Baltic Cup

Founded	1928
Region	Baltic ( UEFA)
Number of teams	3 (+ possible guests)
Current champions	Iceland (1st title)
Most successful team(s)	Latvia (13 titles)
2022 Baltic Cup

The Baltic Cup ( Estonian: Balti turniir, Latvian: Baltijas kauss, Lithuanian: Baltijos taurė) is an international football competition contested by the national teams of the Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Sometimes guests from the Northern Europe subregion are also invited: Finland has participated in the event twice, Iceland once, and Faroe Islands are scheduled to make a debut appearance in 2024. Though originally held annually the competition has been biennial since 2008. The 2020 tournament was postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic, and took place in 2021.

It is one of the oldest national teams football tournaments in Europe after the British Home Championship, and the oldest of the ones still organized. ^[1]

History

As Estonia had unofficially declared itself the Baltic football champion in 1925, 1926 and 1927 based on matches played with Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland it was decided in 1928 to organize an official tournament. Though Poland and Finland were invited to join, the tournament took place between the three Baltic nations. ^[2]

The tournament was intended to improve relations between the nations, but intrigues around the organization and budget questions worked against this goal. The hosts always did everything to wear out their competitors. In 1933 Lithuanian hosts surprised the officials with a tour to a local brewery in the morning before the Lithuania–Latvia match. The Estonian newspaper Päevaleht reported that the Finnish referee for the match was really jolly, but did a horrible job, mostly favouring the Lithuanian hosts. The rules demanded that at least two wins were necessary to win the championship. Both Lithuania–Estonia and Lithuania–Latvia matches had been drawn but stopped due to darkness. In the team meeting Latvia demanded that Lithuania–Estonia match should be re-played first. Latvia was hoping for an advantage against a tired Lithuanian team in their match. Lithuania and Estonia disagreed, noting that Latvia had won their match against Estonia, so a Latvian win against Lithuania would grant the Latvians the championship and end the tournament. Consensus was not reached and the Latvian team left the same day. The championship was not awarded. ^{[2] [3]}

The feud led to the cancellation of the 1934 tournament, but the championship returned for the 1935. The rules were changed so that extra matches were now only held between leading teams if they were necessary for deciding on the championship. ^[4] In 2021, for the 2020 Baltic Cup, Estonia won the Cup after a wait of 83 years.

Results

Year	Host cities	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 (2)	Latvia	Lithuania
1932	Riga	Latvia (2)	Lithuania	Estonia
1933	Kaunas	Champion undecided due to disagreements over match times.
1934	Not held due to disagreements over the 1933 competition.
1935	Tallinn	Lithuania (2)	Latvia	Estonia	—
1936	Riga	Latvia (3)	Estonia	Lithuania
1937	Kaunas	Latvia (4)	Estonia	Lithuania
1938	Tallinn	Estonia (3)	Latvia	Lithuania
1939	Not held due to strained sporting relations between Latvia and Lithuania after EuroBasket 1939.
1940–1990	Not held due to Soviet occupation/annexation of the Baltic states.
1991	Klaipėda	Lithuania (3)	Latvia	Estonia	—
1992	Liepāja	Lithuania (4)	Latvia	Estonia
1993	Pärnu	Latvia (5)	Estonia	Lithuania
1994	Vilnius	Lithuania (5)	Latvia	Estonia
1995	Riga	Latvia (6)	Lithuania	Estonia
1996	Narva	Lithuania (6)	Estonia	Latvia
1997	Vilnius	Lithuania (7)	Latvia	Estonia
1998	Liepāja Valga Viljandi	Lithuania (8)	Latvia	Estonia
2001	Riga	Latvia (7)	Lithuania	Estonia
2003	Tallinn Valga	Latvia (8)	Lithuania	Estonia
2005	Kaunas	Lithuania (9)	Latvia	Estonia did not participate due to scheduling conflicts. [5]
2008	Jūrmala Riga	Latvia (9)	Lithuania	Estonia
2010	Kaunas	Lithuania (10)	Latvia	Estonia
2012	Tartu Võru	Latvia (10)	Finland	Estonia	Lithuania
2014	Ventspils Liepāja	Latvia (11)	Lithuania	Finland	Estonia
2016	Klaipėda Liepāja Tallinn	Latvia (12)	Lithuania	Estonia	—
2018	Rakvere Riga Vilnius	Latvia (13)	Estonia	Lithuania
2020	Vilnius Riga Tallinn	Estonia (4)	Latvia	Lithuania
2022	Riga Kaunas Tallinn	Iceland (1)	Latvia	Estonia	Lithuania

Medal summary

As of 2022. ^[6]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Latvia	13	14	1	28
2	Lithuania	10	7	9	26
3	Estonia	4	6	16	26
4	Iceland	1	0	0	1
5	Finland	0	1	1	2
Totals (5 entries)		28	28	27	83

Statistics

As of 2023. Including the 1933 tournament, but excluding the replay match played on 5 September 1933.

