2020 Belarusian Premier League

The 2020 Belarusian Premier League was the 30th season of top-tier football in Belarus. Dynamo Brest were the defending champions, having won their first league title last year. Shakhtyor Soligorsk became champions on the last play date by beating FC Minsk 4–2. Meanwhile, BATE Borisov didn't win and drew 0–0 at Dinamo Minsk so Shaktyor Soligorsk finished 1 point above BATE in the table and will play in the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League.

Belarusian Premier League

Season	2020
Dates	19 March – 28 November 2020
Champions	Shakhtyor Soligorsk
Relegated	Gorodeya Belshina Bobruisk Smolevichi
Champions League	Shakhtyor Soligorsk
Conference League	BATE Borisov Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino
Matches played	239
Goals scored	704 (2.95 per match)
Top goalscorer	Maksim Skavysh (BATE) (19 goals)
Biggest home win	BATE 6–0 Minsk (26 July 2020)
Biggest away win	Energetik-BGU 1–8 Rukh (12 July 2020)
Highest scoring	Belshina 3–7 Rukh (28 November 2020)
Longest winning run	7 matches Neman
Longest unbeaten run	16 matches Shakhtyor
Longest winless run	13 matches Smolevichi
Longest losing run	13 matches Smolevichi
← 2019 2021 → All statistics correct as of 28 November 2020.

By late March 2020, it was the only European top-flight league being contested, as all others were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic; games were played with crowds. As a result, this led to substantially increased viewership from all over the world, due to sporting inactivity elsewhere.^[1][2][3] Only a few matches were postponed due to outbreaks of the disease in some teams and only one was cancelled due to the lack of influence of the result in November 2020.^[4][5] Matches were also postponed in August by the decision of the Football Federation of Belarus on the eve of the presidential elections and during protests in the country due to "force majeure circumstances".^[6]

Teams

Minsk

BATE

Dinamo Brest
Rukh

Gorodeya

Neman

Shakhtyor

Torpedo-BelAZ

Slutsk

Slavia

Vitebsk

        Smolevichi

Belshina

Minsk clubs:
Dinamo Minsk
Energetik-BGU
Isloch
Minsk

Locations of the 2020 Belarusian Premier League teams

The 15th-placed team of the last season Gomel was relegated to the 2020 Belarusian First League. Torpedo Minsk were excluded from the league halfway through the last season and will not play in any league in 2020. Gomel and Torpedo were replaced by two best teams of 2019 Belarusian First League (Belshina Bobruisk and Smolevichi).

14-placed team of the last season (Dnyapro Mogilev) were relegated after they lost relegation/promotion playoffs against First League third-placed team Rukh Brest (who were promoted to replace Dnyapro).

Team	Location	Venue	Capacity	Position in 2019
BATE	Borisov	Borisov Arena[1]	13,121	2nd
Belshina	Bobruisk	Spartak Stadium[2]	3,700	1st (First League)
Dinamo Brest	Brest	OSK Brestsky	10,060	1st
Dinamo Minsk	Minsk	Dinamo Stadium[3]	22,324	4th
Energetik-BGU	Minsk	City Stadium (Molodechno)[4]	4,800	12th
Gorodeya	Gorodeya	Gorodeya Stadium	1,625	7th
Isloch	Minsk Raion	Traktor Stadium[5]	17,600	5th
Minsk	Minsk	Traktor Stadium[6]	17,600	10th
Neman	Grodno	Neman Stadium	8,479	9th
Rukh	Brest	OSK Brestsky	10,060	3rd (First League)
Shakhtyor	Soligorsk	Stroitel Stadium	4,200	3rd
Slavia	Mozyr	Yunost Stadium	5,133	8th
Slutsk	Slutsk	City Stadium (Slutsk)	1,896	11th
Smolevichi	Smolevichi	Ozyorny Stadium[7]	1,600	2nd (First League)
Torpedo-BelAZ	Zhodino	Torpedo Stadium	6,524	6th
Vitebsk	Vitebsk	Vitebsky CSK	8,144	13th

1. ^
   One game played at City Stadium in Borisov.
2. ^
   Two games played at Aleksandr Prokopenko Stadium.
3. ^
   One game played at Traktor Stadium.
4. ^
   Energetik-BGU spent the season at City Stadium in Molodechno due to league's requirement to play on natural grass pitch in the summer. In addition, three games played at RCOP-BGU Stadium in Minsk.
5. ^
   Four games played at FC Minsk Stadium and one game at Dinamo Stadium.
6. ^
   Two games played at FC Minsk Stadium.
7. ^
   Six games played at City Stadium in Borisov.

