Preview - Belarus Women's Premier League 2020

April 30, 2020

After a two-week delay due to fears that several players had been in contact with confirmed cases the Covid-19 virus, the Belarus Women’s Premier League finally starts today after the tests proved negative.FC Babruichanka from Bobruisk have won the most titles ( 12 ) but their last triumph was in 2012, and FK Minsk have won the last 7 Championships. FK Minsk also won the Women’s FA Cup last season ( and 7 of the last 8 years ).

There are 8 sides in the Premier Division, who will play each other three times during the season, but it can be expected there will be huge differences in the standard of the sides. For instance, in last season’s FA Cup, there were scores of 15-0, 13-0 & 12-0 in matches between Premier Division sides, so there should be plenty of goals.

The first match features Dinamo-BGU, affiliated to Dinamo Minsk, playing ABFF U19, which is the national under 19 side, with the game being played on the artificial grass pitch at FK Minsk ( kick-off 16.00 local time, 14.00 UK time ). The match is due to be streamed live on the Belarus FA website.

Reading the English section of the Dinamo Minsk website, their Ladies team have played 6 warm-up matches but the coach, Yuri Maleeu, said this wasn’t enough, and three planned fixtures against sides in Russia were cancelled because of the travel restrictions. Also, two of their foreign players were held in quarantine so were not involved in all of the training. He admits to knowing nothing about the Under 19s opponents apart from they will be young, fit and determined to make a good impression. The coach sees FK Minsk and Neman Grodno as the biggest rivals for the season.

Dinamo-BGU’s last pre-season friendly was a 5-0 win over fellow Premier League side Zorka BSU, with the goals coming from Salimata Simpore ( 2 ), Vulania Damba Claudia, Nastassia Linnik (penalty) and Hanna Pilipenka. An early friendly against the same opposition had finished 7-0 with a hat-trick for Nastassia Shuppo and two more for Simpore.

The Belarus National Women’s side played two friendlies in March, drawing 1-1 with Romania, but losing 0-5 to Serbia. Seven Dinamo BGU players were in the starting line-up for both matches ( Novikava, Slesarchyk, Kazakevich, Shupo, Linnik, Alkhovik and Pilipenka ) and there were 6 more in the squad. Mind you, the national coach also happens to be Yuri Muleeu !!

ABFF U19 are new to the Premier League, having replaced Slavyanka. As Belarus will be hosting the UEFA Women’s 2021 Under 19 finals, their participation in the domestic league is presumably all part of the preparation to put in a good performance in that tournament. 

In March, the Belarus Women’s Under 19 National side played in a four team tournament in Turkey, losing to Slovakia ( 1-3 ) and Romania ( 0-1 ) but beating Northern Ireland ( 2-1 ). In October last year, the Under 19s hosted the England Women Under 19s, losing 0-3, but beat Cyprus 6-0 three days later. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4_4CcCbxBI