby” is currently having major difficulties with the team – even five of the usual regular team players may not play on Saturday. “RFS” has a wide composition, but the injuries of the leaders introduce adjustments – the Latvian champions will probably act more cautiously because of this.

The magic and challenge of natural grass

The organizers of the Latvian championship have ambitions to start the tournament in March, but the catastrophic infrastructure of Latvian football does not meet these expectations – therefore, all clubs started the season in the middle of March on artificial synthetic pitches in modest conditions. It is interesting that the match between “Riga FC” and “RFS” will be the first this year on a natural grass field in Latvia, it will be a pleasant change, but also a challenge to adapt to the new conditions. Both teams have already held several training sessions on natural grass pitches.

At the beginning of March, “RFS” and “Riga FC” met in the Latvian Super Cup, and there, after a draw in regular time, “Riga FC” won the penalty shootout.

“Riga FC” is still looking for its best game, while “RFS” has several injured players. The last matches between the two teams have seen an incredible and amazing series of draws. Will it finally stop?

Premier league table after eight games played: