COULD SMORGON PLAY IN THE BELARUSIAN PREMIER LEAGUE NEXT SEASON?

Many unconfirmed rumours have emanated out of Belarus over the past few weeks as to which team may take Gorodeya's place in the Premier League for the 2021 season. The Village Team will very unfortunately not take it's place in the top tier this season as they have apparently been dissolved due to major financial problems and their major sponsor/back pulling out of funding the club. 

Krumkachy Minsk were the obvious choice as they had finished in third position but lost the relegation/promotion play off against Slutsk who finished third from bottom in the Premier League.

However, their are reports that the ABFF have stated that as The Ravens lost the play-off they are not now eligible for Promotion.  This is reportedly due in the 2011 season when Vitebsk, who had finished 11th in the Premier League, lost in the play-off to Partizan Minsk (runner's up in the First League) who gained a place in the 2012 Premier League. Partizan's main backer then withdrew his financial support and the club dropped into the amateur leagues with no club taking their place in the Premier League. Basically as Vitebsk were relegated and not saved due to Partizan's troubles after they had lost the play-off set a precedent. 

Arsenal Dzerzhinsk who finished fourth issued this statement on their VK social media page on Monday 25th January - "Officially! Today, a number of media outlets have spread information that in the 2021 season Arsenal will play in the top league... Recognizing the right for the media to independently search for interesting information, at the same time we believe that the published information requires at least minimal verification or clarification of the opinion of interested parties. Which didn't happen in this case. We inform the fans and the interested sports community that FC Arsenal is currently preparing to pass the licensing for the 2021 season in the First League of the Belarusian Football Championship."

Lokomotiv Gomel who finished fifth have not made any sort of statement as far as I'm aware. 

Smorgon who finished in sixth place and sixteen points behind Krumkachy have now issued this statement on their website - 

"The management of Smorgon Football Club commented on the possibility of playing in the Premier League in the new season. The club's director Pavel Lutko commented on the situation as follows:

Funding, Development plan and Formation of the squad, already staffed by the coaching staff, are being agreed. There is an infrastructure, JUSH (480 students), a women's team, transport, which is a prerequisite for admission to participate. Of course, the Major League will be a great help for the development of children's and young sports, amateur and visual interest in the city with football traditions and experience of playing in the strongest league of Belarus. We prepare documents for the licensing procedure to participate in your league according to the ABFF regulations." 

Smorgon last played in the top tier between 2007 to 2009 finishing in 10th, 8th and 14th places. 

I must stress all of the above is unconfirmed and all will be most probably officially announced over the next month or so.