THE FORMER CLUBS OF THE BELARUSIAN PREMIER LEAGUE

We all gained a sudden interest in not just Belarusian football but the country in general last March after lockdown part one put a temporary halt to football in the UK. We picked teams and watched from afar at clubs such as BATE Borisov, Isloch, Shakhtyor Soligorsk, Rukh Brest and Dynamo Minsk, to name but a few, entertained us and kept our football starved spirits up. 

The Belarusian football pyramid was formed in 1992 after the break up of the Soviet Union and during which time many clubs have played their part in top level football in the country many fans hopefully, when all the pandemic ends, will visit. Unfortunately since the formation of the league many clubs have been dissolved and disbande due to financial problems as you'll see from the below list of former clubs of the Belarusian Premier League. 

OBUVSHCHIK LIDA

FC LIDA 

SEVEN SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
1992	12/16	15	4	3	8	13-18	-5	11
1992/93	16/17 (R)	32	4	9	19	15-45	-30	17
1994/95	8/16	30	10	10	10	32-36	-4	30
1995	12/16	15	4	4	7	15-23	-8	16
1996	15/16 (R)	30	6	6	18	26-43	-17	24
1999	13/16	30	7	4	19	27-64	-37	25
2000	14/16 (R)	30	3	10	17	16-60	-44	19

OBUVSHCHIK LIDA were four time champions of the old Belarusian SSR league during the 1980's and were founder members of the Premier League in 1992. Renamed FC LIDA in 1997 the club have spent a total of seven seasons in the top tier of the Belarusian game last playing in the 2000 season when they were relegated with Torpedo Mogilev and Kommunalnik Slonim. Their top placed finish was 8th place in the 1994/95 season.  Since their relegation in 2000 the club representing Lida which is in the North-West of the country in the Grodno region have mainly played in the First League but did slip down to the Second League in 2007 and 2011 seasons bouncing straight back at the first attempt. 

Their last game in the Premier League was on Friday 3rd November 2000 which was a 0-3 home defeat to Shakhtyor Soligorsk. 

Last season they finished in 7th place in the first league - A new manager in Sergey Petrushevskiy took over in October 2020. He is the former manager of Khimik Svetlogorsk. 

SKB LOKOMOTIV VITEBSK

LOKOMOTIV VITEBSK 

FOUR SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE 

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
1992	15/16	15	4	2	9	16-28	-12	10
1992/93	12/17	32	7	11	14	27-40	-13	25
1993/94	10/16	30	8	9	13	25-39	-14	25
1994/95	16/16 (R)	30	3	5	22	14-74	-60	11

Another founder member of the Premier League where they played for four seasons struggling finishing in 15th, 12th, 10th and 16th. After relegation from the top tier a further drop down to the second tier followed in 1998. From 1996 to 2000 they were 'farm club' to their city rival's Vitebsk whom they shared sponsorship with the Belarusian Railway with. After a 7th placed finish in the First League in 2000 Lokomotiv were disbanded as the Belarusian Railway found having two clubs in the same city was not practicable. 

FC LUCH MINSK 

ONE SEASON IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE 

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
2018	13/16	30	4	12	14	24-44	-20	24

Translated to mean 'Lightning Minsk' the club were founded in 2012 as ALF-2007 Minsk and after playing in the Minsk Championship they moved into the Second League in 2013 being renamed Luch Minsk in 2014. 

In the First League of 2017 they finished top by five points despite being deducted ten points due to a match fixing investigation in 2016 season. They lost one game all of the season. 

In their one and only season in the top division they finished level on points with Torpedo Minsk (14th) and Smolevichi (15th) who were relegated on the head-2-head record ruling. 

In the spring of 2019 the club merged with DNEPR Mogilev to form Dnyapro Mogilev (see below) with the new club keeping the club's premier league spot and licence along with sponsorship and most of the squad relocating to Mogilev which is around 120 miles away from Minsk. 

DNYAPRO MOGILEV

ONE SEASON IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE 

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
2019	14/16	30	8	6	16	32-42	-10	30

The newly formed Dnyapro Mogilev lasted for one season where they finished in 14th place and lost to Rukh Brest on penalty kicks in the promotion/relegation play-off after a 3-3 draw on aggregate over two legs. 

After relegation to the second league the club were dissolved with DNEPR Mogilev reforming in the second league.

