Belarusian Premier League


The Belarusian Premier League, also called the BETERA Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Belarus and the highest level of the Belarusian football league system. It is organized by the Belarusian Football Federation. The number of teams in the competition has varied over the years from as high as 17 to as low as 11. the league included 16 teams. Each team plays every other team twice during the course of the season. At the end of the season, the two teams with the fewest points are automatically relegated to the Belarusian First League, while the third worst team plays a promotion-relegation playoff against the third best team from the second tier. The top two teams from the Belarusian First League automatically win promotion to the Premier League. Maxline Vitebsk are the current champions, after winning their first championship title in 2025.
WWW championship.abff.by/by/m...

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 represented other five regional centers of Belarus, and ten teams who were previous competitors in the Belarusian SSR First League.
After the league creation, it was decided to change its schedule from a Soviet-style summer season to a European-style winter 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. Every season since 1996 has been played in the summer. Throughout the 2000s, the number of competing teams has changed several times. 2012 season was played with only 11 teams due to last minute withdrawal 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, Dinamo Minsk, Dnepr-Transmash Mogilev, [FC FC BATE Borisov|BATE Borisov|BATE Borisov], Belshina Bobruisk, Gomel, Shakhtyor Soligorsk. Since 2006, BATE Borisov has dominated the league, winning 13 championships in a row.
In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all the other football leagues in Europe were postponed, and by the end of the month, the Belarusian Premier League was the only top-flight league in the continent that was still playing. Due to this, the league gained substantially increased viewership from abroad, with fans from all over the world watching the games online, due to the league being the only significant professional football available; the league signed new television rights deals with networks from countries including Russia and India. Matches were also streamed on the Belarusian Football Federation's YouTube channel. British betting companies also offered odds for the various matches, as the league's profile, previously relatively unknown outside of the country, grew a larger audience due to sporting inactivity elsewhere.

Premier League in 2025

TeamLocationVenueCapacityPosition in 2024
ArsenalDzerzhinskCity Stadium1,00010th
BATEBorisovBorisov Arena13,1268th
Dinamo BrestBrestOSK Brestsky10,1694th
Dinamo MinskMinskDinamo Stadium22,0001st
GomelGomelCentral Stadium14,3076th
[FC Isloch FC Minsk|Minsk Raion|Isloch]MinskFC Minsk Stadium3,0007th
Maxline VitebskVitebskVitebsky CSK8,1442nd
MinskMinskFC Minsk Stadium3,00013th
MolodechnoMolodechnoCity Stadium4,8001st
NaftanNovopolotskAtlant Stadium5,30014th
NemanGrodnoNeman Stadium8,4792nd
SlaviaMozyrYunost Stadium5,30011th
SlutskSlutskCity Stadium1,8969th
SmorgonSmorgonYunost Stadium3,20012th
Torpedo-BelAZZhodinoTorpedo Stadium6,5243rd
VitebskVitebskVitebsky CSK8,1445th

Soviet era champions

All-time table

Club1SeasonsDebutLast
Season		2GoalsPoints3Best Result
Dinamo Minsk331992—9395602021771701–79418821st
BATE Borisov261998—7584961571051493–59816451st
Shakhtyor Soligorsk331992—9394672222521413–92115781st
Neman Grodno331992—9403492433481080–111512902nd
Dinamo Brest331992—9393332323741179–123512311st
Gomel271992—7392901672821043–92910371st
Vitebsk2719922022761271201289859–93310142nd
Dnepr Mogilev2619922022737264179284934–9629711st
Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino241992—689260182247822–7899623rd
Belshina Bobruisk231993–942023666233151282876–9528391st
Slavia Mozyr211995—596217143246826–8787641st
Naftan Novopolotsk221996—643196136311744–10027194th
Minsk162007—474161121191566–6096053rd
Torpedo Minsk1519922019428158115155481–4755894th
Dinamo-93 Minsk71992–931998181994339296–1573402nd
Slutsk102014—2938674133284–3943327th
Isloch Minsk Raion82016—236925391292–3133294th
Molodechno-200012199220033238080163339–4903204th
Partizan Minsk720042010198804276288–2812823rd
Torpedo-Kadino Mogilev10199220002716476131266–4442687th
Energetik-BGU Minsk9200220232587158129305–4512482nd
Gorodeya520162020149445055162–1841827th
Vedrich-97 Rechitsa8199220012084644118167–3271828th
Darida Minsk Raion620032008168443886165–2521708th
Bobruisk519921995122443444119–1451664th
Lida719922000182384698144–2891608th
Granit Mikashevichi420082016112313546112–1611285th
Smorgon52007—139283873112–2391248th
Ataka Minsk3199519977529163086–931034th
Rukh Brest22020202159262112106–66995th
Lokomotiv Minsk420032008112232564100–1879411th
Lokomotiv Vitebsk419921994–9510722275882–1819310th
Kommunalnik Slonim3199720008915175766–1916211th
Stroitel Starye Dorogi319921993–947714184548–1176014th
Krumkachy Minsk2201620176014163050–865811th
Smolevichi220182020598143748–1113815th
Transmash Mogilev11997199730841830–522814th
Dnyapro Mogilev12019201929761629–422514th
Luch Minsk120182018304121424–442413th
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk12022202230581718–422314th
Savit Mogilev12008200830561928–612115th
Svisloch-Krovlya Osipovichi11999199930442224–741615th
Sputnik Rechitsa12021202115211212–37716th

  1. 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.
  2. Includes 2002 championship play-off, 2004 relegation play-off, 14 games of Dinamo-93 in 1998 season, 15 games of Torpedo Minsk in 2019 season, and 15 games of Sputnik Rechitsa in 2021 season.
  3. 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.
SeasonPlayerClub
1992|1991

Reserves League

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, Gomel, Shakhtyor Soligorsk, BATE Borisov, Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino and Dnepr Mogilev.

Attendances

The average attendance per top-flight football league season and the club with the highest average attendance:
SeasonLeague averageBest clubBest club average
20192,463Dynamo Brest8,839
20181,943Dynamo Brest6,572
20172,019Dynamo Brest5,289
20161,481BATE4,796
20151,696BATE5,070
20141,853BATE5,964
20132,119Gomel4,256
20122,053BATE4,598
20112,372Gomel4,841
20102,301BATE4,530
20092,661Gomel5,123
20081,715Gomel3,700
20072,475Gomel6,131
20062,318Gomel5,969
20052,192Gomel3,854
20041,977Gomel3,967
20032,103Gomel4,053
20022,826Neman10,269
20012,867Neman4,400
20003,092BATE4,944

Source: