© lff.lt
While students are on vacation, the new league board is looking for solutions on how to make the Lithuanian Student Football League, as it once was, prestigious again. A month ago, Vilnius "Žalgiris" masters team player and long-time Vilnius University football team coach Rimantas Turskis was elected as the president of the league and claims that the first steps have already been taken. "I never hid the fact that my main priorities are finding sponsors and promoting the league as widely as possible. Everything is simple, if we succeed in solving the first task, we will succeed in the second one. The work has begun - together with the league director Vytautas Jančiauskas, we have put together the budget for the upcoming season. We continue to work," - said R. Turskis. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the LSFL championship only took place for one round. It became clear that it was not possible to extend the season, and the champions were announced as the footballers from Šiauliai University. The new season should start in September. "There are two things that raise the most questions. The first: how will we manage the second wave of the coronavirus? And the second: how many participants will we have in the new season? I'm not sure if it's worth going into detail about the first issue, but... if students, like last spring, will study remotely, it will be devilishly difficult. Students from other cities certainly will not live in Vilnius just to be able to train and play. It's a completely different situation if the academic year is normal. Speaking about the number of teams, it could be a six-team championship, or eight. Everything depends on money. If we find a way for Klaipėda University to travel constantly to Vilnius or Kaunas, it will be one way, if we don't find a way - it will be different. Of course, an eight-team championship would be optimal for students," - said R. Turskis. The new LSFL president has already met with the leaders of the LFF and discussed assistance in organizing the championships. "It is important to understand that the transitional period for players is very important. Not everyone can immediately transition to professional football after completing academies. We talked about the fact that some of the money allocated for mass football should be allocated to students. It seems that we have found common ground," - said the interlocutor. Elections for the LSFL presidency became necessary after former leader Artūras Krukis resigned from his positions in 2019. Last year, the league celebrated its twentieth anniversary.
