2020 Belarusian First League

2020 Belarusian First League is the 30th season of 2nd level football in Belarus. It started in April and finished in November 2020.

Belarusian First League
Season2020
ChampionsSputnik Rechitsa
PromotedSputnik Rechitsa,
Gomel,
Smorgon
Matches played151
Goals scored482 (3.19 per match)
Top goalscorerBelarus Andrey Solovey (Lokomotiv Gomel)
Biggest home winGomel 7–2 Lida
Biggest away winOshmyany 0–6 Lokomotiv Gomel
Highest scoringOshmyany 5–5 Volna Pinsk
← 2019
2021 →

Team changes from 2019 season

Two best teams of 2019 Belarusian First League (Belshina Bobruisk and Smolevichi), as well as third-placed Rukh Brest (who won the promotion/relegation play-off) were promoted to Belarusian Premier League. They were replaced by 15th-placed teams of 2019 Belarusian Premier League (Gomel) and 14th-placed Dnyapro Mogilev (who lost the play-off to Rukh Brest). 16th-placed Premier League team Torpedo Minsk disbanded, leaving a vacancy in the First League.

Last placed team of the last season (Baranovichi) relegated to the Second League. They were replaced by two best teams of 2019 Second League (Arsenal Dzerzhinsk and Oshmyany).

NFK Minsk reverted their name to Krumkachy Minsk during the winter break.

Dnyapro Mogilev ceased to exist in the spring. To fill in two vacant spots left by Dnyapro and Torpedo and to return to 16 participants, two teams were additionally promoted (Molodechno and Underdog Chist as the 3rd- and 4th-placed Second League teams). However, as both clubs represent neighboring cities, Molodechno were unable to secure the necessary financial support from the Maladzyechna Raion administration (who decided to fully support Underdog instead) and were forced to give up the promotion. Underdog Chist, however, were also excluded a few weeks later due to financial problems of their own, and the league was left with only 14 participants for the season.

As a result of investigation of match-fixing incidents during 2017 and 2018 seasons, five clubs were punished with points deductions before the start of the season.[1][2]

Teams summary
Location of teams in 2020 Belarusian First League
Team Location Position in 2019
Gomel Gomel Premier League, 15
Lokomotiv Gomel Gomel 4
Naftan Novopolotsk Novopolotsk 5
Sputnik Rechitsa Rechitsa 6
Lida Lida 7
Krumkachy Minsk Minsk 8
Granit Mikashevichi Mikashevichi 9
Orsha Orsha 10
Khimik Svetlogorsk Svetlogorsk 11
Volna Pinsk Pinsk 12
Slonim-2017 Slonim 13
Smorgon Smorgon 14
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk Dzerzhinsk Second League, 1
Oshmyany Oshmyany Second League, 2

League table
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Promotion or relegation
1 Sputnik Rechitsa (C, P) 26 19 4 3 50 18 +32 61 Promotion to the Belarusian Premier League
2 Gomel[lower-alpha 1] (P) 26 18 5 3 60 20 +40 54
3 Krumkachy 26 16 4 6 46 28 +18 52 Advance to the promotion play-offs
4 Arsenal Dzerzhinsk 26 13 7 6 41 28 +13 46
5 Lokomotiv Gomel 26 13 6 7 56 38 +18 45
6 Smorgon (P) 26 10 6 10 29 26 +3 36 Promotion to the Belarusian Premier League
7 Lida[lower-alpha 2] 26 9 7 10 37 42 −5 31
8 Slonim-2017 26 8 6 12 22 32 −10 30
9 Volna Pinsk 26 7 6 13 41 52 −11 27
10 Oshmyany (W) 26 6 8 12 35 43 −8 26 Withdrew
11 Orsha[lower-alpha 3] 26 7 6 13 30 42 −12 24
12 Naftan Novopolotsk[lower-alpha 4] 26 10 6 10 36 43 −7 21
13 Granit Mikashevichi (W) 26 4 5 17 21 52 −31 17 Withdrew
14 Khimik Svetlogorsk[lower-alpha 5] (W) 26 2 4 20 12 52 −40 1 Advance to the relegation play-offs; Withdrew
Updated to match(es) played on 21 November 2020. 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; (P) Promoted; (W) Withdrew after the season
Notes:
  1. Gomel were deducted 5 points before the start of the season as a result of match-fixing investigation in the previous season.[2]
  2. Lida were deducted 3 points before the start of the season as a result of match-fixing investigation in the previous season.[1]
  3. Orsha were deducted 3 points before the start of the season as a result of match-fixing investigation in the previous season.[1]
  4. Naftan Novopolotsk were deducted 15 points before the start of the season as a result of match-fixing investigation in the previous season.[1]
  5. Khimik Svetlogorsk were deducted 9 points before the start of the season as a result of match-fixing investigation in the previous season.[1]

