Belarusian Premier League

Belarusian Premier League
Country	Belarus
Confederation	UEFA
Founded	1992
Number of teams	16
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Belarusian First League
Domestic cup(s)	Belarusian Cup
International cup(s)	UEFA Champions League UEFA Europa League
Current champions	BATE Borisov (2016)
Most championships	BATE Borisov (13 titles)
TV partners	Belarus 5
2016 Belarusian Premier League

The Belarusian Premier League or the Vysheyshaya Liga (Belarusian: Вышэйшая ліга, "Top League") is the top division of professional football in Belarus, and is organized by the Belarusian Football Federation. The number of teams in the competition has varied over the years from as high as 17 (1992–93 season) to as low as 11 (2012). As of 2016, the league includes 16 teams. Each team plays every other team twice during the course of the season. At the end of the season two teams are relegated to the Belarusian First League, and two are promoted from the First League to replace them.

BATE Borisov are the current champions and most successful team, with 13 titles.

History

The Belarusian Premier League was organized in 1992. The first participants were: Dinamo Minsk, the only Belarusian side in the former Soviet Top League, five teams from the lower tiers of the Soviet league system, and ten teams who were previous competitors in the Belarusian SSR First League.

Immediately after the organization of the league, it was decided to change its season from a Soviet-style summer season to a European-style winter season. To make that possible, the first season was shortened, consisting of a single round-robin tournament between 16 teams, finishing in mid-summer. Due to the shortened season, no team was relegated from the Premier League and only one was promoted from the First League. The 1992–93 season had 17 teams, but was reduced back to 16 teams for the following season. In 1995, the winter season experiment was proven unsuccessful due to poor weather and field conditions in Belarus in the late autumn and early spring. The season was changed back to summer, and the 1995 championship was again held as a single round-robin tournament. Every season since 1996 has been played in the summer.

Throughout the 2000s, the number of competing teams has changed several times. In 2001, the league was reduced to 14 teams, but expanded back to 16 in 2003. In 2005, after two teams withdrew before the start of the season, the league was once again reduced to 14 clubs, but expanded again to 16 teams in 2008. That same year, the decision was made to gradually reduce the number of teams even more, starting with 14 teams in 2009 and 12 in 2010 onwards. 2012 season was played with only 11 teams due to last minute exclusion of Partizan Minsk.

In its earliest years, the league was dominated by Dinamo Minsk, who won the league five times in a row between 1992 and 1995. During the next ten seasons, seven different teams finished as champions: Slavia Mozyr (1996 as MPKC Mozyr, 2000), Dinamo Minsk (1997, 2004), Dnepr-Transmash Mogilev (1998), BATE Borisov (1999, 2002), Belshina Bobruisk (2001), Gomel (2003), Shakhtyor Soligorsk (2005). Since 2006, BATE Borisov has dominated the league, winning eleven championships in a row (2006–2016), and becoming the first Belarusian team to reach the group stage of the UEFA Champions League (2008, 2011, 2012, and 2015) and the UEFA Europa League (2009 and 2010).

Premier League in 2016

Team	Location	Venue	Capacity	Position in 2015
BATE	Barysaw	Borisov Arena	12,896	1st
Belshina	Bobruisk	Spartak Stadium	3,700	4th
Dinamo Brest	Brest	OSK Brestskiy	10,060	12th
Dinamo Minsk	Minsk	Traktor Stadium	16,500	2nd
Gorodeya	Gorodeya	Sakharnik Stadium	1,600	First League, 2nd
Granit	Mikashevichi	Polesye Stadium	3,100	5th
Isloch	Minsk Raion	City Stadium (Molodechno)¹	4,800	First League, 1st
Krumkachy	Minsk	FC Minsk Stadium²	3,000	First League, 3rd
Minsk	Minsk	FC Minsk Stadium	3,000	6th
Naftan	Novopolotsk	Atlant Stadium	4,500	9th
Neman	Grodno	Neman Stadium	8,500	8th
Shakhtyor	Soligorsk	Stroitel Stadium	4,200	3rd
Slavia	Mozyr	Yunost Stadium	5,300	10th
Slutsk	Slutsk	City Stadium	1,896	11th
Torpedo-BelAZ	Zhodino	Torpedo Stadium	3,020	7th
Vitebsk	Vitebsk	Vitebsky CSK	8,100	13th

¹ Isloch Minsk Raion will host their games at City Stadium in Molodechno due to previously used by them RCOP-BGU Stadium in Minsk not meeting Premier League criteria.
² Krumkachy Minsk will host their games at FC Minsk Stadium in Minsk due to previously used by them SOK Olimpiysky in Minsk not meeting Premier League criteria.

Locations of teams in the 2015 Belarusian Premier League

Soviet era champions

1922: Minsk (city team)
1923: Unknown
1924: Minsk (city team)
1925: Unknown
1926: Bobruisk (city team)
1927: Unknown
1928: Gomel (city team)
1929–32: Unknown
1933: Gomel (city team)
1934: BVO (Minsk)
1935: BVO (Minsk)
1936: BVO (Minsk)
1937: Dinamo (Minsk)

1938: Dinamo (Minsk)
1939: Dinamo (Minsk)
1940: DKA (Minsk)
1941–44: Unknown
1945: Dinamo (Minsk)
1946: ODO (Minsk)
1947: Torpedo (Minsk)
1948: Traktor MTZ (Minsk)
1949: Traktor MTZ (Minsk)
1950: ODO (Minsk)
1951: Dinamo (Minsk)
1952: ODO (Minsk)
1953: Spartak (Minsk)

1954: ODO (Pinsk)
1955: FSM (Minsk)
1956: Spartak (Minsk)
1957: Sputnik (Minsk)
1958: Spartak (Bobruisk)
1959: Minsk (city team)
1960: Sputnik (Minsk)
1961: Volna (Pinsk)
1962: Torpedo (Minsk)
1963: Naroch' (Molodechno)
1964: SKA (Minsk)
1965: SKA (Minsk)
1966: Torpedo (Minsk)

1967: Torpedo (Minsk)
1968: Sputnik (Minsk)
1969: Torpedo (Minsk)
1970: Torpedo (Zhodino)
1971: Torpedo (Zhodino)
1972: Stroitel' (Bobruisk)
1973: Stroitel' (Bobruisk)
1974: BATE (Borisov)
1975: Dinamo (Minsk)
1976: BATE (Borisov)
1977: Sputnik (Minsk)
1978: Shinnik (Bobruisk)
1979: BATE (Borisov)

1980: Torpedo (Zhodino)
1981: Torpedo (Zhodino)
1982: Torpedo (Mogilev)
1983: Obuvschik (Lida)
1984: Orbita (Minsk)
1985: Obuvschik (Lida)
1986: Obuvschik (Lida)
1987: Shinnik (Bobruisk)
1988: Sputnik (Minsk)
1989: Obuvschik (Lida)
1990: Sputnik (Minsk)
1991: Metallurg (Molodechno)

