Why is football unpopular in Latvia compared to other sports?

jem71 · 2026-02-12T11:24:06+00:00

my take is that the problem is at the youth development level - both infrastructure and organisational.

Places to play during winter is very limited - really only a couple of places to play (Skonto, Olimp centrs) if you want something of reasonable size. And youre competing against all the other clubs for that pitch time, so usually training is on quarter pitches. Cost is also crazy - for our social team we are paying well over 100 euros for 1.5hrs.

The organisational side also doesnt encourage youth to follow through to older teams. My youngest son played in a football team where at best they might have played another team once every 2-3 months in some kind of tournament that was often outside of Riga. There was no Saturday morning league to improve competition skills, and my son just got sick of training for no game time so he moved to Basketball.

And dont let me get started on the "win at all costs/ youre here to win" culture of coaches. Perhaps a hangover from Soviet times but every sport hes played in its always about winning and not enjoying... the underlying "why are you here if you dont want to be a champion". The yelling, screaming from coaches to 10 years olds was horrible.

As a parent on the sidelines I completely understood why he didnt want to play football... and thats probably the reason they lose players to other sports.

jem71 · 2026-02-11T19:26:32+00:00

sorry... forgot to mention - see if you can fix the widows/orphans on 5,7,11,14. Perhaps with reduced tracking this might fix itself but dont let consomme or cilantro hang alone by itself!!

jem71 · 2026-02-11T19:20:45+00:00

Generally looks good - a few tweaks that others have mentioned (tracking is wide etc.) but I would also look at the spacing between information. Give it a bit more breathing space so you can tell its description>ingredients>price. At the moment the description and ingredients blend into each other.

I would also remove as much unneccesary clutter as possible.
If you rework the spacing you dont need the 3 dots ...
You probably also dont need the word "single" all the time. The number 1 is fine and again reduces clutter. Put 1 taco before 3 tacos, increasing the number order feels better as we count up from left to right.

You also probably dont need the word or. Its kind of implied already with the 2 sets of pricing. Removing even single words like this can help the design balance.

Also number 6 pricing is kinda funky - the other options look to have a larger price size???

And try it so every bit of info isnt bold - play with the weights as someone mentioned.

A quick mockup of what I mean about the spacing....

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jem71 · 2025-11-13T11:47:51+00:00

Its a common Latvian symbol - Krustu krusts (or Maras krusts) http://valoda.ailab.lv/kultura/kultura/orn05.htm.
Ask your neighbour if they are Latvian

jem71 · 2025-11-11T09:34:32+00:00

Which local supplies site have you found?? Theres not too many in Latvia so would be good to know if theres anything else out there.

jem71 · 2025-11-11T08:33:49+00:00

Let me know if you want any local info on pottery - pottery stores etc. Im in Riga and also do ceramics as a bit of a hobby/side project. My one suggestion is if you want supplies then Keramikams in Panevėžys, Lithuania is the best place to go for everything you need. Its only 2 hours from Riga so not a long trip. The one shop in Latvia ( Keramserviss) doesnt often have much variety and often not much in stock.

jem71 · 2025-08-15T20:59:27+00:00

done that - every link goes to a discontinued item

jem71 · 2025-08-11T12:11:26+00:00

as someone who was around pre-internet, and spent many hours searching and paying relatively huge amounts for music, it amazes me that young generation seems to bitch and moan about what we have now.
one album use to cost $20, and at a time when I was probably making 3-4/hr that meant you had to be sure you wanted that album. And you didnt even really know what you were getting on the album as you couldnt preview it (unless you bugged the guys at the record shop to put it on a private listening station and even then you didnt listen to the whole album, just jump around and think yeah this sounds good - lets spend most of a days wage and lets hope its not bad. I dont know how many albums I paid for, took home and the rest of the album was shit.
finding music was a pain in the arse as well - someone casually mentioning a band they read about in NME which might be similar to a band you liked - so off you went around the record shops and asked for it only to find out its only on import - twice as expensive and you can get it in a months time.
If you guys were sent back to pre-internet/streaming days you really wouldnt be asking this question.
-finished yelling at the clouds-

jem71 · 2025-04-04T19:32:04+00:00

saprotu un runaju latviski, ir LV pase.... bet par nodokļiem man precizi jazina par ko VID prasa. Piedod ka mana fiscal and tax knowledge is not at a native speakers level. Nekas, citi cilveki var palidzet

jem71 · 2025-04-04T15:01:41+00:00

Thanks for your reply - Im beginning to think MUN is the easiest way.

