Baltic Cup (football)

Baltic Cup

Founded	1928
Region	Baltic (UEFA)
Number of teams	3
Current champions	Latvia
Most successful team(s)	Latvia (13 titles)
2016 Baltic Cup

The Baltic Cup (Estonian: Balti turniir, Latvian: Baltijas kauss, Lithuanian: Baltijos taurė) is a football competition contested between the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania every two years. During the Soviet era, when all the nations were part of the Soviet Union, Belarus also took part in some of the competitions.

Originally the competition was annual, but after the states regained their independence, it became biennial. Since 2008 the tournament runs on even-numbered years. In 2012, Finland took part in the competition for the first time. In 2016, after Finland dropped out, it was agreed to host the tournament on a new format, with each country hosting a match each on the same week.

It is the oldest football tournament for national teams in Europe after the British Home Championship and the oldest still organized.

List of winners

Year	Host	Champions	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place
1928	Tallinn	Latvia	Estonia	Lithuania
1929	Riga	Estonia	Latvia	Lithuania
1930	Kaunas	Lithuania	Latvia	Estonia
1931	Tallinn	Estonia	Latvia	Lithuania
1932	Riga	Latvia	Lithuania	Estonia
1933	Kaunas	Latvia	Lithuania	Estonia
1934	Not organised due to disagreements over the 1933 competition.
1935	Tallinn	Lithuania	Latvia	Estonia
1936	Riga	Latvia	Estonia	Lithuania
1937	Kaunas	Latvia	Estonia	Lithuania
1938	Tallinn	Estonia	Latvia	Lithuania
1939	Not organised due to strained sports-relations between Latvia and Lithuania after a controversial basketball game.
1940–1990	Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia occupied by Soviet Union.
1991	Klaipėda	Lithuania	Latvia	Estonia
1992	Liepāja	Lithuania	Latvia	Estonia
1993	Pärnu	Latvia	Estonia	Lithuania
1994	Vilnius	Lithuania	Latvia	Estonia
1995	Riga	Latvia	Lithuania	Estonia
1996	Narva	Lithuania	Estonia	Latvia
1997	Vilnius	Lithuania	Latvia	Estonia
1998	Liepāja Valga Viljandi	Lithuania	Latvia	Estonia
2000	Kaunas	Lithuania	Latvia	Estonia did not participate.
2001	Riga	Latvia	Lithuania	Estonia
2003	Valga Tallinn	Latvia	Lithuania	Estonia
2005	Kaunas	Lithuania	Latvia	Estonia did not participate due to scheduling conflicts.
2008	Jūrmala Riga	Latvia	Lithuania	Estonia
2010	Kaunas	Lithuania	Latvia	Estonia
2012	Võru Tartu	Latvia	Finland	Estonia	Lithuania
2014	Ventspils Liepāja	Latvia	Lithuania	Finland	Estonia
2016	Klaipėda Liepāja Tallinn	Latvia	Lithuania	Estonia

Performances

Country				Years won
Latvia	13	13	1	1928, 1932, 1933, 1936, 1937, 1993, 1995, 2001, 2003, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2016
Lithuania	11	8	7	1930, 1935, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2010
Estonia	3	5	16	1929, 1931, 1938
Finland	0	1	1

Soviet-era results

Similar competition was also played 20 times between 1940 and 1976 during the Soviet-time. Latvian SSR won the most titles with nine followed by Lithuanian SSR with six and Estonian SSR with five. Byelorussian SSR also participated in the tournament in later years.

Between 1950 and 1976 every tournament was contested by national 'B' teams as only players from the 'national leagues' represented the occupied national sides. However, the A side of the Estonian SSR returned to compete in the competition between 1969 and 1976, the period which saw them win three of their five titles.

1940

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	EST	LTU
1	Latvian SSR	1 – 1 – 0	3	3–2	2–2	1–0
2	Estonian SSR	0 – 2 – 0	2	3–3		1–1
3	Lithuanian SSR	0 – 1 – 1	1	1–2

1948

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	EST	LAT
1	Lithuanian SSR	2 – 0 – 0	4	3–1	2–1	1–0
2	Estonian SSR	0 – 1 – 1	1	2–3		1–1
3	Latvian SSR	0 – 1 – 1	1	1–2

1949

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	LAT	EST
1	Lithuanian SSR	2 – 0 – 0	4	3–1	1–0	2–1
2	Latvian SSR	1 – 0 – 1	2	3–3		2–1
3	Estonian SSR	0 – 0 – 2	0	2–4

1950

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	LAT	EST
1	Lithuanian SSR	1 – 1 – 0	3	9–4	2–2	7–2
2	Latvian SSR	1 – 1 – 0	3	6–3		4–1
3	Estonian SSR	0 – 0 – 2	0	3–11

1952

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	LAT	LTU
1	Estonian SSR	1 – 0 – 1	2	5–3	0–3	5–0
2	Latvian SSR	1 – 0 – 1	2	4–3		1–3
3	Lithuanian SSR	1 – 0 – 1	2	3–6