Champions and top scorers

Season	Champion	Runner-up	Third place	Top scorer
1992	Dinamo Minsk	Dnepr Mogilev	Dinamo Brest	Andrey Skorobogatko (Dnepr Mogilev) (11)
1992–93	Dinamo Minsk	KIM Vitebsk	Belarus Minsk	Sergey Baranovsky (Dinamo Minsk) (19) Miroslav Romaschenko (Vedrich Rechitsa / Dnepr Mogilev) (19)
1993–94	Dinamo Minsk	Dinamo-93 Minsk	KIM Vitebsk	Pyotr Kachuro (Dinamo-93 Minsk / Dinamo Minsk) (21)
1994–95	Dinamo Minsk	Dvina Vitebsk	Dinamo-93 Minsk	Pavel Shavrov (Dinamo-93 Minsk) (19)
1995	Dinamo Minsk	MPKC Mozyr	Dinamo-93 Minsk	Sergey Yaromko (MPKC Mozyr) (16)
1996	MPKC Mozyr	Dinamo Minsk	Belshina Bobruisk	Andrey Khlebasolaw (Belshina Bobruisk) (34)
1997	Dinamo Minsk	Belshina Bobruisk	Lokomotiv-96 Vitebsk	Andrey Khlebasolaw (Belshina Bobruisk) (19)
1998	Dnepr-Transmash Mogilev	BATE Borisov	Belshina Bobruisk	Sergey Yaromko (Torpedo Minsk) (19)
1999	BATE Borisov	Slavia Mozyr	Gomel	Valery Strypeykis (Slavia Mozyr) (21)
2000	Slavia Mozyr	BATE Borisov	Dinamo Minsk	Raman Vasilyuk (Slavia Mozyr) (31)
2001	Belshina Bobruisk	Dinamo Minsk	BATE Borisov	Sergei Davydov (Neman-Belcard Grodno) (25)
2002	BATE Borisov	Neman Grodno	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Valery Strypeykis (Belshina Bobruisk) (18)
2003	Gomel	BATE Borisov	Dinamo Minsk	Gennadi Bliznyuk (Gomel) (18) Sergei Kornilenko (Dinamo Minsk) (18)
2004	Dinamo Minsk	BATE Borisov	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Valery Strypeykis (Naftan Novopolotsk) (18)
2005	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Dinamo Minsk	MTZ-RIPO Minsk	Valery Strypeykis (Naftan Novopolotsk) (16)
2006	BATE Borisov	Dinamo Minsk	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Alyaksandr Klimenka (Shakhtyor Soligorsk) (17)
2007	BATE Borisov	Gomel	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Raman Vasilyuk (Gomel) (24)
2008	BATE Borisov	Dinamo Minsk	MTZ-RIPO Minsk	Gennadi Bliznyuk (BATE Borisov) (16) Vitali Rodionov (BATE Borisov) (16)
2009	BATE Borisov	Dinamo Minsk	Dnepr Mogilev	Maycon (Gomel) (15)
2010	BATE Borisov	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Minsk	Renan Bressan (BATE Borisov) (15)
2011	BATE Borisov	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Gomel	Renan Bressan (BATE Borisov) (13)
2012	BATE Borisov	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Dinamo Minsk	Dzmitry Asipenka (Shakhtyor Soligorsk) (14)
2013	BATE Borisov	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Dinamo Minsk	Vitali Rodionov (BATE Borisov) (14)
2014	BATE Borisov	Dinamo Minsk	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Mikalay Yanush (Shakhtyor Soligorsk) (15)
2015	BATE Borisov	Dinamo Minsk	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Mikalay Yanush (Shakhtyor Soligorsk) (15)
2016	BATE Borisov	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Dinamo Minsk	Vitali Rodionov (BATE Borisov) (16) Mikhail Gordeichuk (BATE Borisov) (16)

Performances

Performance by club

Teams	Champion	Runner-up	Third place
BATE Borisov	13 (1999, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016)	4 (1998, 2000, 2003, 2004)	1 (2001)
Dinamo Minsk	7 (1992, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995, 1997, 2004)	8 (1996, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2015)	5 (2000, 2003, 2012, 2013, 2016)
Slavia Mozyr	2 (1996, 2000)	2 (1995, 1999)	–
Shakhtyor Soligorsk	1 (2005)	5 (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016)	6 (2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2014, 2015)
Gomel	1 (2003)	1 (2007)	2 (1999, 2011)
Belshina Bobruisk	1 (2001)	1 (1997)	2 (1996, 1998)
Dnepr Mogilev	1 (1998)	1 (1992)	1 (2009)
Vitebsk	–	2 (1992–93, 1994–95)	2 (1993–94, 1997)
Dinamo-93 Minsk	–	1 (1993–94)	3 (1992–93, 1994–95, 1995)
Neman Grodno	–	1 (2002)	–
Partizan Minsk	–	–	2 (2005, 2008)
Dinamo Brest	–	–	1 (1992)
Minsk	–	–	1 (2010)

All-time table

As of end of 2016 season.