Rank	Team	Apps	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Latvia	29	57	29	20	8	91	50	+41	107
2	Lithuania	29	57	19	13	25	76	94	−18	70
3	Estonia	28	56	13	14	29	60	85	−25	53
4	Finland	2	4	2	1	1	5	3	+2	7
5	Iceland	1	2	0	2	0	1	1	0	2
6	Faroe Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Top scorers per tournament

Tournament	Name	Team	Goals
1928	Arnold Pihlak	Estonia	3
1929	Voldemārs Plade	Latvia	3
	Eugen Einman	Estonia
	Eduard Ellman-Eelma	Estonia
1930	Ēriks Pētersons	Latvia	4
1931	Friedrich Karm	Estonia	2
	Eduard Ellman-Eelma	Estonia
1932	Alberts Šeibelis	Latvia	2
1933	Ēriks Pētersons	Latvia	2
1935	Iļja Vestermans	Latvia	2
	Antanas Lingis	Lithuania
1936	Alberts Šeibelis	Latvia	2
1937	Iļja Vestermans	Latvia	3
1938	Ralf Veidemann	Estonia	2
1991	9 different players	-	1
1992	Virginijus Baltušnikas	Lithuania	3
1993	5 different players	-	1
1994	Valdas Ivanauskas	Lithuania	2
1995	11 different players	-	1
1996	7 different players	-	1
1997	7 different players	-	1
1998	4 different players	-	1
2001	Marians Pahars	Latvia	2
	Vladimirs Koļesņičenko	Latvia
2003	9 different players	-	1
2005	Igoris Morinas	Lithuania	2
2008	4 different players	-	1
2010	Mantas Savėnas	Lithuania	1
	Artūras Rimkevičius	Lithuania
2012	Edgars Gauračs	Latvia	3
2014	4 different players	-	1
2016	Fiodor Černych	Lithuania	2
2018	5 different players	-	1
2020	Mattias Käit	Estonia	2
2022	Sergei Zenjov	Estonia	2

All-time top goalscorers

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Rank	Name	Team	Goals	Tournament(s)
1	Ēriks Pētersons	Latvia	9	1930(4), 1931(1), 1932(1), 1933(2) and 1935(1)
2	Antanas Lingis	Lithuania	6	1930(2), 1932(1), 1933(1) and 1935(2)
	Eduard Ellman-Eelma	Estonia		1929(3), 1931(2) and 1935(1)
	Iļja Vestermans	Latvia		1935(2), 1936(1) and 1937(3)
5	Alberts Šeibelis	Latvia	5	1932(2), 1933(1) and 1936(2)
6	Arnold Pihlak	Estonia	4	1928(3) and 1929(1)
	Eugen Einman	Estonia		1929(3) and 1930(1)
	Friedrich Karm	Estonia		1930(2) and 1931(2)
	Jaroslavas Citavičius	Lithuania		1930(2), 1932 (1) and 1933(1)
	Virginijus Baltušnikas	Lithuania		1992(3) and 1995(1)
	Marians Pahars	Latvia		1997(1), 1998(1) and 2001(2)
	Igoris Morinas	Lithuania		1997(1), 2003(1) and 2005(2)
13	Voldemārs Plade	Latvia	3	1929(3)
	Stepas Chmelevskis	Lithuania		1928(2) and 1930(1)
	Georg Siimenson	Estonia		1936(1) and 1937(2)
	Richard Kuremaa	Estonia		1933(1), 1936(1) and 1937(1)
	Voldemaras Jaškevičius	Lithuania		1935(1), 1936(1) and 1938(1)
	Vitālijs Astafjevs	Latvia		1993(1), 1994(1) and 1995(1)
	Edgars Gauračs	Latvia		2012(3)
	Mattias Käit	Estonia		2018(1) and 2020(2)

Hat-tricks

Since the first official tournament in 1928, 4 hat-tricks have been scored in over 50 matches of the 28 editions of the tournament. The first hat-trick was scored by Arnold Pihlak of the Estonia, playing against Lithuania on 26 July 1928; and the last was by Virginijus Baltušnikas of Lithuania, playing against Latvia on 12 July 1992. No player has ever scored two hat-tricks in the Baltic Cup and no player has ever scored more than 3 goals in a single Baltic Cup match.

List

Baltic Cup hat-tricks

#	Player	G	Time of goals	For	Result	Against	Tournament	Date	FIFA report
1.	Arnold Pihlak	3	1', 21', 57'	Estonia	6–0	Lithuania	1928 Baltic Cup	26 July 1928	Report
2.	Voldemārs Plade	3	51', 68', 86'	Latvia	3–1	Lithuania	1929 Baltic Cup	14 August 1929	Report
3.	Ēriks Pētersons	3	37', 61', 64'	Latvia	3–3	Lithuania	1930 Baltic Cup	17 August 1930	Report
4.	Virginijus Baltušnikas	3	28', 31', 79'	Lithuania	3–2	Latvia	1992 Baltic Cup	12 July 1992	Report

See also

• Under-21 Baltic Cup
• Under-19 Baltic Cup
• Under-17 Baltic Cup
• Baltic Futsal Cup
• Women's Baltic Cup
• Women's Under-19 Baltic Cup
• Women's Under-17 Baltic Cup
• Women's Under-15 Baltic Cup

References

External links

• Baltic Cup overview on RSSSF