FC MOLODECHNO 

FC MOLODECHNO-2000 

TWELVE SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
1992	9/16	15	5	5	5	11-12	-1	15
1992/93	13/17	32	7	10	15	34-40	-6	24
1993/94	9/16	30	10	11	9	35-31	+4	31
1994/95	4/16	30	12	11	7	48-30	+18	35
1995	5/16	15	8	1	6	33-19	+14	25
1996	8/16	30	11	8	11	42-33	+9	41
1998	14/15	28	4	4	20	21-51	-30	16
1999	16/16 (R)	30	2	5	23	21-71	-50	11
2001	10/14	26	8	5	13	23-47	-24	29
2002	13/14	26	3	3	20	23-59	-36	12
2003	16/16 (R)	30	3	7	20	19-52	-33	16

FC Molodechno's best finish in the top division was fourth place in 1994/95. The club won the last Belarusian SSR league in 1991 prior to the break up of the USSR. 

The modern day club had only been formed in 1989 with a former club founded in 1949 representing the city hence the 1949 displayed in the club's badge. 

After relegation in the 2003 season they withdrew form the 2004 First League due to financial problems and were placed in the Second League for the 2005 season where they have played since. 

The city's club must come close to the the most number of name changes (mostly due to attachments to local industry and companies) since formation in 1949 as follows - 

1949 - Dinamo Molodechno 

1960 - Spartak Molodechno 

1964 - Naroch Molodechno 

1966 - Znamya Molodechno 

1967 - Volna Molodechno 

1970 - Spartak Molodechno 

1972 - Selena Molodechno 

1981 - Metallist Molodechno 

1983 - Trud Molodechno 

1986 - Stankostroitel Molodechno 

1989 - FC Metallurg Molodechno (new club formed) 

1993 - FC Molodechno 

2001 - FC Molodechno-2000 (to reflect their First League title win in 2000) 

2006 - FC Molodechno 

2011 - FC Zabudova Molodechno (to reflect a merger with Zabudova-2007)

2013 - FC Molodechno-2013 (the merged club/paertnership only lasted for two seasons) 

2015 - FC Molodechno-DYuSSh-4 

2019 - FC Molodechno 

Last season they finished top of the Second League (third tier) Group A but then finished third in the promotion group which qualified them for a promotion/relegation play off with Khimik Svetlogorsk whom had finished bottom of the first league. The first leg was 0-0 and the second leg was lost 0-4.  

STROITEL STARYE DOROGI 

THREE SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
1992	14/16	15	4	2	9	14-22	-8	10
1992/93	14/17	32	7	9	16	21-42	-12	23
1993/94	16/16 (R)	30	3	7	20	13-53	-40	13

The club only spent three seasons in the top division. The dropped down to the second tier in 1994 and the third tier in 1998. Since 2000 I believe they have played in the Minsk Amateur League FC Starye Dorogi but can't find any other information or an official website for them. 

SVISLOCH-KROVLYA OSIPOVICHI 

ONE SEASON IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE 

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
1999	15/16 (R)	30	4	4	22	24-74	-50	16

The town of Osipovichi (est population 32,000) has been represented in the top division for just one season in 1999 when after finishing runner's up in the 1998 First League Svisloch-Krovlya Osipovichi took their place in the Premier League. Just 4 wins in 30 games saw them relegated after just one season and since they have flip-flopped between the second and third tier of football in Belarus. 

Their four wins in the Premier Division came against Molodechno both home and away 3-0 and 1-2. Then away at Lida (2-0) and at home to Torpedo Kadino Mogilev (3-2). Their draws were 0-0 at home to Dynamo Minsk, away to Belshina (1-1) followed by home games against Naftan 1-1 and Vitesbsk 2-2. 

The club, now known as FC Osipovichi, finished in third place of Group B of the second league for the 2020 season and then in 5th (of 6) in the promotion group. 

