After World War II, between 1945 and 1991 the championship of Soviet Latvia was the main footballing competition in the Latvian SSR.

With Latvia regaining full independence in August 1991, the newly established Latvian Football Federation (LFF) decided to reorganise its competitions within the Virslīga from 1992.

[6] However since 2024, a revamped off-season tournament, Livonia Cup, is being played from January till February, with teams from Latvia's and Estonia's leagues taking part.

The two biggest clubs in Kurzeme have played 86 matches between themselves with a record of 31–28–27 (including Metalurgs) in favor of Liepāja prior to the 2019 Virslīga.

[14] Skonto reached the UEFA Champions League last qualifying stage for a number of times in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but lost to teams like Barcelona in 1997, Inter Milan in 1998 and Chelsea in 1999.

RFS qualified for the 2022-23 UEFA Europa Conference League group stage, finishing in fourth place with 2 points.