Belarusian Premier League
Founded | 1992 |
---|---|
Country | Belarus |
Confederation | UEFA |
Number of teams | 12 |
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 |
Most championships | BATE Borisov (8 titles) |
Current: 2012 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 to the current low of 12, which was first put in place in 2010. Each team plays every other team three times during the course of the season. At the end of the season one team is relegated to the Belarusian First League, and one is promoted from the First League to replace it.
BATE Borisov are the current champions.
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 will be played with only 11 teams due to 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 six championships in a row (2006–2011), and becoming the first Belarusian team to reach the group stage of the UEFA Champions League (2008 and 2011) and the UEFA Europa League (2009 and 2010).
Premier League in 2012
Team | Location | Venue | Capacity | Position in 2011 |
---|---|---|---|---|
BATE | Borisov | Haradski Stadium | 5,400 | 1st |
Belshina | Bobruisk | Spartak Stadium | 3,700 | 5th |
Dinamo Brest | Brest | Regional Sport Complex Brestskiy | 10,162 | 10th |
Dinamo Minsk | Minsk | Dinamo-Yuni Stadium | 4,500 | 4th |
Gomel | Gomel | Central Stadion | 14,000 | 3rd |
Minsk | Minsk | Dinamo Stadium | 41,000 | 9th |
Naftan | Novopolotsk | Atlant Stadium | 5,300 | 7th |
Neman | Grodno | Neman Stadium | 9,000 | 8th |
Shakhtyor | Salihorsk | Stroitel Stadium | 4,500 | 2nd |
Slavia-Mozyr | Mozyr | Yunost Stadium | 5,300 | First league, 1st |
Torpedo-BelAZ | Zhodino | Torpedo Stadium | 3,020 | 6th |
Soviet era champions
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Champions and top scorers
Teams | Champion | Runner-up | Third place |
---|---|---|---|
BATE Borisov | 8 (1999, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011) | 4 (1998, 2000, 2003, 2004) | 1 (2001) |
Dinamo Minsk | 7 (1992, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995, 1997, 2004) | 6 (1996, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009) | 2 (2000, 2003) |
Slavia Mozyr | 2 (1996, 2000) | 2 (1995, 1999) | |
Shakhtyor Soligorsk | 1 (2005) | 2 (2010, 2011) | 4 (2002, 2004, 2006, 2007) |
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 2011 season
Rank | Club1 | Seasons | Debut | Most recent season |
Pld2 | W | D | L | Goals | Points3 | Best result |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Dinamo Minsk | 21 | 1992 | 583 | 355 | 121 | 107 | 1155–518 | 1186 | 1st (1992, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995, 1997, 2004) | |
2 | Shakhtyor Soligorsk | 21 | 1992 | 583 | 256 | 147 | 180 | 808–643 | 905 | 1st (2005) | |
3 | BATE Borisov | 14 | 1998 | 402 | 262 | 84 | 56 | 799–324 | 870 | 1st (1999, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011) | |
4 | Dnepr Mogilev | 21 | 1992 | 2011 | 583 | 241 | 141 | 201 | 822–704 | 864 | 1st (1998) |
5 | Neman Grodno | 21 | 1992 | 584 | 213 | 149 | 222 | 649–721 | 788 | 2nd (2002) | |
6 | Dinamo Brest | 21 | 1992 | 583 | 201 | 148 | 234 | 710–765 | 751 | 3rd (1992) | |
7 | Vitebsk | 19 | 1992 | 2011 | 527 | 197 | 135 | 195 | 613–645 | 726 | 2nd (1992–93, 1994–95) |
8 | Gomel | 17 | 1992 | 475 | 199 | 103 | 173 | 632–605 | 700 | 1st (2003) | |
9 | Belshina Bobruisk | 15 | 1993–94 | 428 | 172 | 86 | 170 | 604–572 | 602 | 1st (2001) | |
10 | Torpedo-SKA Minsk | 14 | 1992 | 2004 | 383 | 151 | 106 | 126 | 457–416 | 559 | 4th (2002, 2003) |
11 | Naftan Novopolotsk | 15 | 1996 | 435 | 144 | 83 | 208 | 547–683 | 515 | 4th (2009) | |
12 | Slavia Mozyr | 11 | 1995 | 302 | 138 | 60 | 104 | 502–409 | 474 | 1st (1996, 2000) | |
13 | Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino | 12 | 1992 | 333 | 117 | 82 | 134 | 381–409 | 433 | 4th (2004, 2005, 2007) | |
14 | Dinamo-93 Minsk | 7 | 1992–93 | 1998 | 181 | 99 | 43 | 39 | 296–157 | 340 | 2nd (1993–94) |
15 | Molodechno-2000 | 12 | 1992 | 2003 | 323 | 80 | 80 | 163 | 339–490 | 320 | 4th (1994–95) |
16 | Partizan Minsk | 7 | 2004 | 2010 | 198 | 80 | 42 | 76 | 288–281 | 282 | 3rd (2005, 2008) |
17 | Torpedo-Kadino Mogilev | 10 | 1992 | 2000 | 271 | 64 | 76 | 131 | 266–444 | 268 | 7th (1992) |
18 | Vedrich-97 Rechytsa | 8 | 1992 | 2001 | 208 | 46 | 44 | 118 | 167–327 | 182 | 8th (1992) |
19 | Darida Minsk Raion | 6 | 2003 | 2008 | 168 | 44 | 38 | 86 | 165–252 | 170 | 8th (2006) |
20 | Bobruisk | 5 | 1992 | 1995 | 122 | 44 | 34 | 44 | 119–145 | 166 | 4th (1992) |
21 | Lida | 7 | 1992 | 2000 | 182 | 38 | 46 | 98 | 144–289 | 160 | 8th (1994–95) |
22 | Minsk | 4 | 2007 | 118 | 41 | 29 | 48 | 143–132 | 152 | 3rd (2010) | |
23 | Ataka Minsk | 3 | 1995 | 1997 | 75 | 29 | 16 | 30 | 86–93 | 103 | 4th (1995) |
24 | Lokomotiv Minsk | 4 | 2003 | 2008 | 112 | 23 | 25 | 64 | 100–187 | 94 | 11th (2005) |
25 | Lokomotiv Vitebsk | 4 | 1992 | 1994–95 | 107 | 22 | 27 | 58 | 82–181 | 93 | 10th (1993–94) |
26 | Zvezda-BGU Minsk | 4 | 2002 | 2005 | 112 | 21 | 23 | 68 | 106–228 | 86 | 12th (2002, 2003) |
27 | Smorgon | 3 | 2007 | 2009 | 82 | 18 | 26 | 38 | 58–114 | 80 | 8th (2008) |
28 | Kommunalnik Slonim | 3 | 1997 | 2000 | 89 | 15 | 17 | 57 | 66–191 | 62 | 11th (1997) |
29 | Granit Mikashevichi | 2 | 2008 | 2009 | 56 | 14 | 19 | 23 | 62–73 | 61 | 10th (2008) |
30 | Stroitel Starye Dorogi | 3 | 1992 | 1993–94 | 77 | 14 | 18 | 45 | 48–117 | 60 | 14th (1992, 1992–93) |
31 | Transmash Mogilev | 1 | 1997 | 1997 | 30 | 8 | 4 | 18 | 30–52 | 28 | 14th (1997) |
32 | Savit Mogilev | 1 | 2008 | 2008 | 30 | 5 | 6 | 19 | 28–61 | 21 | 15th (2008) |
33 | 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.
External links
- Vysshaya Liga, at BFF Website (bff.by)
- RSSSF.com
- football.by