TORPEDO MINSK 

TORPEDO-MAZ MINSK

TORPEDO-SKA MINSK 

SIXTEEN SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
1992	10/16	15	5	3	7	15-17	-2	13
1992/93	8/17	32	10	10	12	29-33	-4	30
1993/94	6/16	30	9	15	6	18-18	0	33
1994/95	6/16	30	11	10	9	36-29	+7	32
1995	9/16	15	5	3	7	12-27	-15	18
1996	12/16	30	7	8	15	32-53	-21	29
1997	8/16	30	12	6	12	45-43	+2	42
1998	7/15	28	12	8	8	44-22	+22	44
1999	10/16	30	10	5	15	31-47	-16	35
2000	8/16	30	13	10	7	43-28	+15	49
2001	8/14	26	10	7	9	31-32	-1	37
2002	4/14	26	15	6	5	30-16	+14	51
2003	4/16	30	19	7	4	54-20	+34	64
2004	6/16 (R)	30	13	7	10	37-31	+6	46
2018	14/16	30	6	6	18	20-41	-21	24
2019	16/16 (R)	30	1	3	26	4-63	-59	6

A historic club with a huge supporter base in Belarus who won the SSR league in 1947 and four times during the 1960s. They were founding members of the Premier League with best placed finishes in 2002 and 2003 when they finished in 4th place. Despite a 6th place finish in 2005 they club had major financial problems and were relegated into the Second League and despite winning the third tier title at their first attempt they very unfortunately folded. 

In 2007 they reformed and played in the Minsk championship for several years before re-joining the league in 2014 becoming members of the second league. The black-whites played in the Premier League in 2018 and started the 2019 season but midway through withdrew resulting in 15 of their 30 games being 3-0 wins awarded to their opponents. 

Their last official game in the Premier League was a 1-2 home defeat against Gomel on Saturday 13th July 2019. Dmitri Lisakovich was their goal scorer. 

Torpedo still have a big presence in youth football in Belarus and it is hoped they may well return to the league system soon.  

TORPEDO KADINO MOGILEV

TEN SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
1992	7/16	15	4	8	3	16-14	+2	16
1992/93	8/17	32	10	13	9	35-30	+5	33
1993/94	14/16	30	5	10	15	20-43	-23	20
1994/95	11/16	30	8	12	10	28-32	-4	28
1995	11/16	15	4	5	6	17-21	-4	17
1996	14/16	30	7	6	17	27-64	-37	27
1997	15/16	30	7	7	16	29-59	-30	28
1998	12/15	28	7	8	13	30-40	-10	29
1999	14/16	30	6	5	19	30-69	-39	23
2000	15/16 (R)	30	5	2	23	31-71	-40	17

Torpedo Kadino Mogilev were founder members of the Premier League and their first season was their best when they finished in seventh place. They were Belarusian SSR title winners in 1982 and cup finalists in 1995. In season 1997 they finished in the bottom two but were not relegated as Ataka Minsk and Transmash Mogilev disbanding and merging with DNEPR Mogilev. 

After relegation to the first league and struggling towards the bottom end of the table the club were disbanded in 2005. 

They were reformed in 2014 as Torpedo Mogilev and competed in the Second League in 2015 and 2016. I'm not sure if the club is still playing but there website nor social media have been updated of late.

FC SAVIT MOGILEV 

ONE SEASON IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
2008	15/16 (R)	30	5	6	19	28-61	-33	21

Formed in 2005 many people think of Savit as the successors to Torpedo Kadino Mogilev but the club has a different owner, club logo, name and colours as well as a different playing squad. 

The club made a rapid rise through the leagues with a second placed finish in the Second League in 2006 and a First League title win in 2007. At the end of the 2008 season the club folded. 

FC TRANSMASH MOGILEV 

ONE SEASON IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
1997	14/16	30	8	4	18	30-52	-32	28

Formed as Selmash Mogilev in 1988 who played in the Belarusian SSR top division from 1988 to 1991 and then joined the first league from 1992 as Transmash Mogilev where they won the title in 1996 to achieve promotion to the top division. After just one season in the Premier they merged with city rival's DNEPR to form DNEPR-Transmash Mogilev who were renamed DNEPR Mogilev in 1996. 

There two local derby games against DNEPR in the 1997 season both ended in 2-0 defeats. 

TRAKTOR BOBRUISK

FC FANDONK BOBRUISK

FC BOBRUISK 

FIVE SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE 

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
1992	4/16	15	8	3	4	13-10	+3	19
1992/93	6/17	32	15	10	7	37-20	+17	40
1993/94	5/16	30	13	7	10	32-25	+7	33
1994/95	12/16	30	8	12	10	31-36	-5	28
1995	16/16 (R)	15	0	2	13	6-54	-48	2

The club were formed in 1984 and finished in 4th, 6th and 5th in the first three seasons of the Premier League. They even made an appearance in the Cup Winner's Cup in 1994/95 after they were runner's up in the Belarusian Cup in the 93/94 season to league champion's Dynamo Minsk. 

