RFK Riga

Riga FK (Rīgas futbola klubs, short - RFK) was a Latvian football club which was founded December 14, 1923. It was the strongest and most popular Latvian football club in 1920s and 1930s, it was also the base team for Latvia national football team in its early years. It was closed after World War II.

The idea for its creation came about in 1922 with the goal of uniting Latvian players on a team which could beat the mostly-German Ķeizarmežs. The founder and manager was Juris Rēdlihs, one of the most active football organizers in Latvia. In 1923, most of the best Latvian footballers from JKS moved to Riga FK. Those included Hermanis Saltups, Ašmanis, Eihmanis, Roga, Bone, Sokolovs, Zemīts and brothers Edvīns, Rūdolfs and Arvīds Bārda.

In its first season in the Riga championship Riga FK finished second - one point behind Ķeizarmežs. In 1924 Riga FK had a new manager who also managed the Latvia national football team - V.Malošek from Austria. Because it was prohibited to have foreign citizens playing in the Latvian league for that season, Ķeizarmežs didn't play in 1924. Riga FC easily bet its closest rivals - ASK Riga in the Riga championship and beat the province champions from Cēsis 5-1, winning its first Latvian championship. In 1925 and 1926 Riga FK won its second and third titles.

Riga District

Riga District (Latvian: Rīgas rajons) was an administrative division of Latvia, located in Semigallia and Vidzeme regions, in the centre of the country. The district had the two cities of Riga and Jūrmala with the Gulf of Riga to the north. Beginning from the west and counterclockwise to the east, Riga District had Tukums, Jelgava, Bauska, Ogre, Cēsis and Limbaži former districts as neighbours. The area of the district was 3,058 km² with a population of 159,247.

Riga District was one of the largest regions of Latvia, it was strategically important and also had some of the most developed infrastructure in Latvia. It was a cross-point of 10 major motorways and a junction of 6 important railroad lines.

Districts were eliminated during the administrative-territorial reform in 2009.

Nature

The larger part of the former region lies in the sand-soil plains of Riga that are covered by pinewoods, low links, marshlands and level countryside that is typical for littoral lowlands. In the northern part, there are ridges of links and many lakes have formed in hollows between them. There are 132 lakes in the Riga Region and the biggest of them is the Babīte Lake, Lielais Baltezers, Mazais Baltezers, Dūņu Lake and Lilaste Lake. The former district is also crossed by three major rivers in Latvia – Daugava, Lielupe and Gauja Rivers.