1998 Latvian Higher League

The 1998 season in the Latvian Higher League, named Virslīga, was the 8th domestic competition since the Baltic nation gained independence from the Soviet Union on 6 September 1991. Eight teams competed in this edition, with Skonto FC claiming the title.

Final table

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Pts
1	Skonto FC	28	21	4	3	98	27	71	67
2	FK Liepājas Metalurgs	28	17	6	5	62	25	37	57
3	FK Ventspils	28	16	6	6	56	23	33	54
4	Dinaburg FC	28	11	10	7	49	31	18	43
5	FK Valmiera	28	10	7	11	39	59	-20	37
6	LU-Daugava	28	7	9	12	42	42	0	30
7	FK Rēzekne	28	2	5	21	22	80	-58	11
8	Ranto-Miks	28	2	5	21	25	106	-81	11

Match Table

	SKO	MET	VEN	DIN	VAL	DAU	RĒZ	RAN
Skonto		1-0 0-0 1-1 1-1	1-0 1-2 4-0 3-2	0-2 1-0 2-1 4-1	4-0 4-1 15-2 5-1	2-3 5-3 3-0 2-1	7-0 2-0 1-0 6-1	9-0 3-3 4-0 7-2
Liepājas Metalurgs	0-1 0-0 1-1 1-1		0-0 1-0 1-0 0-2	1-2 1-0 3-0 1-1	4-1 1-2 2-1 1-2	3-2 0-0 2-1 1-0	4-0 3-2 7-0 2-1	7-0 4-3 5-1 6-1
Ventspils	0-1 2-1 0-4 2-3	0-0 0-1 0-1 2-0		0-0 1-1 1-1 3-0	0-3 0-0 3-0 3-0	1-0 1-1 3-0 2-1	4-1 4-1 3-0 3-0	9-0 1-0 3-2 5-1
Dinaburg	2-0 0-1 1-2 1-4	2-1 0-1 0-3 1-1	0-0 1-1 1-1 0-3		6-1 2-0 0-0 1-1	0-0 2-2 0-2 0-0	0-0 1-0 2-1 4-2	6-1 6-0 5-1 5-2
Valmiera	0-4 1-4 2-15 1-5	1-4 2-1 1-2 2-1	0-3 0-0 3-0 0-3	1-6 0-2 0-0 1-1		2-2 2-4 2-1 0-0	3-0 2-1 0-0 5-0	4-0 0-0 1-0 3-0
LU-Daugava	3-2 3-5 0-3 1-2	2-3 0-0 1-2 0-1	0-1 1-1 0-3 1-2	0-0 2-2 2-0 0-0	2-2 4-2 1-2 0-0		8-2 2-1 1-1 1-2	3-0 1-2 2-0 1-1
FK Rēzekne	0-7 0-2 0-1 1-6	0-4 2-3 0-7 1-2	1-4 1-4 0-3 0-3	0-0 0-1 1-2 2-4	0-3 1-2 0-0 0-5	2-8 1-2 1-1 2-1		2-2 3-1 1-2 0-0
Ranto-Miks	0-9 3-3 0-4 2-7	0-7 3-4 1-5 1-6	0-9 0-1 2-3 1-5	1-6 0-6 1-5 2-5	0-4 0-0 0-1 0-3	0-3 2-1 0-2 1-1	2-2 1-3 2-1 0-0

Topscorers

Pos	Name	Team	Goals
1	Viktors Dobrecovs (LAT)	FHK Liepājas Metalurgs	23
2	Roman Grigorčuk (UKR)	Dinaburg FC	21
3	Mihails Miholaps (LAT)	Skonto FC	20
4	Marians Pahars (LAT)	Skonto FC	19
5	Vladimirs Babičevs (LAT)	Skonto FC	11
-	Vīts Rimkus (LAT)	Skonto FC	11

Awards

Best	Name	Team
Goalkeeper	Oļegs Karavajevs (LAT)	Skonto FC
Defender	Mihails Zemļinskis (LAT)	Skonto FC
Midfielder	Vladimirs Babičevs (LAT)	Skonto FC
Forward	Marians Pahars (LAT)	Skonto FC

Skonto FC 1998

Pos	Name	Birthdate	P
	Nikolay Apilats	21.09.1974	2	-	-	-
MF	Vitālijs Astafjevs	03.04.1971	23	7	2	-
MF	Vladimirs Babičevs	22.04.1968	19	10	4	1
DF	Oļegs Blagonadeždins	16.05.1973	2	-	-	-
MF	Imants Bleidelis	16.08.1975	24	8	2	-
	Mamuka Cereteli	13.01.1979	9	1	2	-
GK	Davit Gvaramadze	08.11.1975	6	–7	-	-
MF	Jevgeņijs Ilovaiskis	22.10.1979	2	-	-	-
GK	Oļegs Karavajevs	13.02.1961	9	–7	-	-
MF	Vladimirs Koļesņičenko	04.05.1980	1	-	-	-
GK	Aleksandrs Koļinko	18.06.1975	5	0	5	-
MF	Juris Laizāns	06.01.1979	26	1	1	1
-	Vsevolods Līdaks	22.10.1977	12	1	-	-
-	Valentins Lobaņovs	23.10.1971	22	1	3	-
-	Vladimir Mel'nyk	21.11.1979	18	1	5	-
FW	/ Mihails Miholaps	24.08.1974	25	20	1	-
	Iļja Novikovs	12.08.1977	9	3	-	-
FW	Marians Pahars	05.08.1976	26	19	1	1
GK	Andrejs Piedels	17.09.1970	8	–8	-	-
-	Aleksandr Pindejev	03.03.1971	15	5	2	-
-	Vitaliy Razgon	23.03.1980	1	-	-	-
MF	Alexander Rekhviashvili	06.08.1974	17	1	2	-
FW	Vits Rimkus	21.06.1973	15	11	-	-
MF	Andrejs Rubins	26.11.1978	19	1	-	-
DF	Levan Silagadze	04.08.1976	15	1	3	-
-	Sergey Solovjov	03.04.1978	9	4	3	-
DF	Igors Stepanovs	21.01.1976	24	-	3	-
DF	Andrėjus Tereškinas	10.07.1970	7	2	2	-
DF	Mihails Zemļinskis	21.12.1969	13	-	1	-
Manager: Aleksandrs Starkovs

References

• RSSSF
• Skonto FC 1998