In their Cup Winner's Cup tie they were very unlucky winning the first leg 4-1 against KF Tirana in front of 5,500 at Dynamo Stadium in Minsk. In the second leg in Albania with 3,000 people watching they were 2-0 down with the game drifting into injury time when Albanian International striker Indrit Fortuzi scored to make it 3-0 and FC Bobruisk were knocked out on the away goal rule with the score finishing 4-4 on aggregate. KF Tirana were knocked out by Brondby in the next round. 

After a poor 1995 season with no league wins the club was dissolved due to financial problems. They played in the Spartak Stadium which is also the home of Belshina Bobruisk. 

 

VEDRICH RECHITSA 

VEDRICH-97 RECHITSA

EIGHT SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE 

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
1992	8/16	15	6	3	6	17-19	-2	15
1992/93	15/17	32	7	7	18	30-61	-31	21
1993/94	12/16	30	7	7	16	20-41	-21	21
1994/95	9/16	30	10	8	12	24-33	-9	28
1995	14/16	15	4	3	8	22-20	+2	15
1996	16/16 (R)	30	4	3	23	14-57	-43	15
2000	12/16	30	6	11	13	23-36	-13	29
2001	14/14 (R)	26	2	2	22	17-60	-43	8

The club were founded in 1952 as Krasnoye Zhamya Rechitsa and spent the Soviet years in Belarusian SSR leagues and lower regional league. 

The club entered the first season of the Belarusian Premier League as Vedrich Rechitsa with their best placed finish being 8th the 1992 season. They were relegated in 1996 but returned for two seasons in 2000 and 2001. In 2004 Vedrich-97 Rechitsa finished as runner's up in the first league but were denied promotion back to the top level as they couldn't obtain a licence due to 'insufficient infrastructure'. 

In 2015 the newly renamed Rechitsa-2014 finished last in the first league and were relegated to the third tier with the club folding in 2016. 

A new club Sputnik Rechitsa (the name of the original club from 1980 to 1992) were formed and created in 2016 after Second League side DyuSSH-DSK Gomel relocated to the city.  The new club were First League champions in 2020 and are due to make their debut in the Premier League in 2021. 

The club's biggest achievement came in the 92/93 season when they got to the Belarusian Cup Final losing 2-1 to Neman Grodno. 

KRUMKACHY MINSK

TWO SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
2016	11/16	30	9	6	15	24-39	-15	33
2017	13/16 (R)	30	5	10	15	26-47	-21	25

Krumkachy were formed in 2011 by a group of football fans in Minsk with the name translating to Ravens. They initially competed in the Minsk amateur leagues and joined the Second league in 2014 winning promotion at their first attempt and completed back-to-back promotions in 2015 when they finished in third place behind Isloch and Gorodeya. They won promotion on the final day of the season beating DNEPR Mogilev who were just behind them in the league table.  

After a two season stay in the top league they were excluded and demoted to the second league due to financial issues and licencing issues - the club was restarted as a new legal entity. The finished in second place in the 2018 season and move up to the first league where last season they finished third and narrowly missed out on promotion losing to Slutsk in the promotion/relegation play off. 

The club were briefly named NFK Minsk in 2019 but in 2020 were renamed Krumkachy. 

FC KOMMUNALIK SLONIM

THREE SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
1997	11/16	30	9	3	18	32-61	-29	30
1998	14/15 (R)	28	3	5	20	14-63	-49	14
2000	16/16 (R)	30	3	8	19	19-66	-47	17

Founded in 1969 and played in the lower amateur leagues and lower levels of the SSR league in Soviet times. After a second place finish in the First League of 1996 they were promoted to the top division where they spent just two seasons. They won the first league title in 1999 to achieve promotion again but were relegated again after just one season. They were relegated in to the third tier in 2011. As a result of a merger with Beltransgaz Slonim a new club named FC Slonim were formed later named FC Slonim-2017 in 2017. 

Another City in Belarus who have seen their football clubs undergo a number of name changes - 

 

1969 - Torpedo Slonim

1971 - Kommunalnik Slonim

1972 - Start Slonim 

1986 - Albertin Slonim 

1994 - KPF Slonim 

1996 - Kommunalnik Slonim. 

Beltransgaz Slonim formed in 2010 with new merged club called FC Slonim and later FC Slonim-2017.  

Slonim-2017 finished in 8th place (of 14) in the 2020 first league. 

