Triobet Baltic League officials at a Aug. 17 press conference in Riga. Photo by Inga Kundziòa/AFI

RIGA — While many throughout the Baltic states are feeling the crunch of the current economic crisis, the Triobet Baltic football league has bucked the trend by going ahead with the expansion of the league.

The league has secured a six-year television deal with Viasat Sport Baltic.

For the upcoming season, this deal will see 13 of 29 league matches telecast live during primetime television, reaching a much larger audience than last season. The league also announced gained four new league-wide sponsors: Hansabus, Scanpix, BNS and ACC Solutions.

The league has recently introduced a cash bonus incentive to all teams. Based on the performance of the teams during the season, they may earn up to €5,000 in bonuses.

The new season also sees a new, expanded format to the competition that includes four more teams. Now six teams from Lithuania and four each from Estonia and Latvia will compete.

In the first round of 16, every team will face one other team in a home and away fixture. The first leg games will take place on Sept. 22-23, whilst the return matches will take place a little over a month later on Oct. 27-28.

The eight winners will then progress to the quarter finals, with four then going on to play in the semi-finals. Both of these rounds will also consist of home and away games with the team from each fixture that has the best aggregate progressing.

The final will be a one off game on July 4, 2010. The website balticleague.com advised BalticReports.com that a venue for this final will be decided in the spring next year.

The league has been designed around the existing team commitments in their respective national competitions and also further abroad in Europe.

Round of 16 Draw: n1. FK Bang Gargždai (Lithuania) vs. FK Ventspils (Latvia)\n2. FC Dinaburg Daugavpils (Latvia) vs. FK Vėtra Vilnius (Lithuania)\n3. FC Jūrmala (Latvia) vs. FK Ekranas (Lithuania)\n4. FK Šiauliai (Lithuania) vs. FC Flora Tallinn (Estonia)\n5. FK Taurus Tauragė (Lithuania) vs. FC Levadia Tallinn (Estonia)\n6. FK Sūduva Marijampolė (Lithuania) vs. JK Trans Narva (Estonia)\n7. JK Sillamäe Kalev (Estonia) vs. FK Skonto Riga (Latvia)\n8. JK Nomme Kalju (Estonia) vs. SK Liepajas Metalurgs (Latvia)