1954

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	LTU	BLR	EST
1	Latvian SSR	2 – 1 – 0	5	5–1	2–0	0–0	3–1
2	Lithuanian SSR	1 – 1 – 1	3	5–3		0–0	5–1
3	Byelorussian SSR	0 – 3 – 0	3	0–0			0–0
4	Estonian SSR	0 – 1 – 2	1	2–8

1957

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	LTU	BLR	EST
1	Latvian SSR	2 – 1 – 0	5	3–1	0–0	2–1	1–0
2	Lithuanian SSR	1 – 2 – 0	4	5–1		1–1	4–0
3	Byelorussian SSR	1 – 1 – 1	3	4–3			2–0
4	Estonian SSR	0 – 0 – 3	0	0–7

1958

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	LTU	EST
1	Latvian SSR	2 – 0 – 0	4	8–0	2–0	6–0
2	Lithuanian SSR	0 – 1 – 1	1	1–3		1–1
3	Estonian SSR	0 – 1 – 1	1	1–7

1959

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	LTU	EST
1	Latvian SSR	1 – 1 – 0	3	5–3	3–1	2–2
2	Lithuanian SSR	1 – 0 – 1	2	4–4		3–1
3	Estonian SSR	0 – 1 – 1	1	3–5

1960

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	LTU	LAT
1	Estonian SSR	0 – 2 – 0	2	4–4	3–3	1–1
1	Lithuanian SSR	0 – 2 – 0	2	3–3		0–0
1	Latvian SSR	0 – 2 – 0	2	1–1

1961

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	LTU	EST
1	Latvian SSR	2 – 0 – 0	4	7–1	3–1	4–0
2	Lithuanian SSR	1 – 0 – 1	2	5–4		4–1
3	Estonian SSR	0 – 0 – 2	0	1–8

1962

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	EST	LTU
1	Latvian SSR	1 – 1 – 0	4	2–0	0–0	2–0
2	Estonian SSR	0 – 2 – 0	2	0–0		0–0
3	Lithuanian SSR	0 – 0 – 2	0	0–2

1969

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	LAT	LTU
1	Estonian SSR (A)	2 – 0 – 0	4	7–1	2–0	5–1
2	Latvian SSR (B)	1 – 0 – 1	2	2–3		2–1
3	Lithuanian SSR (B)	0 – 0 – 2	0	2–7

1970

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	EST	LAT
1	Lithuanian SSR (B)	2 – 0 – 0	4	4–1	1–0	3–1
2	Estonian SSR (A)	1 – 0 – 1	2	2–2		2–1
3	Latvian SSR (B)	0 – 0 – 2	0	2–5

1971

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	EST	LAT
1	Lithuanian SSR (B)	1 – 1 – 0	3	4–2	0–0	4–2
2	Estonian SSR (A)	1 – 1 – 0	3	4–3		4–3
3	Latvian SSR (B)	0 – 0 – 2	0	5–8

1972

#	team	W – D – L	Pts	GF–GA	EST	LTU
1	Estonian SSR (A)	1 – 1 – 0	3	5–1	0–0	5–1
2	Latvian SSR (B)	1 – 1 – 0	3	1–0		1–0
3	Lithuanian SSR (B)	0 – 0 – 2	0	1–6

1973

Round	Winner	Score	Opponent
SF	Estonian SSR (A)	3–1	Byelorussian SSR (B)
SF	Latvian SSR (B)	4–2	Lithuanian SSR (B)
TF	Latvian SSR (B)	4–1	Lithuanian SSR (B)
F	Estonian SSR (A)	4–1	Latvian SSR (B)

1974

Round	Winner	Score	Opponent
SF	Latvian SSR (B)	2–0	Byelorussian SSR (B)
SF	Estonian SSR (A)	3–2	Lithuanian SSR (B)
TF	Lithuanian SSR (B)	2–1	Byelorussian SSR (B)
F	Latvian SSR (B)	3–1	Estonian SSR (A)

1975

Round	Winner	Score	Opponent
SF	Lithuanian SSR (B)	2–0	Byelorussian SSR (B)
SF	Latvian SSR (B)	1–1 (pen. 5–3)	Estonian SSR (A)
TF	Byelorussian SSR (B)	5–1	Estonian SSR (A)
F	Lithuanian SSR (B)	2–0	Latvian SSR (B)

1976

Round	Winner	Score	Opponent
SF	Latvian SSR (B)	0–0 (pen. 4–3)	Lithuanian SSR (B)
SF	Estonian SSR (A)	3–1	Byelorussian SSR (B)
TF	Lithuanian SSR (B)	2–1	Byelorussian SSR (B)
F	Latvian SSR (B)	1–1 (pen. 5–4)	Estonian SSR (A)

External links

• RSSSF: Baltic Cup overview