The Belarusian Premier League (, Vyšejšaja Liha or Vysheyshaya Liga; ; "Top League"), also called the BETERA Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Belarus and the highest level of the Belarusian football league system. It is organized by the Belarusian Football Federation. The number of teams in the competition has varied over the years from as high as 17 (1992–93 season) to as low as 11 (2012). the league included 16 teams. Each team plays every other team twice during the course of the season. At the end of the season, the two teams with the fewest points are automatically relegated to the Belarusian First League, while the third worst team plays a promotion-relegation playoff against the third best team from the second tier. The top two teams from the Belarusian First League automatically win promotion to the Premier League. Maxline Vitebsk are the current champions, after winning their first championship title in 2025.
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 represented other five regional centers of Belarus, and ten teams who were previous competitors in the Belarusian SSR First League.
After the league creation, it was decided to change its schedule from a Soviet-style summer season to a European-style winter 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. Every season since 1996 has been played in the summer. Throughout the 2000s, the number of competing teams has changed several times. 2012 season was played with only 11 teams due to last minute withdrawal 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 13 championships in a row (2006–2018).
In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all the other football leagues in Europe were postponed, and by the end of the month, the Belarusian Premier League was the only top-flight league in the continent that was still playing. Due to this, the league gained substantially increased viewership from abroad, with fans from all over the world watching the games online, due to the league being the only significant professional football available; the league signed new television rights deals with networks from countries including Russia and India. Matches were also streamed on the Belarusian Football Federation's YouTube channel. British betting companies also offered odds for the various matches, as the league's profile, previously relatively unknown outside of the country, grew a larger audience due to sporting inactivity elsewhere.
Premier League in 2025
TeamLocationVenueCapacityPosition in 2024ArsenalDzerzhinskCity Stadium1,00010thBATEBorisovBorisov Arena13,1268thDinamo BrestBrestOSK Brestsky10,1694thDinamo MinskMinskDinamo Stadium22,0001stGomelGomelCentral Stadium14,3076thIslochMinskFC Minsk Stadium3,0007thMaxline VitebskVitebskVitebsky CSK8,1442nd (First League)MinskMinskFC Minsk Stadium3,00013thMolodechnoMolodechnoCity Stadium4,8001st (First League)NaftanNovopolotskAtlant Stadium5,30014thNemanGrodnoNeman Stadium8,4792ndSlaviaMozyrYunost Stadium5,30011thSlutskSlutskCity Stadium1,8969thSmorgonSmorgonYunost Stadium3,20012thTorpedo-BelAZZhodinoTorpedo Stadium6,5243rdVitebskVitebskVitebsky CSK8,1445th
Soviet era champions
1922: Minsk (city team) 1923: Unknown 1924: Minsk (city team) 1925: Unknown 1926: Bobruisk (city team) 1927: Unknown 1928: Gomel (city team) 1929–32: Unknown 1933: Gomel (city team) 1934: BVO (Minsk) 1935: BVO (Minsk) 1936: BVO (Minsk) 1937: Dinamo (Minsk) 1938: Dinamo (Minsk) 1939: Dinamo (Minsk) 1940: DKA (Minsk) 1941–44: Unknown 1945: Dinamo (Minsk) 1946: ODO (Minsk) 1947: Torpedo (Minsk) 1948: Traktor MTZ (Minsk) 1949: Traktor MTZ (Minsk) 1950: ODO (Minsk) 1951: Dinamo (Minsk) 1952: ODO (Minsk) 1953: Spartak (Minsk) 1954: ODO (Pinsk) 1955: FSM (Minsk) 1956: Spartak (Minsk) 1957: Sputnik (Minsk) 1958: Spartak (Bobruisk) 1959: Minsk (city team) 1960: Sputnik (Minsk) 1961: Volna (Pinsk) 1962: Torpedo (Minsk) 1963: Naroch' (Molodechno) 1964: SKA (Minsk) 1965: SKA (Minsk) 1966: Torpedo (Minsk) 1967: Torpedo (Minsk) 1968: Sputnik (Minsk) 1969: Torpedo (Minsk) 1970: Torpedo (Zhodino) 1971: Torpedo (Zhodino) 1972: Stroitel' (Bobruisk) 1973: Stroitel' (Bobruisk) 1974: BATE (Borisov) 1975: Dinamo (Minsk) 1976: BATE (Borisov) 1977: Sputnik (Minsk) 1978: Shinnik (Bobruisk) 1979: BATE (Borisov) 1980: Torpedo (Zhodino) 1981: Torpedo (Zhodino) 1982: Torpedo (Mogilev) 1983: Obuvschik (Lida) 1984: Orbita (Minsk) 1985: Obuvschik (Lida) 1986: Obuvschik (Lida) 1987: Shinnik (Bobruisk) 1988: Sputnik (Minsk) 1989: Obuvschik (Lida) 1990: Sputnik (Minsk) 1991: Metallurg (Molodechno)
