Latvia Women

In the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), women's football was not a recognized sport – in 1972, the Sports Committee of the USSR even banned women's football competitions. That is why women played the first official football matches in Latvia only in 1989, when the first women's team "Latvija" was created. The players were mostly invited from other sports, so the football players had good physical preparation, and several players from Lithuania were also invited to help. In 1990, the team was renamed to RAF Jelgava, participating in the first championship of the highest league of the USSR, where they took eighth place in the competition of 24 teams. RAF played one more season in the top league of the USSR, but another team from Latvia – Ogres "Fortūna" – competed in the first league of the USSR. After the collapse of the USSR, the "RAF" professional team disbanded, and thus women's football in Latvia continued to exist only at the amateur level.

On 18 August 1993, The Latvian women's national team made its debut and played its first international match in the European Championship qualification tournament, losing in the first match away to Sweden, which was already one of the most important women's football countries in the world at the time.

After the first qualifying tournament, Latvia did not participate anymore in European Championship qualifying tournaments until 2006. Changes had already been introduced in the selection system, by holding the previous preliminary tournament for the weakest European national teams before the qualification, which the Latvian national team never managed to overcome, which meant that Latvia did not have the opportunity to meet the best national women's football teams in Europe for a long time.

After participating in the UEFA Women's Euro 1995 qualifying and withdrew from all qualification until the qualification for the European Championships in 2009.

Latvia's record upon its return to international qualification games was poor. Latvia lost their first two games, against Israel and Bosnia and Herzegovina by three goals, before losing by one goal to Armenia. Mini-tournaments after the qualification disaster proved no better for Latvia. Finishing last, in December 2008, Latvia lost 0–3 to Croatia and 0–5 to Turkey.

Latvia won its first official match on 5 March 2011 over Lithuania in the qualifying 2013 European Championship preliminary round with a lone goal by Jūlija Sokolova. However, Latvia lost the other two games against Luxembourg and Macedonia so the team didn't go through.^[]

In 2013, the Latvian women's national team took part in the World Cup qualification tournament for the first time, in the first round of the preliminaries, they drew 0:0 with Luxembourg in their debut match, but then lost 0–2 to Albania and Malta.^[] After four years, the Latvian women's national team won the first victory in the World Cup selection, defeating Estonia 4–0 in the preliminaries,^[] but it was not enough to enter the basic qualification tournament, as the first place in the group was won by the national team of Kazakhstan, with whom Latvian football players played a draw 2–2.^[]