Named – with refreshing straightforwardness – the Latvian Football Podcast – it was first started by academic Dmitrijs Kravčenko as a passion project, and now also includes Welsh entrepreneur and football fan Frank Marr.
"Our core aim is to communicate Latvian football globally and locally," Marr tells LSM. "Our project is dedicated to helping the sports economy of Latvia, and to educate. The big aim this year is to build our audiences, and then we’ll start to focus on other aspects of football, particularly the women’s league and football across the Baltics."
While ice hockey is Latvia number one sport – at least when the national team is playing – and the current crop of basketball players are also doing exceptionally well at national level, it is football in the form of the domestic Virsliga competition that attracts the largest number of spectators on a week-in, week-out basis, even if attendances are rarely above a few hundred spectators at any given match.
But according to Marr, it's not just those at the games – or even those in the country – who are part of the potential audience for Latvian football.
"I've always worked in media, I've had a PR and media agency in London, and I was listening to the podcast. Dmitrijs is a professor at the Stockholm School of Economics in Rīga, a really bright chap. I was in Valmiera during Covid and as a foreigner it was quite hard to find things to do, so watching football was a great offering. I got into Valmiera football club and I've always been into media. I did a podcast with Dmitrijs and he asked if I'd like to join."
"It's Latvian football in English, but we're hoping to push it further afield across the Baltics. We're both quite passionate about developing the league and football here and trying to make it a bit more popular with some thriving economic activity."
While the attractions of Latvian football are clear to actual spectators – cheap tickets, a family-friendly atmosphere and the chance to see football of a pretty high standard with plenty of up-and-coming young stars and foreign players – Marr says that there are additional attractions for the podcast audience.
For a start, most of the Virsliga season takes place over the summer, when many other domestic leagues in Europe are dormant and fans are open to exploring the rest of the football world. There is also the 'scouting' aspect: spotting promising young future prospects, many of whom come to Latvia from Africa, Asia and elsewhere as an early rung on the transfer market ladder.
"Football in the summer is a beautiful thing. I think that's what drew me into going to watch. And you can even get a beer on the stand."
"It's the youngest top league in the world in terms of first team players. There's a lot of opportunity there. A team like Metta/LU has the biggest youth development in the Baltics. RFS just got to the Europa League. You might not find the next Messi, but you could find an influential player who's exciting and goes on to do something good. And the quality [of the league] isn't bad."
"There are definitely things happening," says Marr, "The aim is always to make football more accessible for all."
If you would like to listen to the Latvian Football Podcast you will find it on YouTube, Spotify, ApplePodcasts and several other podcasting platforms.