FC SMORGON

THREE SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
2007	10/14	26	6	8	12	15-29	-14	26
2008	8/16	30	10	9	11	26-39	-13	39
2009	14/14 (R)	26	2	9	15	17-46	-29	15

Founded as FC Stankostroitel Smorgon in 1987 and after a second placed finish in the first league in 2006 they were promoted to the Premier League for the 2008 season. Their impressive 8th place finish in 2008 was their best performance. Smorgon finished 6th (of 14) in the first league last season.

LOKOMOTIV MINSK 

FOUR SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
2003	15/16 (R)	30	5	9	16	16-42	-26	24
2005	11/14	26	7	5	14	30-43	-13	26
2006	13/14 (R)	26	5	4	16	26-52	-26	19
2008	14/16 (R)	30	6	7	17	28-50	-22	25

The club was founded in 2000 by travel company SKVICH and was initially going to be called SKVICH Minsk but after gaining support from Belarusian Railways prior to the start of their first season they were renamed Lokomotiv MINSK. They won the second league title in 2001 and with a third place finish in 2001 they were promoted to the top tier of the Belarusian game. The club yo-yo'ed between the Premier and First League for a number of seasons as well as their most famous day when in 2003 they got all the way to the Cup Final losing to Dyanmo Minsk. At the time they were managed by Anatoliy Yurevich.

In 2009 they were renamed SKVICH Minsk with relegation from the first league in 2013 the club were unfortunately dissolved in 2014. 

ATAKA AURA MINSK

ATAKA MINSK

THREE SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
1995	4/16	15	8	5	2	26-7	+19	29
1996	6/16	30	13	5	12	31-42	-11	44
1997	12/16	30	8	6	16	29-44	-15	30

Founded in 1986 as FC Ataka-407 Minsk and joined the Second League in 1992 being renamed Ataka-Aura Minks in 1993. After a second placed finish in the second tier in 94/95 they joined the Premier League and finished in 4th place at their first attempt which qualified them for the UEFA Intertoto Cup. After the 1997 the team went bankrupt and withdrew from the league. 

The team's reserve or 'farm team' as they are known in Belarus played for one more season in the second league in 1998 as Ataka-Sport Minsk but were also disbanded after that season. 

In the 1996 Intertoto Cup they were drawn in Group 7 against Rotor Volograd, Basel, Antalyaspor and Shakhtar Donetsk. Their one victory was a 1-2 win in Ukraine against Shakhtar with Yurk Doroshkevich and Yury Maleyew on the score sheet. 

GRANIT MIKASHEVICHI

FOUR SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
2008	10/16	30	8	12	10	35-34	+1	36
2009	13/14 (R)	26	6	7	13	27-39	-12	25
2015	5/14	26	12	6	8	30-32	-32	42
2016	16/16 (R)	30	5	10	15	20-56	-36	25

Formed in 1978 and representing the city of Mikashevichi which is in the South of Belarus with a population of around 13,800. The club's best season was 2015 when they finished in 5th place in 2015 under manager Valery Bakhno who spent much of his playing career with Granit. 

Last season Granit finished13th of 14 clubs in the first league with just 4 wins in 26 league games played. 

FC DARIDA MINSK RAION

SIX SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
2003	13/16	30	7	4	19	22-45	-23	25
2004	11/16	30	9	8	13	38-48	-10	35
2005	10/14	26	7	8	11	30-36	-6	29
2006	8/14	26	10	7	9	23-21	+2	37
2007	11/14	26	7	4	15	27-46	-19	25
2008	16/16 (R)	30	4	7	19	25-56	-31	19

Only founded in 2000 and found themselves in the top division after two promotions in three seasons. The club originally represented the Minsk district of Zhdanovichi but when they moved to the Premier League they changed their location to Minsk Raion. 

After relegation in 2008 like many other clubs they disbanded and have not played since. 

MTZ-RIPO MINSK 

PARTIZAN MINSK 

SEVEN SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
2004	14/16	30	6	9	15	32-56	-24	27
2005	3/14	26	16	1	9	43-30	+13	49
2006	4/14	26	16	3	7	54-24	+30	51
2007	5/14	26	11	9	6	32-25	+7	42
2008	3/16	30	17	6	7	65-37	+28	57
2009	11/14	26	8	6	12	34-38	-4	30
2010	12/12 (R)	33	5	8	20	24-70	-46	23

The club were founded as MTZ-RIPO Minsk following a merger of two city teams playing in the second league. Traktor Minsk, had a rich history since formation in 1947 winning the SSR league in 1948 and 1949,  partnered up with a recently formed club called FC Trudovye Rezervy-RIPO Minsk. The RIPO standing for Respublikanskiy Institut Porefessionalnogo Obrazovaniya which translate to Republican Institute for Vocational Education. 