Personnel

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt Sponsor (Chest)
BATE Borisov	Aleksandr Lisovskiy	Ihar Stasevich	Adidas	Minsk Tractor Works
Belshina Bobruisk	Dmitriy Migas (caretaker)	Sergey Turanok	Joma	Belshina
Dynamo Brest	Syarhey Kavalchuk	Aleh Veratsila	Joma	Belavia
Dinamo Minsk	Leonid Kuchuk	Edhar Alyakhnovich	Saller	None
Energetik-BGU	Vladimir Belyavskiy	Aleksey Nosko	Nike	Belenergo
Gorodeya	Oleg Radushko	Igor Dovgyallo	Macron	Gorodeya Sugar Refinery
Isloch Minsk Raion	Vitaly Zhukovsky	Dzmitry Kamarowski	Joma	Hyundai
Minsk	Vadim Skripchenko	Syarhey Vyeramko	Macron	TASK Insurance
Neman Grodno	Igor Kovalevich	Valery Zhukowski	Saller	None
Rukh Brest	Aleksandr Sednyov	Artsyom Rakhmanaw	Erreà	Belgosstrakh
Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Roman Hryhorchuk	Alyaksandr Hutar	Jako	Belaruskali
Slavia Mozyr	Mihail Martsinovich	Mikhail Baranovsky	Joma	Mozyr Oil Refinery
Slutsk	Aleksandr Konchits (caretaker)	Barys Pankrataw	Hummel	None
Smolevichi	Alexei Mikhailov (caretaker)	Eduard Zhevnerov	Joma	None
Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino	Yuri Puntus	Andrey Khachaturyan	Adidas	BelAZ
Vitebsk	Sergey Yasinsky	Artsyom Skitaw	Nike	Parimatch

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Dinamo Minsk	Sergei Gurenko[7]	Mutual consent	20 April 2020	12th	Leonid Kuchuk[8]	22 April 2020
Slutsk	Vitaliy Pavlov[9]	Resigned	26 June 2020	11th	Aleksandr Konchits[10] (caretaker)	26 June 2020
Belshina	Eduard Gradoboyev[11]	Sacked	1 July 2020	16th	Dmitriy Migas[12] (caretaker)	1 July 2020
Smolevichi	Aleksandr Brazevich[13]	Resigned	6 July 2020	15th	Alexei Mikhailov[14] (caretaker)	6 July 2020
Minsk	Andrey Razin[15]	Resigned	4 August 2020	14th	Vadim Skripchenko[16]	4 August 2020
Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Yuriy Vernydub[17]	Resigned	31 August 2020	1st	Roman Hryhorchuk[18]	5 September 2020

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Shakhtyor Soligorsk (C)	30	17	8	5	57	21	+36	59	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	BATE Borisov	30	17	7	6	65	32	+33	58	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round
3	Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino	30	16	8	6	55	37	+18	56
4	Dynamo Brest	30	17	3	10	63	40	+23	54
5	Neman Grodno	30	16	5	9	41	29	+12	53
6	Dinamo Minsk	30	16	4	10	38	25	+13	52
7	Isloch Minsk Raion	30	13	6	11	47	46	+1	45
8	Rukh Brest	30	11	11	8	57	38	+19	44
9	Slavia Mozyr	30	10	9	11	41	49	−8	39
10	Energetik-BGU Minsk	30	11	5	14	43	46	−3	38[a]
11	Minsk	30	11	5	14	45	57	−12	38[a]
12	Vitebsk	30	8	12	10	30	38	−8	36
13	Gorodeya[b] (R)	30	8	7	15	30	48	−18	31	Withdrew from the league
14	Slutsk (O)	29	8	3	18	31	55	−24	27	Qualification to relegation play-offs
15	Belshina Bobruisk (R)	30	5	6	19	34	71	−37	21	Relegation to the Belarusian First League
16	Smolevichi (R)	29	3	5	21	27	72	−45	14

Source: football.by
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Matches won; 7) Goals scored.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Head-to-head goals scored: Energetik-BGU Minsk 3, Minsk 2
2. Gorodeya withdrew from the league after the end of the season.

Results

Each team plays home-and-away once against every other team for a total of 30 matches played each.