Results
Home \ Away ARS GOM GRA KHI KRU LID LGM NAF ORS OSH SLO SPU SMR VOL
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk 1–1 3–0 1–0 1–1 1–2 4–0 4–2 1–0 0–3 4–1 1–1 1–0 3–2
Gomel 0–1 2–1 3–1 0–2 7–2 2–3 0–0 4–2 2–0 3–0 1–0 1–1 2–0
Granit Mikashevichi 1–2 1–4 2–1 1–2 1–2 1–1 1–2 1–1 1–3 1–0 0–1 1–0 0–1
Khimik Svetlogorsk 2–2 0–1 0–0 0–4 0–1 0–4 0–1 2–1 1–4 0–1 0–3 2–1 1–2
Krumkachy Minsk 2–0 1–1 4–1 1–0 2–2 1–0 1–0 2–0 1–0 2–1 0–2 2–1 2–3
Lida 1–0 0–2 2–3 0–0 2–1 4–2 2–2 1–5 3–1 3–0 0–1 0–0 0–1
Lokomotiv Gomel 1–1 1–4 4–0 5–0 4–0 2–3 3–3 1–1 2–0 0–0 1–1 2–1 1–0
Naftan Novopolotsk 2–1 1–4 3–0 3–0 1–2 1–1 1–5 3–0 1–1 2–1 0–3 0–1 2–0
Orsha 0–1 0–2 2–1 4–0 0–4 3–2 0–2 0–2 0–0 1–3 0–0 0–0 3–2
Oshmyany 0–1 1–1 1–1 0–0 2–3 3–2 0–6 5–1 0–0 1–0 0–1 0–1 5–5
Slonim-2017 0–1 0–3 1–1 1–0 1–0 0–0 3–0 1–1 2–1 2–0 1–3 0–1 1–1
Sputnik Rechitsa 2–1 0–4 2–0 1–0 2–1 1–0 5–1 5–0 4–2 1–0 3–0 1–1 3–1
Smorgon 1–1 1–3 5–0 2–0 1–3 1–0 1–2 1–0 0–1 1–1 0–2 2–1 2–0
Volna Pinsk 1–1 0–3 3–1 4–2 2–2 2–2 2–3 1–2 2–3 3–2 0–0 1–3 2–3
Updated to match(es) played on 25 October 2020. Source: football.by
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Promotion play-offs

First leg
Krumkachy Minsk0–2Slutsk
Report Bobko 45'
Sirima 79' (pen.)
Attendance: 0
Referee: Andrey Vasilevich (Mozyr)

Second leg
Slutsk2–1Krumkachy Minsk
Mohammed 5'
Sirima 34' (pen.)		 Report Yatskevich 90+2'
Attendance: 0
Referee: Sergey Stetsurin (Brest)

Slutsk won 4–1 on aggregate and therefore both clubs remain in their respective leagues.

Relegation play-offs

First leg
Khimik Svetlogorsk0–0Molodechno
Report
Khimik Stadium, Svetlogorsk

Second leg
Molodechno0–4Khimik Svetlogorsk
Report Yakhno 16'
Imeryakov 23' (o.g.)
Abdullayev 65'
Arhiptsaw 79'

Khimik Svetlogorsk won 4–0 on aggregate and therefore both clubs remain in their respective leagues.

Top goalscorers
Rank Goalscorer Team Goals
1 Belarus Andrey Solovey Lokomotiv Gomel 20
2 Belarus Artsyom Vaskow Gomel 16
3 Belarus Dmitry Gomza Gomel 11
4 Belarus Yan Senkevich Lida 10
Belarus Pavel Klenyo Lokomotiv Gomel 10
Belarus Pavel Demidchik Oshmyany 10
Russia Iskandar Zarobekov Volna Pinsk 10
Belarus Valery Potorocha Sputnik Rechitsa 10

Updated to games played on 21 November 2020
Source: football.by

See also

References
  1. "«Нафтан» начнет сезон с -15 очками, «Химик» лишен 9 очков, «Лида», «Неман-Агро» и «Орша» – 3 очков" [Naftan will start with minus 15 points; Khimik deducted 9 points; Lida, Neman-Agro and Orsha deducted 3 points each.]. Tribuna.com (in Russian). 13 February 2020.
  2. "«Гомель» лишили 5 очков за участие в договорных матчах" [Gomel deducted 5 points due to match-fixing.]. Tribuna.com (in Russian). 16 April 2020.
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