The Latvian Football Federation (LFF) () is the governing body of football in Latvia with its headquarters located in the capital Rimi Sports Centre in Riga. Its activities include the organizing of the Latvian football championship (Optibet Virslīga), the Latvian First League, the Latvian Second League, as well as lower league championships and the Latvian Football Cup. The federation also manages the Latvia national football team. 1918—1940 The LFF was established on June 19, 1921 as the Latvian Football Union () and was active until 1940 when it was closed down after the Soviet occupation of Latvia. A British national Harold Trevenen Hall was appointed the first chairman of the Latvian Football Union. In 1922, the Latvian Championship organized by Latvian Football Union consisted of 12 associations, 22 teams and 479 football players. A year earlier, rules of football were published in Latvian for the first time and in May 1923 Latvia was accepted into FIFA. Herberts Baumanis was the representative of Latvia in the acceptance ceremony in France. In 1925, the Latvian Football Union established football unions in the regions of country and in 1927 the Virslīga top-level competition was launched. It consisted of three of the strongest teams from Riga and a club from Liepāja while others were playing in tournaments of their regions. This system was in place up until 1940, and the number of teams in the Virslīga grew to eight. The union was formally dissolved by the Soviet occupational authorities on 11 November 1940. From 1990 LFF renewed its operations on 19 August 1990 under its current name right after Latvia regained independence. Its membership in FIFA was restored in 1992 and in the same year it joined UEFA. In 2015, the federation had a staff of 47 people, with the top post being the President of the LFF. Daily affairs of the LFF are managed by its General Secretary, Edgars Pukinsks. On 27 April 2018, the long-time LFF president Guntis Indriksons left his position after 22 years in office, becoming Honorary President of the LFF in an advisory role. The General Secretary since 1993, Jānis Mežeckis, also resigned in May and was replaced by Pukinsks. Former national team captain Kaspars Gorkšs was elected as his successor by the member organizations of the federation. On 17 October 2019, after a continuing streak of poor international results by the Latvian national team and claims about poor