Champions and top scorers SeasonChampionRunner-upThird placeTop scorer Dinamo Minsk (1) Dnepr Mogilev Dinamo Brest Andrey Skorobogatko (Dnepr Mogilev) (11) Dinamo Minsk (2) KIM Vitebsk Belarus Minsk Sergey Baranovsky (Dinamo Minsk) (19) Miroslav Romaschenko (Vedrich Rechitsa / Dnepr Mogilev) (19) Dinamo Minsk (3) Dinamo-93 Minsk KIM Vitebsk Pyotr Kachuro (Dinamo-93 Minsk / Dinamo Minsk) (21) Dinamo Minsk (4) Dvina Vitebsk Dinamo-93 Minsk Pavel Shavrov (Dinamo-93 Minsk) (19) Dinamo Minsk (5) MPKC Mozyr Dinamo-93 Minsk Sergey Yaromko (MPKC Mozyr) (16) MPKC Mozyr (1) Dinamo Minsk Belshina Bobruisk Andrey Khlebasolaw (Belshina Bobruisk) (34) Dinamo Minsk (6) Belshina Bobruisk Lokomotiv-96 Vitebsk Andrey Khlebasolaw (Belshina Bobruisk) (19) Dnepr-Transmash Mogilev (1) BATE Borisov Belshina Bobruisk Sergey Yaromko (Torpedo Minsk) (19) BATE Borisov (1) Slavia Mozyr Gomel Valery Strypeykis (Slavia Mozyr) (21) Slavia Mozyr (2) BATE Borisov Dinamo Minsk Raman Vasilyuk (Slavia Mozyr) (31) Belshina Bobruisk (1) Dinamo Minsk BATE Borisov Sergei Davydov (Neman-Belcard Grodno) (25) BATE Borisov (2) Neman Grodno Shakhtyor Soligorsk Valery Strypeykis (Belshina Bobruisk) (18) Gomel (1) BATE Borisov Dinamo Minsk Gennadi Bliznyuk (Gomel) (18) Sergei Kornilenko (Dinamo Minsk) (18) Dinamo Minsk (7) BATE Borisov Shakhtyor Soligorsk Valery Strypeykis (Naftan Novopolotsk) (18) Shakhtyor Soligorsk (1) Dinamo Minsk MTZ-RIPO Minsk Valery Strypeykis (Naftan Novopolotsk) (16) BATE Borisov (3) Dinamo Minsk Shakhtyor Soligorsk Alyaksandr Klimenka (Shakhtyor Soligorsk) (17) BATE Borisov (4) Gomel Shakhtyor Soligorsk Raman Vasilyuk (Gomel) (24) BATE Borisov (5) Dinamo Minsk MTZ-RIPO Minsk Gennadi Bliznyuk (BATE Borisov) (16) Vitali Rodionov (BATE Borisov) (16) BATE Borisov (6) Dinamo Minsk Dnepr Mogilev Maycon (Gomel) (15) BATE Borisov (7) Shakhtyor Soligorsk Minsk Renan Bressan (BATE Borisov) (15) BATE Borisov (8) Shakhtyor Soligorsk Gomel Renan Bressan (BATE Borisov) (13) BATE Borisov (9) Shakhtyor Soligorsk Dinamo Minsk Dzmitry Asipenka (Shakhtyor Soligorsk) (14) BATE Borisov (10) Shakhtyor Soligorsk Dinamo Minsk Vitali Rodionov (BATE Borisov) (14) BATE Borisov (11) Dinamo Minsk Shakhtyor Soligorsk Mikalay Yanush (Shakhtyor Soligorsk) (15) BATE Borisov (12) Dinamo Minsk Shakhtyor Soligorsk Mikalay Yanush (Shakhtyor Soligorsk) (15) BATE Borisov (13) Shakhtyor Soligorsk Dinamo Minsk Vitali Rodionov (BATE Borisov) (16) Mikhail Gordeichuk (BATE Borisov) (16) BATE Borisov (14) Dinamo Minsk Shakhtyor Soligorsk Mikhail Gordeichuk (BATE Borisov) (18) BATE Borisov (15) Shakhtyor Soligorsk Dinamo Minsk Pavel Savitski (Dinamo Brest) (15) Dynamo Brest (1) BATE Borisov Shakhtyor Soligorsk Ilya Shkurin (Energetik-BGU Minsk) (19) Shakhtyor Soligorsk (2) BATE Borisov Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino Maksim Skavysh (BATE Borisov) (19) Shakhtyor Soligorsk (3) BATE Borisov Dinamo Minsk Dembo Darboe (Shakhtyor Soligorsk) (19) Shakhtyor Soligorsk Energetik-BGU Minsk BATE Borisov Bobur Abdikholikov (Energetik-BGU Minsk) (26) Dinamo Minsk (8) Neman Grodno Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino Vladislav Morozov (Dinamo Minsk) (16) Dinamo Minsk (9) Neman Grodno Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino Junior Effaghe (Gomel) (17) Maxline Vitebsk (1) Dinamo Minsk Slavia Mozyr Aleksandr Shestyuk (Isloch) (17)
Performances Performance by club TeamsChampionRunner-upThird placeBATE Borisov15 (1999, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)7 (1998, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2019, 2020, 2021)2 (2001, 2022)Dinamo Minsk9 (1992, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995, 1997, 2004, 2023, 2024)10 (1996, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2025)7 (2000, 2003, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2018, 2021)Shakhtyor Soligorsk3 (2005, 2020, 2021)6 (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2018)8 (2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019)Slavia Mozyr2 (1996, 2000)2 (1995, 1999)1 (2025)Gomel1 (2003)1 (2007)2 (1999, 2011)Belshina Bobruisk1 (2001)1 (1997)2 (1996, 1998)Dnepr Mogilev1 (1998)1 (1992)1 (2009)Dynamo Brest1 (2019)–1 (1992)Maxline Vitebsk1 (2025)––Neman Grodno–3 (2002, 2023, 2024)–Vitebsk–2 (1992–93, 1994–95)2 (1993–94, 1997)Dinamo-93 Minsk–1 (1993–94)3 (1992–93, 1994–95, 1995)Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino––3 (2020, 2023, 2024)Partizan Minsk––2 (2005, 2008)Minsk––1 (2010)
All-time table As of end of 2023 season.