Marked for Igor Monich
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Gordeychuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Niva the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Igor Monich has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Niva
Dmitriy Sibilev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ilya Kalita gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ilya Kalita has just signed for Niva, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Naftan will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Vadim Yakovlev has pre-agreed a move to Niva, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Niva training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavel Gorbach is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matvey Papulin, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
The clock did what Torpedo-BelAZ would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
The unthinkable, invoiced: Artem Kuratnik sold
Dinamo Brest arrived with $75.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Artem Kuratnik has gone, the accounts have $75.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market31 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Niva is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Niva
Dmitriy Sibilev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Niva asked and Volna Pinsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Pavel Gorbach falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Igor Monich’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Niva.
In brief
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The dugout
No hiding place for Andrey Agapov
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Squad
16 new faces, and Niva are still learning each other
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Player ratings
Igor Monich stands above it all
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nikita Dovnar decides it from twelve yards
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Igor Monich obliged against Gomel. 2‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Niva.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Niva — 7.74
1 for Dmitriy Sibilev, marked 7.74, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Niva
Nikita Kukhtik was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rubin Yalta have kept their man, and Niva go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Niva
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Sibilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitriy Sibilev, and the manager let it.
Match15 Aug 2026
Three points for Niva, 1‑0 the final word against Bumprom Gomel in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Niva
Dmitriy Sibilev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Chances created: 16. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Niva training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavel Gorbach is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mikhail Gordeychuk, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Yan Makas joins the Niva first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yan Makas is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Maksim Hryshyn has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.