Rank	Club¹	Seasons	Debut	Last Season	Pld²	W	D	L	Goals	Points³	Best Result
1	Dinamo Minsk	26	1992	—	733	434	163	136	1362–632	1465	1st (1992, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995, 1997, 2004)
2	BATE Borisov	19	1998	—	552	366	113	73	1096–422	1211	1st (1999, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016)
3	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	26	1992	—	733	336	184	215	1039–768	1182	1st (2005)
4	Neman Grodno	26	1992	—	734	262	193	279	809–891	979	2nd (2002)
5	Dnepr Mogilev	23	1992	—	647	252	161	234	869–788	917	1st (1998)
6	Dinamo Brest	26	1992	—	733	245	175	313	859–992	910	3rd (1992)
7	Gomel	21	1992	—	563	229	121	213	727–710	808	1st (2003)
8	Vitebsk	21	1992	—	583	213	150	220	664–718	789	2nd (1992–93, 1994–95)
9	Belshina Bobruisk	20	1993–94	2016	578	219	128	231	784–770	785	1st (2001)
10	Naftan Novopolotsk	20	1996	—	585	186	125	274	698–888	678	4th (2009)
11	Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino	17	1992	—	483	170	123	190	547–578	633	4th (2004, 2005, 2007, 2014)
12	Slavia Mozyr	15	1995	—	420	166	87	167	614–613	585	1st (1996, 2000)
13	Torpedo-SKA Minsk	14	1992	2004	383	151	106	126	457–416	559	4th (2002, 2003)
14	Minsk	9	2007	—	268	105	59	104	338–306	374	3rd (2010)
15	Dinamo-93 Minsk	7	1992–93	1998	181	99	43	39	296–157	340	2nd (1993–94)
16	Molodechno-2000	12	1992	2003	323	80	80	163	339–490	320	4th (1994–95)
17	Partizan Minsk	7	2004	2010	198	80	42	76	288–281	282	3rd (2005, 2008)
18	Torpedo-Kadino Mogilev	10	1992	2000	271	64	76	131	266–444	268	7th (1992)
19	Vedrich-97 Rechitsa	8	1992	2001	208	46	44	118	167–327	182	8th (1992)
20	Darida Minsk Raion	6	2003	2008	168	44	38	86	165–252	170	8th (2006)
21	Bobruisk	5	1992	1995	122	44	34	44	119–145	166	4th (1992)
22	Lida	7	1992	2000	182	38	46	98	144–289	160	8th (1994–95)
23	Granit Mikashevichi	4	2008	2016	112	31	35	46	112–161	128	5th (2015)
24	Ataka Minsk	3	1995	1997	75	29	16	30	86–93	103	4th (1995)
25	Slutsk	3	2014	—	88	23	26	39	74–98	95	9th (2014)
26	Lokomotiv Minsk	4	2003	2008	112	23	25	64	100–187	94	11th (2005)
27	Lokomotiv Vitebsk	4	1992	1994–95	107	22	27	58	82–181	93	10th (1993–94)
28	Zvezda-BGU Minsk	4	2002	2005	112	21	23	68	106–228	86	12th (2002, 2003)
29	Smorgon	3	2007	2009	82	18	26	38	58–114	80	8th (2008)
30	Kommunalnik Slonim	3	1997	2000	89	15	17	57	66–191	62	11th (1997)
31	Stroitel Starye Dorogi	3	1992	1993–94	77	14	18	45	48–117	60	14th (1992, 1992–93)
32	Isloch Minsk Raion	1	2016	—	30	11	8	11	33–39	41	7th (2016)
33	Gorodeya	1	2016	—	30	8	14	8	36–39	38	9th (2016)
34	Krumkachy Minsk	1	2016	—	30	9	6	15	24–39	33	11th (2016)
35	Transmash Mogilev	1	1997	1997	30	8	4	18	30–52	28	14th (1997)
36	Savit Mogilev	1	2008	2008	30	5	6	19	28–61	21	15th (2008)
37	Svisloch-Krovlya Osipovichi	1	1999	1999	30	4	4	22	24–74	16	15th (1999)

For clubs that have been renamed, their name at the time of their most recent season in the Premier League is given. The current members are listed in bold.
Includes 2002 championship play-off, 2004 relegation play-off and 14 games of Dinamo-93 in 1998 season.
For the purposes of this table, each win is worth 3 points. The three-points system was adopted in fall 1995 season.