Home \ Away	BAT	BSH	DBR	DMI	ENE	GRD	ISL	FCM	NEM	RUH	SHA	SLA	SLU	SML	TZH	VIT
BATE Borisov	—	5–0	2–4	0–2	0–1	1–0	1–0	6–0	3–1	1–0	2–2	1–1	3–0	5–2	0–0	3–1
Belshina Bobruisk	0–2	—	0–3	0–4	1–5	0–1	2–3	1–3	0–1	3–7	1–5	2–3	4–2	1–1	2–1	1–1
Dynamo Brest	1–3	1–2	—	2–1	2–1	3–1	3–1	6–1	3–1	5–2	0–2	1–2	3–1	1–1	2–3	1–0
Dinamo Minsk	0–0	3–1	2–4	—	0–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–2	2–1	2–0	1–0
Energetik-BGU Minsk	3–1	0–1	2–1	2–3	—	0–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–8	1–2	5–0	0–2	4–1	1–4	3–3
Gorodeya	0–2	2–1	1–4	1–0	1–1	—	0–2	1–1	0–2	1–3	0–2	1–1	3–0	4–0	1–3	2–2
Isloch Minsk Raion	2–2	2–1	2–0	2–1	1–2	2–2	—	3–4	1–0	1–1	4–2	2–1	2–3	1–0	2–2	2–0
Minsk	0–3	2–2	1–2	3–2	2–1	3–0	0–1	—	4–3	0–1	1–1	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–5	2–2
Neman Grodno	0–2	1–1	1–0	1–0	3–0	0–1	1–0	2–0	—	2–4	0–0	1–2	1–0	2–0	3–1	2–0
Rukh Brest	0–3	3–0	1–4	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–1	1–0	2–3	—	1–2	3–3	5–0	0–0	3–3	0–1
Shakhtyor Soligorsk	1–1	4–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	4–1	4–0	4–2	0–0	1–1	—	2–0	1–2	4–0	0–1	5–0
Slavia Mozyr	2–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	2–1	1–1	2–4	1–3	1–3	0–0	1–0	—	3–1	2–1	0–0	1–1
Slutsk	1–3	3–2	0–1	1–2	1–2	0–1	2–1	2–1	0–1	1–1	0–2	3–1	—	–	1–1	1–1
Smolevichi	3–5	0–3	3–3	1–3	0–2	4–1	3–1	0–4	1–4	0–6	0–0	0–3	2–1	—	1–4	0–1
Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino	3–2	1–0	0–2	0–0	2–0	3–1	2–0	1–1	0–1	0–0	1–4	4–2	4–1	2–1	—	1–0
Vitebsk	2–2	1–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–3	1–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	2–3	2–0	1–0	2–3	—

Source: Football Federation of Belarus (in Russian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation play-offs

The 14th-place finisher of this season (Slutsk) were played a two-legged relegation play-off against the third-placed team of the 2020 Belarusian First League (Krumkachy Minsk) for a spot in the 2021 Premier League.

Leg 1

15 December 2020

16:00 GMT+3

Krumkachy Minsk	0–2	Slutsk
	Report	Bobko 45' Sirima 79' (pen.)

Football Manege, Minsk

Attendance: 0

Referee: Andrey Vasilevich (Mozyr)

Leg 2

19 December 2020

13:30 GMT+3

Slutsk	2–1	Krumkachy Minsk
Mohammed 5' Sirima 34' (pen.)	Report	Yatskevich 90+2'

Football Manege, Minsk

Attendance: 0

Referee: Sergey Stetsurin (Brest)

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Updated to games played on 1 November 2020
Source: football.by

Rank	Goalscorer	Team	Goals
1.	Maksim Skavysh	BATE Borisov	17
2.	Jasurbek Yakhshiboev	Energetik-BGU/Shakhytor	16
3.	Pavel Nyakhaychyk	BATE Borisov	10
	Gabriel Ramos	Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino
	Yevgeniy Shikavka	Dinamo Minsk
	Zoran Marušić	Neman Grodno
	Pavel Savitski	Dinamo Brest
8.	Gegham Kadymyan	Neman Grodno	9
	Leonid Kovel	Belshina Bobruisk
	Dzyanis Laptsew	Dynamo Brest
	Vitaly Lisakovich	Shakhytor Soligorsk
	Ion Nicolaescu	Vitebsk
	Mikalay Yanush	Isloch Minsk Raion

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Valery Gorbachik	Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino	FC Minsk	5–2 (A)[19]	2 May 2020
Zoran Marušić	Neman Grodno	Slavia Mozyr	3–1 (A)[20]	6 June 2020
Artem Kontsevoy	Rukh Brest	Energetyk-BGU	8–1 (A)[21]	12 July 2020
Abdoulaye Diallo	Dynamo Brest	Dinamo Minsk	4–2 (A)[22]	12 September 2020
Jasurbek Yakhshiboev	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Belshina Bobruisk	5–1 (A)	31 October 2020