The newly merged club then had it's own football school to recruit young players as well as sponsorship from the Minsk Tractor Works who were as the name suggests the main sponsor to Traktor Minsk. 

The new club shot through the leagues with two promotions in as many seasons and played in the Premier League from 2004. The same year the club was purchased by Russian-Lithuanian businessman Valdimir Romanaov to run alongside his other clubs in Scottish side Heart of Midlothian and Lithuanian club FBK Kanus. During his ownership many players owned by the two others clubs played for MTZ-RIPO. 

 

In 2010 the club changed it's name to Partizan Minsk and were relegated from the top tier in the same year. The following season they finished in second place of the first league and won their two legged play-off with Vitebsk to secure a place back in the 2012 Premier League. 

Unfortunately in early 2012 Romanov withdrew his financial support and all of the squad was released and the club withdrew from the Premier League. They spent the 2012 season at amateur league level in Minsk  before re-joining the second league in 2013 named Partizan-MTZ Minsk before in 2014 another named change to Partizan Minsk - Midway through the 2014 the club folded and withdrew from all league fixtures.

The club's greatest achievement was winning the Belarusian Cup on two occasions. In 2005 they beat BATE Borisov with Artem Knontsevoy scoring the winner in the 2-1 victory - he later went on to play for BATE. 

In 2008 they beat Shakhtyor Soligorsk by the same score line - Oleg Strakhanovich scored the winning goal - He was still playing, aged 41, last season for Kronon in the Second League. 

The club played in Europe in four seasons but never got past the second qualiftiyng round of the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League. They lost to FC Moscow in the second round of the 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup. 

In 2015 FC Traktor Minsk were reformed and currently play in the Minsk Amateur leagues. It would be great to see such an historic name return to the leagues soon. 

FC BELARUS MINSK 

FC DYNAMO-93 MINSK 

SEVEN SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
92/93	3/17	32	20	6	6	54-24	+30	46
93/94	2/16	30	18	7	5	46-16	+30	43
94/95	3/16	30	16	10	4	52-22	+30	42
1995	3/16	15	10	2	3	28-15	+13	32
1996	4/16	30	17	5	8	44-30	+14	56
1997	5/16	30	14	7	9	53-30	+23	49
1998 (D)	DNF	15	4	6	5	19-23	-3	18

 

The club was founded in 1992 as a reserve/farm team for Dynamo Minsk which replaced the Dynamo-D Minsk team which competed in the Soviet Reserves top league prior to the dissoltion of the USSR. They finished top of the First League in 1992 so in order to achieve promotion they were renamed FC Belarus Minsk for the 92/93 season before another name change to FC Dynamo-93 Minsk in 1993. 

The team was highly successful finishing 3rd on three occasions and 2nd once in 93/94. They won the Belarusian Cup in 1995 against Torpedo Mogilev and also got the 1997 final where they lost to Belshina Bobruisk. In the 1997 competition they best Dynamo Minsk in the semi-final 2-4 after extra time. 

They also played in the Cup Winner's Cup in 95/96, UEFA Cup in 96/97 and Intertoto Cup in 1997. 

In 1998 the club withdrew from the league and disbanded. Another club who suffered due to lack of finances. 

NAFTAN NOVOPOLOTSK

NAFTAN-DEVON NOVOPOLOTSK

TWENTY-ONE SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
1996	7/16	30	13	4	13	43-52	-9	43
1997	9/16	30	10	9	11	40-33	+7	39
1998	13/15	28	7	4	17	33-47	-14	25
1999	12/16	30	8	4	18	39-63	-24	28
2000	13/16	30	5	7	18	25-69	-44	22
2001	13/14 (R)	26	4	2	20	18-51	-33	14
2003	8/16	30	10	5	15	39-49	-10	35
2004	10/16	30	10	5	15	45-50	-5	35
2005	9/14	26	10	3	13	43-44	-1	33
2006	7/14	26	11	4	11	45-42	+3	37
2007	7/14	26	9	9	8	28-30	-2	36
2008	7/16	30	13	7	10	41-35	+6	46
2009	4/14	26	12	2	12	28-39	-11	38
2010	7/12	33	11	11	11	41-34	+7	44
2011	7/12	33	10	7	16	35-45	-10	37
2012	9/11	30	7	8	15	23-40	-17	29
2013	10/12	32	9	10	13	29-41	-12	37
2014	5/12	32	11	10	11	40-43	-3	43
2015	9/14	26	8	6	12	34-35	-1	30
2016	13/16	30	7	8	15	25-46	-21	29
2017	16/16 (R)	30	4	6	20	18-57	-39	13

