FK Daugava (2003) - History

History

The club was founded in 2003 as FK Jūrmala and its goals included creating a club infrastructure, building a modern stadium in Sloka and popularization of sports among children and youth of Jūrmala all of which they succeeded in doing.

In its first season FK Jūrmala played in the Latvian First League, winning the championship and being promoted to the Latvian Higher League. In its first season Jūrmala finished the top tier championship in the 5th position. However, despite the club's board having high ambitions, signing several former Latvian international players, in the following seasons FK Jūrmala couldn't manage to achieve the top 3 spots in the league table. Even more, in 2007 the team suffered a financial crisis, when some of its top players left the team in mid season.

In the next few seasons club's financial resources were limited and the club was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2010. Luckily, the team was saved then and it changed its name to FK Jūrmala-VV, adding letters VV from the name of their sponsors.

Even though the 2010 season was successful for Jūrmala-VV, financial problems hit yet again in 2011. Results suffered and the team barely managed to avoid relegation. After the end of the season there were discussions, whether the club should continue its existence or not, because the Jūrmala city would have three clubs in the top league then. Jūrmala City Council didn't support this variant, so Jūrmala-VV had to look for other options. The club also faced a problem of home-stadium, because of the fact that Slokas Stadium would have to provide a place for three teams - FC Jūrmala, FK Jūrmala-VV itself, and the newly promoted FK Spartaks Jūrmala.

In March 2012 a decision was made to move to Riga and use the Daugava Stadium. Because of changing the location club had to change its name too. It was changed to the current FK Daugava Rīga. Latvian Football Federation supported this variant, allowing the club to overtake Jūrmala-VV place in the Latvian Higher League. Daugava finished the 2012 season in the 9th place of the table, and had to participate in the promotion/relegation play-offs against the Latvian First League runner-ups BFC Daugava. Winning 1-0 at home and 3-1 away (4-1 on aggregate) the club managed to secure themselves a place in the next season's championship.

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