Marked for Sergey Reznichenko
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Sep 2027
Niva are in real trouble now
Position 15, 10 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market6 Sep 2027
“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.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
This is not rotation. Dmitriy Sibilev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Niva is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Niva have done the hard part with Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Niva
Anton Suchkov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Mozyr have kept their man, and Niva go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Niva who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Nikita Dovnar makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market6 Sep 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Apr 2027
Niva taken apart
1‑4 to Gomel, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match31 Mar 2027
The cup run ends for Niva
0‑1 against Slavia Mozyr, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match3 Apr 2027
The wait goes on for Niva
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Suchkov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
Doors closed at Niva
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Valery Bykau to a room that had heard them before.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Nikita Chevankov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Nikita Chevankov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Niva have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Niva
Anton Suchkov 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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market18 Jan 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market18 Jan 2027
7 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Niva could get for him.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Vadzim Kendysh knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Niva, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market18 Jan 2027
Niva have let the market know Kirill Sivakov can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Egor Nekhaichik has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Too much change too quickly at Niva
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Market11 Jan 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market11 Jan 2027
Niva bring in an old head
Konstantin Magaletskiy is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.