From their promotion from the first league in 1995 Naftan Novopolotsk were a firm fixture in the top tier in Belarus with their best placed finish being 4th in 2009. They also made two appearances in the UEFA Europa League in 09/10 and 12/13. They were defeated by Gent (Belgium) and Red Star Belgrade (Serbia) in their European games. 

Naftan have tasted glory in the Belarusian Cup. They won in 2009 with 2-1 AET victory over Shakhtyor Soligorsk  and again in 2015 when after a 2-2 draw with FC Minsk they won 3-4 on penalties. Both cup victories came under the management of current Neman Grodno boss Igor Kovalevich who was in charge from 2007 through to 2012 when he left to coach the Under 21 side full time where he had been assistant. 

Since relegation from the Premier League Naftan have finished in 5th in 2018 and 2019 and last season in 12th following a 15 point deduction after a match fixing investigation in the 2019 season. Had the points deduction not been in place they would of finished in 7th. 

SHINNICK BOBRUISK

BELSHINA BOBRUISK 

TWENTY SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
1993/94	7/16	30	15	1	14	41-41	0	31
1994/95	13/16	30	7	9	14	31-50	-19	23
1995	15/16	15	4	3	8	17-29	-12	15
1996	3/16	30	20	3	7	67-32	+35	63
1997	2/16	30	21	3	6	67-30	+37	66
1998	3/15	28	17	6	5	47-17	+30	57
1999	8/16	30	13	6	11	52-42	+10	45
2000	9/16	30	11	5	14	42-38	+4	38
2001	1/16	26	17	4	5	43-20	+23	55
2002	8/14	26	12	4	10	44-38	+6	37
2003	10/16	30	8	8	14	44-50	-6	32
2004	16/16 (R)	30	2	6	22	21-62	-41	12
2006	14/14 (R)	26	1	6	19	16-46	-30	9
2010	6/12	33	12	9	12	31-42	-11	45
2011	5/12	33	12	12	9	41-35	+6	48
2012	7/11	30	7	9	14	26-40	-14	30
2013	7/12	32	15	8	9	42-38	+4	53
2014	10/12	32	8	8	16	42-56	-14	32
2015	4/14	26	12	7	7	39-19	+20	43
2016	15/16 (R)	30	5	10	15	34-45	-11	25
2020	15/16 (R)	30	5	6	19	34-71	-37	21

Belshina are a club many fans in the United Kingdom know about after watching their fight to avoid relegation in the 2020 season. The club were formed in 1976 as Shinnik Bobruisk and has always been sponsored by local tyre manufacturing company Belshina hence the named change in 1996 to Belshina Bobruisk. The club won the Belarusian SSR League in 1978 and 1987 as well as the Belarusian SSR Cup in 1979. 

In the last 90's and early 00's the club had it's most successful spell being runner's up in 1996 and cup winners in 1997 and 1999. In 2001 they won both the league and cup double under manager Vyacheslav Akshaev with midfielder Eduard Gradoboev getting the only goal of the game. Gradoboev who played over 200 games for the club went on to be manager himself on three separate occasions - He left the club in July 2020. 

FC SMOLEVICHI

TWO SEASONS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

SEASON	POS	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
2018	15/16 (R)	30	5	9	16	21-39	-18	24
2020	16/16 (R)	30	3	5	21	27-72	-45	14

Another club to gain many fans and followers around the world during the 2020 season. The club haven't had a good time of it in the top division. In July this season they had major financial problems and lost their manager Alexander Brazevich along with a large number of their squad. They recorded just three wins and return to the first league for the 2021 season - hopefully! It has been reported that due to the financial problems they may well not play next season - Let's hope this is not the case. Head coach Alexei Mikhailov is still in place with the club - I hope they have a much better season for the 2021 campaign.