The football club “Liepaja” is deeply disappointed, shocked and angry with refereeing in Latvian Higher Division on June 15, 2019, when our team, in the presence of 1340 viewers, got outplayed by the Football Club “Riga” with a result of 1: 2. We urge to discharge the team of referees with Vitali Spasionnikovs at the head, as well as to pay an increased attention to the prevention of refereeing problems in Latvia. Our team’s Head Coach, Alexander Starkov, said after the game: “I’m 100% sure that there were some referee mistakes. It seems to me that the referee made much more mistakes in favour of FC “Riga”. Everyone makes mistakes, hardly any game can be judged without any errors, but I think that this time it was a serious violation. We will watch carefully the record of the game. If there is a enough of grounds, we will make a protest. Honestly. One cannot spoil this football atmosphere. There are many players of Latvian national team and high-quality legionnaires. The qualitative and fair arbitrage must also be ensured.” We believe that the referees’ team made a number of significant errors which affected the outcome of the game and helped the FC “Riga” to win. Therefore, we have urged the Latvian Football Federation to suspend this team of referees from judging the games, in which the line referees Romans Platonovs and Valdis Korotko, as well as the fourth referee, Edgars Malcev, worked at the head of Vitali Spasionnikov. Latvian football organisations – LFF and Virsliga – speak a lot about respecting the principles of fair play, the fight against unfair manipulation of the outcome of games and the development of football in our country. We call the president of the Latvian Football Federation, Kaspars Gorkss, for an increased attention to this issue, namely respect of the principles of fair play, and who is positioning himself as a fighter for a clean game. We call on the Latvian Higher Division clubs and the Latvian Football Society to support us in this fight against unfair refereeing at our championship, because this is not the first egregious example happened in recent years. Moreover this match in some ways is seen as a biased judgment of a high level. If we want to improve the quality of refereeing in Latvia, we also ask for implementation of VAR (Video assistant referee) to be used during our championship. If our Federation is interested in fair play then they should support such an initiative. There were a number of young local football players who regularly play in our second team – Arturs Smetanovs, Roberts Krists Jaunarajs-Janvaris, Raivis Vilumsons, and Maksims Sidorovs, Gatis Luks and Viktors Ziemelis were also claimed for the match. How can young people make progress and improve on their skills if the outcome of games is influenced not by their quality of performance but the judgment? We believe that statistics indicate the trends – FC Liepaja breached the rules 16 times, and earned 4 yellow cards, although we are convinced that none of them had been really earned. FC Riga players breached the rules twice as much – 31 times, but received yellow cards 3 times only. We have picked up the episodes when, in our view, the judge made the wrong decisions: In the 1st minute, an 11-meter penalty kick against the gates of FC “Liepaja” is appointed. It is clearly seen that Richard Friday (#77) has not violated the rules which was seen not only by the Chief Judge, but could also be seen by an Assistant Referee from the side line. The yellow card shown to Richard Friday (#77) in the 22nd minute soon after the 11-meter penalty kick against the FC “Liepaja” gates, although it is clear that there was no infringement and the yellow should not have been shown. At the 46th minute, the breach was not recorded against Arthur Smetanov (#25), who went in the penalty area and was delayed against the rules and knock to the ground from his back. An undisputed 11-meter penalty kick is not awarded. The 59th minute does not record a hand-in-hand game in the penalty area of FC Riga, which led to the fact that FC “Riga” went counter-attack and scored the game breaking goal. Then the Coach of FC Liepaja Jurijs Shevlyakovs was expelled from the reserve bench and the yellow card was shown to Ravis Andris-Jurkovskis. No 11-meter penalty kick against the gates of FC Riga is recorded in the 85th minute. Janis Ikaunieks (#10) broke into the penalty area, and the rules were breached directly on the line of the penalty area. The replay shows that the FC “Riga” player who violates the rules is in the penalty area, while Janis Ikaunieks is on the line. The penalty is registered outside the penalty area. No offence against Luiz Paulo Hilario (#9) is recorded in the 1st minute. The episode of the game is not decisive, but the umpire’s attitude towards each team is clearly seen from the start of the game. In the 72nd minute, the yellow card was assigned to Seydina Keyta (#33) for the air double fight. A violation can be assigned as a maximum penalty for this, but not a yellow card. In the 29th minute, the player of FC “Riga” illegally restrained Leonel Strumia (#5) from launching an attack which would be followed by a yellow card. The judge records the penalty, but the player of FC “Riga” did not received a warning. In the 77th minute, player of FC “Riga” and Ravis Viļumsons (#11) go two-fight for the ball, but the offense is recorded and the yellow card is shown for Ravis Vilumsons We add our claim to the Latvian Football Federation, as well as e urge other football clubs to support the dismissal of this team of judges from the Latvian Championship Games. Yours faithfully Unnetted gate, loss 1: 2 against Riga FC