Disciplinary

Most yellow cards: (10)

• Syarhey Kislyak (Dynamo Brest)

Most red cards: (2)

• Hayk Mosakhanian (Energetik-BGU)
• Gaby Kiki (Dynamo Brest)
• Marat Burayev (Slutsk)
• Aleksandr Svirepa (Energetik-BGU)
• Yevgeniy Yudchits (Energetik-BGU)
• Yury Kazlow (Slutsk)

Awards

Weekly awards

Player of the Week

Player of The Week
Week	Player	Club	Reference
1	Jasurbek Yakhshiboev	Energetik-BGU	[23]
2	Nikita Melnikov	Slavia Mozyr	[24]
3	Mikhail Baranovsky	Slavia Mozyr	[25]
4	Gabriel Ramos	Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino	[26]
5	Barys Pankrataw	Slutsk	[27]
6	Ivan Bakhar	Dinamo Minsk	[28]
7	Valery Gorbachik	Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino	[29]
8	Ihar Stasevich	BATE Borisov	[30]
9	Lipe Veloso	Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino	[31]
10	Dzmitry Padstrelaw	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	[32]
11	Pavel Savitski	Dynamo Brest	[33]
12	Zoran Marušić	Neman Grodno	[34]
13	Kiril Pavlyuchek	Gorodeya	[35]
14	Ihar Kuzmyanok	Isloch	[36]
15	Jasurbek Yakhshiboev	Energetik-BGU	[37]
16	Vitaly Lisakovich	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	[38]
17	Vladislav Lozhkin	Smolevichi	[39]
18	Pavel Nyakhaychyk	BATE Borisov	[40]
19	Ihar Stasevich	BATE Borisov	[41]
20	Mikalay Yanush	Isloch	[42]
21	Dzmitry Rekish	Belshina	[43]
22	Mikalay Yanush	Isloch	[44]

Goal of the Week

Goal of The Week
Week	Player	Club	Reference
1	Momo Yansane	Isloch Minsk Raion	[45]
2	Gegham Kadymyan	Neman Grodno	[46]
3	Yevgeniy Klopotskiy	Vitebsk	[47]
4	Gegham Kadymyan	Neman Grodno	[48]
5	Pavel Sedko	Rukh Brest	[49]
6	Vladislav Zhuk	Slavia Mozyr	[50]
7	Vitaly Lisakovich	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	[51]
8	Gegham Kadymyan	Neman Grodno	[52]
9	Vitaly Lisakovich	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	[53]
10	Dzmitry Padstrelaw	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	[54]
11	Anatol Makaraw	Smolevichi	[55]
12	Aleksandr Ksenofontov	Vitebsk	[56]
13	Yevgeniy Shikavka	Dinamo Minsk	[57]
14	Dennis Tetteh	Slavia Mozyr	[58]
15	Aleksandr Dzhigero	Smolevichi	[59]
16	Vitaly Lisakovich	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	[60]
17	Vladislav Lozhkin	Smolevichi	[61]
18	Lazar Sajčić	Gorodeya	[62]
19	Nikola Antić	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	[63]
20	Dennis Tetteh	Slavia Mozyr	[64]
21	Dzmitry Padstrelaw	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	[65]
22	Pavel Nyakhaychyk	BATE Borisov	[66]

Monthly awards

Manager of the Month

Month	Manager	Club	Reference
April	Vitaliy Pavlov	Slutsk	[67]
May	Kirill Alshevsky	BATE Borisov	[68]
June	Igor Kovalevich	Neman Grodno	[69]
July	Yuriy Vernidub	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	[70]
August	Vitaly Zhukovsky	Isloch Minsk Raion
September	Igor Kovalevich	Neman Grodno

Goal of the Month

Month	Player	Club	Reference
April	Vladislav Zhuk	Slavia Mozyr	[71]
May	Gegham Kadymyan	Neman Grodno	[72]
June	Aleksandr Dzhigero	Smolevichi	[73]
July	Vitaly Lisakovich	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	[74]
August	Dzmitry Padstrelaw	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	[75]
September	Lipe Veloso	Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino

Player of the Month

Month	Player	Club	Reference
April	Gabriel Ramos	Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino	[76]
May	Vitaly Lisakovich	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	[77]
June	Dzyanis Laptsew	Dynamo Brest	[78]
July	Nikola Antić	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	[79]
August	Mikalay Yanush	Isloch Minsk Raion
September	Zoran Marušić	Neman Grodno