RFS | Photo: Sanita Ieva Sparāne / RFS
Latvian champion football team RFS, expanding its system, will add an indoor football team and a children’s and youth academy “RFS Academy”, representatives of the team announced at a press conference on Wednesday. The Latvian indoor football team “Nikars” will be under the auspices of RFS in the future, also changing its name to RFS.
On the other hand, in the children’s and youth academy, young football players will have the opportunity not only to train in classic football, but also to focus more seriously on indoor football later on. RFS General Director Māris Verpakovskis emphasized that one of the reasons that helped to make the decision to expand the system was the creation of the LNK Sports Park.
Also, Verpakovskis revealed that Kalinins, who was previously the head coach of “Daugavpils”, was also involved in the organization of the academy, will be the sports director at the academy. On the other hand, Dāvis Caune will be the senior coach at the academy.
Eglis Trušēlis, who will be the director of the RFS Academy, said that the RFS Academy will be built on the basis of the “Nikars” football school, and its goal will be to continue what was already started and to create RFS academies in several districts of Riga. “Our goal right now is to fill the new football fields with dedicated young football players who want to develop,” added Trušelis.
Trušelis revealed that after taking over the “Nikars” football school, the RFS Academy has 200 children at its disposal, but in the future there may be 500-600 children who will be involved in the RFS. It is also planned to create a boarding school in LNK Sports Park, where not only football players from Riga will be able to stay permanently.
Last year’s champion RFS is currently third in the league with 56 points in 26 games, eight points behind the leader “Valmiera”. RFS entered the UEFA Conference League group stage in Belfast on Thursday, becoming only the second Latvian club after Ventspils to enter the group stage of one of the European club cup competitions.