Player of the year

Belarusian Premier League Player of the year is an annual award given by a sports newspaper Pressball.

Season	Player	Club
1992	Valyantsin Byalkevich	Dinamo Minsk
1992–93	Sergey Gotsmanov	Dinamo Minsk
1993–94	Yury Shukanov	Dinamo Minsk
1994–95	Valyantsin Byalkevich	Dinamo Minsk
1995	Valyantsin Byalkevich	Dinamo Minsk
1996	Alyaksandr Kulchy	MPKC Mozyr
1997	Andrei Lavrik	Dinamo Minsk
1998	Aleh Konanaw	Torpedo Minsk
1999	Dmitri Karsakov	Slavia Mozyr
2000	Aleksandr Lisovsky	BATE Borisov
2001	Vitali Kutuzov	BATE Borisov
2002	Dzmitry Likhtarovich	BATE Borisov
2003	Timofei Kalachev	Shakhtyor Soligorsk
2004	Andrey Razin	Dinamo Minsk
2005	Vital Valadzyankow	Dinamo Minsk
2006	Oleg Strakhanovich	MTZ-RIPO Minsk
2007	Raman Vasilyuk	Gomel
2008	Vitali Rodionov	BATE Borisov
2009	Sergey Krivets	BATE Borisov
2010	Renan Bressan	BATE Borisov
2011	Renan Bressan	BATE Borisov
2012	Stanislaw Drahun	Dinamo Minsk
2013	Alexander Hleb	BATE Borisov
2014
2015

Reserves League

Main article: Belarusian Premier League Reserves Championship

An annual league competition is organized for the reserve teams of Premier League clubs since 2001. This tournament was won by the reserves of Dinamo Minsk (7 titles), Gomel (2 titles), Shakhtyor Soligorsk (2 titles), BATE Borisov (1 title), Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino (1 title) and Dnepr Mogilev (1 title).

External links

Belarusian Football Federation
RSSSF.com - List of Champions

Belarusian Premier League clubs

Current (2016)	BATE Borisov Belshina Bobruisk Dinamo Brest Dinamo Minsk Gorodeya Granit Mikashevichi Isloch Minsk Raion Krumkachy Minsk Minsk Naftan Novopolotsk Neman Grodno Shakhtyor Soligorsk Slavia Mozyr Slutsk Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino Vitebsk

Former	Dnepr Mogilev Gomel Lida Molodechno-2000 Smorgon Svisloch-Krovlya Osipovichi Torpedo-SKA Minsk Torpedo-Kadino Mogilev Zvezda-BGU Minsk

Defunct	Ataka Minsk Bobruisk Darida Minsk Raion Dinamo-93 Minsk Kommunalnik Slonim Lokomotiv Minsk Lokomotiv Vitebsk Partizan Minsk Savit Mogilev Stroitel Starye Dorogi Vedrich-97 Rechitsa

Belarusian Premier League seasons

1992 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Football in Belarus

Football Federation of Belarus

National teams

League system

men:	Premier League First League Second League Reserves

women:	Premier League

Domestic cups

Clubs
Venues
Footballers
Competitions

Top-level football leagues in Europe (UEFA)

Active	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark England Estonia Faroe Islands Finland France Georgia Germany Gibraltar Greece Hungary Iceland Israel Italy Kazakhstan Kosovo Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Montenegro Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland Romania Russia San Marino Scotland Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales

Non-recognized	Crimea Isle of Man Northern Cyprus Vatican City

Defunct	Czechoslovakia East Germany Serbia and Montenegro Soviet Union Yugoslavia

Soviet republican level football championships

Individual	Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Estonia Georgia Karelia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lithuania Moldavia Russia Tajikistan Turkmenistan Ukraine Uzbekistan

Joint	Middle Asia Soviet Republics Transcaucasia

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