© EuroFootball.com
The Executive Committee of the Lithuanian Football Federation has recently been surprising, forming the top A league of the country. Striving for as many teams as possible, it often admits clubs to the elite division that are aiming to play but have not received a league license.
Last year, the A league played without a license included Vilnius "Reo" and Klaipėda "Atlantas", the year before that - "Kaunas" and Alytus "Dainava".
It is hardly worth waiting for such a surprise this year. A league licenses were issued to nine clubs that played in it last year. Without them, only Kėdainiai "Nevėžis" seriously considered the A league. However, the decision of the club's leaders not to move up to the elite division was made, as neither the LFF VK nor anyone else would gather more than 9 teams in it.
"We cannot secure the budget and have unfinished work at the stadium. That's why we are putting our plans to play in the A league on hold," said Saulius Skibiniauskas, director of Kėdainiai "Nevėžis".
On Monday, "Nevėžis" was not granted an A league license. Instead, they had to settle with the right to play in the first league.
The Kėdainiai club also aimed to obtain a license from the first division since autumn. However, the club that finished second in the first league was offered to try their luck in the elite division. The people of Kėdainiai had to quickly adjust to higher requirements. Nevertheless, the idea of obtaining an A league license was quickly abandoned due to financial and infrastructure difficulties.
"We consciously did not try to get an A league license because we did not solve the issues that we hoped to solve. We have been preparing for the first league since last year, received this offer, but we weren't able to organize everything quickly. We simply had optimism to take on the challenge and tried," said Skibiniauskas.
Speaking about the future, "Nevėžis" currently lacks that optimism. Skibiniauskas is convinced that in the near future, the Kėdainiai club will play with the strongest teams in Lithuania: "Nevėžis' priority is to play in the A league. There are many issues we are solving. We hope to move forward and play in the A league. We just don't want to follow the path of "Mažeikiai" or REO."
The "Mažeikiai" football club stayed in the A league for a couple of years and then disappeared from Lithuanian football. Last year, Vilnius REO survived in the A league for only half a year.