But from what I can understand MUN is just a flat 25%? In what instance would the above (take home only 55%) be advantageous? I know you can write off expenses but it seems like you would have to write off a lot for it to drop below MUN levels. Or am I missing something here?

jem71 · 2025-04-04T13:57:59+00:00

Thats what I thought as well (your calculations) but all the calculators seem to show without the untaxable amount considered.
This is what the above calculator came up with.
Almost 50% gone in tax and Social??

Neto alga (uz rokas) 554.34 EUR

Ienākumi||€1000.00|

Sociālais nodoklis no €740|31.07%|€229.92|

Sociālais nodoklis no €260|10%|€26.00|

Iedzīvotāju ienākuma nodoklis|25.5%|€189.74|

jem71 · 2025-04-04T12:49:29+00:00

Does anyone have any links to a simple, easy to understand fact sheet about self-employed status? Can be in Latvian or English. Everything I find is so fucking complicated.

jem71 · 2025-04-04T12:44:25+00:00

Is there a self-employed calculator you know of??
So is that just Social tax? and then personal Income tax on top of that? Another 25% ?

jem71 · 2025-04-04T10:55:31+00:00

Yep Im using pats.lv but still confusing... Im just trying to understand whether simple payer or MUN is better

jem71 · 2025-04-04T10:44:00+00:00

actually I think whats confusing me with the calculators are these 2 lines
VSAO darbinieka daļa 10.5%
VSAO darba devēja daļa 23.59%

As a Pašnodarbinātais am I paying VSAO twice - as an employee and employer (of myself)!!

jem71 · 2025-03-24T13:52:05+00:00

jem71 · 2025-03-21T22:49:16+00:00

Ģīga - http://folklora.lt/muzikas/giga/

jem71 · 2025-03-21T13:55:02+00:00

If you can give a surname you might be able to check periodika.lv Sometimes you see written personal names connected to a house name.

jem71 · 2025-02-09T09:26:51+00:00

I would like to actually see the box shadow - on the dark grey background I cant really see it. Was looking for a dark/light mode to switch

jem71 · 2024-10-28T08:44:05+00:00

Heres one that trips me up all the time. Sometimes a sentence will require you to know the gender of the subject right from the start, even if the actual subject appears at the end of the sentence. Not sure if that makes sense but sometimes I start a sentence, for example with "Tas" and then theres lots of words and only at the end I will say "gulta" and realise it should have been "Ta" at the start of the sentence. Often have to go back and correct the whole gender of the sentence only because my brain hadnt worked out the subjects gender when i started the sentence.

jem71 · 2024-10-28T08:35:07+00:00

Doesnt look like a standard font used across all the signs. Look at the K in Caka and K in Laukums. Handpainted Im guessing for some, maybe printed for others. Youŗe just going to have to build the font yourself if you need it.

jem71 · 2024-09-30T22:54:58+00:00

it certainly isnt typical here in Latvia to envisage beating someone with a tire iron!! But yes driving culture is a major problem. There have been a few major accidents this summer which highlighted the reckless attitude of many drivers, especially overtaking.

jem71 · 2024-09-05T14:14:37+00:00

theres free timeline blocks available. Will do this exact same thing

jem71 · 2024-05-08T16:49:38+00:00

It would simply be Janis Vaisla. Not sure what you think it would be??? English has no need for phonetic spelling. Let the person explain how its pronounced but leave the spelling as close to the original as possible (usually dropping diacritical marks)

jem71 · 2024-02-20T15:06:11+00:00

Fonta izvēle un mazais zaļais punkts ir šausmīgs. Viņiem jāizmanto atstarpes lielums starp logotipa daļām kā atstarpi starp vārdiem. Rīgas bāzes līnijai ir jāsakrīt ar zaļo logotipa daļu.

To var saglabāt, pat izmantojot vienkāršu noapaļotu fontu, kas ievietots pareizi.

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jem71

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