2021 Belarusian First League Explained

Competition:Belarusian First League
Season:2021
Promoted:Arsenal Dzerzhinsk
Belshina Bobruisk
Dnepr Mogilev
Matches:198
Total Goals:582
Prevseason:2020
Nextseason:2022

2021 Belarusian First League is the 31st season of 2nd level football in Belarus. It started in April and finished in November 2021.

Team changes from 2020 season

Two best teams of 2020 Belarusian First League (Sputnik Rechitsa and Gomel) were promoted to Belarusian Premier League. They were replaced by two last-placed teams of 2020 Belarusian Premier League (Belshina Bobruisk and Smolevichi).

FC Smorgon (6th-placed team of last year's season) were additionally promoted to Premier League to replace Gorodeya, who disbanded in the winter. Smorgon were chosen ahead of Krumkachy (who were denied a Premier League license) and two other teams (Arsenal Dzerzhinsk and Lokomotiv Gomel, who did not apply for license due to insufficient financing).

Two best teams of 2020 Belarusian Second League (Dnepr Mogilev and Shakhtyor Petrikov) were promoted to the league.

Despite initial plans to restore 16 teams in the league for the first time since 2017, the league lost several clubs which all withdrew for financial reasons (Smolevichi, Oshmyany, Granit Mikashevichi and Khimik Svetlogorsk). Only one club was additionally promoted from the Second League (Baranovichi), and on 5 April it was decided to go ahead with just 12 teams (lowest in the league's history) in three round-robin system.[1]

Teams summary

width=140Teamwidth=120Locationdata-sort-type="number"Position in 2020
Belshina BobruiskBobruiskPremier League, 15
Krumkachy MinskMinsk3
Arsenal DzerzhinskDzerzhinsk4
Lokomotiv GomelGomel5
LidaLida7
Slonim-2017Slonim8
Volna PinskPinsk9
OrshaOrsha11
Naftan NovopolotskNovopolotsk12
Dnepr MogilevMogilevSecond League, 1
Shakhtyor PetrikovPetrikovSecond League, 2
BaranovichiBaranovichiSecond League, 4

League table

Results

Matchdays 23–33

Promotion play-offs

Second leg

Slavia won 1–0 on aggregate and therefore both clubs remain in their respective leagues.

Top goalscorers

Rankwidth=170GoalscorerTeamGoals
1 Denis KozlovskiyLokomotiv Gomel29
2 Kiryl SidarenkaDnepr Mogilev19
3 Ramazan IsayevBelshina Bobruisk17
4 Iskandar ZarobekovNaftan Novopolotsk16
5 Artyom KiykoArsenal Dzerzhinsk14
Updated to games played on 27 November 2021
Source: football.by

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://abff.by/news/article/cempionat-pervoj-ligi-2021-projdet-v-tri-kruga Чемпионат первой лиги 2021 пройдет в три круга