Marked for Vitalijs Kamess
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Jelgava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jelgava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Raivis Stolcers falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market24 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Jelgava will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
$100.0K — a new record at Jelgava
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Match12 Aug 2026
Jelgava bow out of the cup
Spartaks go through and Jelgava go home, 4‑10 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
A cup hiding at Spartaks leaves Jelgava explaining themselves
4-10, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Beaten 10 times, with 1 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.97 beside his name.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Dilshod Jo'rayev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jelgava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jahongir Abdumo'minov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad3 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Jelgava know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vladimirs Jagodinskis and Jelgava agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market3 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nikita Gabovs has his answer from Jelgava; what he does with it is the next window’s story.