2003 Belarusian First League Explained

Competition:Belarusian First League
Season:2003
Winners:Lokomotiv Vitebsk
Promoted:Lokomotiv Vitebsk
MTZ-RIPO Minsk
Relegated:Neman Mosty
Pinsk-900
Matches:240
Total Goals:613
Prevseason:2002
Nextseason:2004

2003 Belarusian First League was the 13th season of 2nd level football championship in Belarus. It started in April and ended in November 2003.

Team changes from 2002 season

Three top teams of last season (Darida Minsk Raion, Naftan Novopolotsk and Lokomotiv Minsk) were promoted to Belarusian Premier League. Due to the expansion of Premier League from 14 to 16 clubs, the promoted teams were replaced by only one team that finished at the bottom of 2002 Belarusian Premier League table (Lokomotiv-96 Vitebsk).

One team that finished at the bottom of 2002 season table (Osipovichi) relegated to the Second League. They were replaced by three best teams of 2002 Second League (MTZ-RIPO Minsk, Pinsk-900 and Vertikal Kalinkovichi).

Lokomotiv-96 Vitebsk shortened their name to Lokomotiv Vitebsk before the start of the season.

Teams and locations

width=120Teamwidth=110Locationdata-sort-type="number"Position in 2002
LokomotivVitebskPremier League, 14
Vedrich-97Rechitsa4
GranitMikashevichi5
LidaLida6
ZLiNGomel7
KommunalnikSlonim8
Dinamo-JuniMinsk9
Torpedo-KadinoMogilev10
NemanMosty11
Dnepr-DUSSh-1Rogachev12
KhimikSvetlogorsk13
SmorgonSmorgon14
BerezaBereza15
MTZ-RIPOMinskSecond League, 1
Pinsk-900PinskSecond League, 2
VertikalKalinkovichiSecond League, 3

Top goalscorers

Rankwidth=170Goalscorerwidth=170TeamGoals
1 Oleg KuzmenokMTZ-RIPO Minsk25
2 Aleksandr SavelyevZLiN Gomel20
3 Dmytro KolodinLokomotiv Vitebsk17
4 Sergey UlezloKhimik Svetlogorsk15
5 Mihail EramchukVedrich-97 Rechitsa13

See also

External links