1996 Latvian Higher League

The 1996 season in the Latvian Higher League, named Virslīga, was the sixth domestic competition since the Baltic nation gained independence from the Soviet Union on 6 September 1991. Tenth teams competed in this edition, with Skonto FC claiming the title.

Latvian Higher League

Season	1996
Champions	Skonto FC
Relegated	Skonto/Metals FK Jurnieks
UEFA Champions League	Skonto FC
UEFA Cup	Torpedo Riga
Cup Winners' Cup	Dinaburg FC
UEFA Intertoto Cup	RAF Jelgava
Top goalscorer	Mihails Miholaps (33 goals)
← 1995 1997 →

First round

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Skonto	18	15	2	1	74	9	+65	47	Qualification for championship group
2	Daugava Rīga	18	13	4	1	41	11	+30	43
3	Dinaburg	18	9	5	4	30	19	+11	32
4	Baltika Liepāja	18	8	4	6	23	21	+2	28
5	Universitāte	18	7	5	6	24	29	−5	26
6	Starts	18	5	5	8	20	35	−15	20
7	Vairogs	18	5	3	10	19	32	−13	18	Qualification for relegation group
8	Lokomotīve	18	4	5	9	18	31	−13	17
9	Skonto/Metāls	18	2	3	13	9	38	−29	9
10	Jūrnieks	18	1	6	11	11	44	−33	9

Source: rsssf.com

Match table

Home \ Away	BAL	DAU	DIN	JŪR	LOK	SKO	SKM	STA	UNI	VAI
Baltika Liepāja		0–1	0–3	4–0	2–3	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–2	3–1
Daugava Rīga	1–1		2–2	7–0	1–0	0–1	3–0	2–1	2–1	2–0
Dinaburg	1–1	1–2		2–0	2–0	0–4	1–2	5–0	0–0	4–0
Jūrnieks	2–2	0–3	0–0		1–1	0–4	1–0	0–0	4–4	0–2
Lokomotīve	1–2	1–5	0–1	2–1		0–5	1–0	2–2	1–1	1–0
Skonto	5–0	3–3	7–0	5–0	3–2		4–1	4–0	11–1	6–0
Skonto/Metāls	0–2	0–4	0–2	1–1	1–0	0–5		2–2	1–2	0–3
Starts	0–2	0–0	0–4	4–1	1–1	2–1	2–1		0–2	3–6
Universitāte	0–1	0–1	1–1	2–0	2–1	0–0	4–0	0–1		0–3
Vairogs	0–0	0–2	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–5	0–0	1–2	1–2

Source:
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second round

Championship group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Skonto (C)	28	23	4	1	98	12	+86	73	Qualification for Champions League first qualifying round
2	Daugava Rīga	28	18	7	3	61	18	+43	61	Qualification for UEFA Cup first qualifying round
3	Dinaburg	28	13	8	7	53	31	+22	47	Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup qualifying round
4	Universitāte	28	11	6	11	37	45	−8	39	Qualification for Intertoto Cup group stage
5	Baltika Liepāja	28	11	5	12	32	44	−12	38
6	Starts (R)	28	6	5	17	26	69	−43	23	Dissolved after the season

Source: rsssf.com
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Match table

Home \ Away	BAL	DAU	DIN	SKO	STA	UNI
Baltika Liepāja		0–5	2–0	0–2	3–1	0–4
Daugava Rīga	3–1		0–0	1–1	3–0	0–1
Dinaburg	3–0	1–1		1–1	7–0	2–1
Skonto	3–0	1–0	3–1		4–0	6–0
Starts	0–1	1–4	2–8	0–2		1–0
Universitāte	2–2	1–3	2–0	0–1	2–1

Source:
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Relegation
7	Lokomotīve	30	10	9	11	38	45	−7	39
8	Vairogs	30	9	6	15	37	54	−17	33
9	Skonto/Metāls (R)	30	7	6	17	25	53	−28	27	Qualification for relegation play-offs
10	Jūrnieks (R)	30	4	8	18	25	61	−36	20	Relegation to Latvian First League

Source: rsssf.com
(R) Relegated

Match table

Matches 19–24 Home \ Away JŪR LOK SKM VAI Jūrnieks 0–2 0–2 2–3 Lokomotīve 2–1 1–1 1–2 Skonto/Metāls 0–1 1–4 1–2 Vairogs 1–1 1–1 2–1 Source: Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 25–30 Home \ Away JŪR LOK SKM VAI Jūrnieks 1–2 1–2 5–1 Lokomotīve 1–0 0–2 3–2 Skonto/Metāls 0–0 2–2 3–2 Vairogs 1–2 1–1 0–1 Source: Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation play-offs

The matches were played on 29 October and 3 November 1996.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Skonto/Metāls	1–2	Valmiera	1–0	0–2

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Mihails Miholaps (LAT)	FK Daugava Rīga	33
2	Aleksandr Pindeyev (UKR)	Skonto FC	17
3	Vladimirs Babičevs (LAT)	Skonto FC	16
	Juris Karašausks (LAT)	Dinaburg FC
5	Aleksandrs Fedotovs (LAT)	Dinaburg FC	13

Awards

Best	Name	Team
Goalkeeper	Raimonds Laizāns (LAT)	Skonto FC
Defender	Jurijs Ševļakovs (LAT)	Skonto FC
Midfielder	Vitālijs Astafjevs (LAT)	Skonto FC
Forward	Mihails Miholaps (LAT)	FK Daugava Rīga

Skonto FC 1996

Pos	Name	Birthdate	P
MF	Vitālijs Astafjevs	03.04.1971	18	12	1	-
MF	Vladimirs Babičevs	22.04.1968	25	16	3	-
-	Vladlen Bausev	03.03.1967	10	3	-	-
DF	Oļegs Blagonadeždins	16.05.1973	23	1	-	-
MF	Imants Bleidelis	16.08.1975	20	3	-	-
-	Konstantin Ivanov	10.05.1964	6	-	-	-
MF	Valērijs Ivanovs	23.02.1970	27	3	2	-
FW	Aleksandrs Jelisejevs	11.08.1971	15	10	1	-
GK	Aleksandrs Koļiņko	18.06.1975	9	–3	1	-
GK	Raimonds Laizāns	05.08.1964	19	–9	1	-
-	Vsevolods Līdaks	22.10.1977	6	1	-	-
-	Valentins Lobaņovs	23.10.1971	19	3	2	-
DF	Boriss Monjaks	11.04.1970	10	-	-	-
FW	Marians Pahars	05.08.1976	28	12	2	-
-	Aleksandr Pindejev	03.03.1971	26	17	5	-
-	Igors Stepanovs	21.01.1976	22	2	3	-
DF	Jurijs Ševļakovs	24.01.1959	24	1	5	-
FW	Andrejs Štolcers	08.07.1974	26	6	3	-
DF	Igors Troickis	11.01.1969	26	3	4	-
DF	Mihails Zemļinskis	21.12.1969	24	4	3	-
Manager: Aleksandrs Starkovs

References

• RSSSF
• Skonto FC 1996