From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” BATE may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market26 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BATE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Willy Pretel in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BATE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BATE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ivan Mikhnyuk: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” BATE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Filip Kurto in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BATE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Ivan Chernykh
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ivan Chernykh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at BATE
Filip Kurto 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Nikita Neskoromnyi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Ilya Raschenya
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilya Raschenya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Zakhar Gitselev: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” BATE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Filip Kurto in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BATE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Yatskevich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
Maxim Mardas has agreed to leave BATE for nothing
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at BATE
Filip Kurto 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Andrés Molinas 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Andrés Molinas has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at BATE will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around BATE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Modibo Maïga, 39, rolls back the years — 8.21
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.21 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market21 Sep 2026
Molodechno come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and BATE did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BATE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“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.
Market21 Sep 2026
The name of Arseniy Skopets has come up in conversations BATE were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Filip Kurto lets one through his hands
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Modibo Maïga yet — 8.53
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.53 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market14 Sep 2026
BATE say no — this time
The offer from Slutsk for Gleb Protasenya was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market14 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BATE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Willy Pretel in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BATE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Sep 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about BATE and Slavia Mozyr in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 4‑2, and it was Modibo Maïga’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to BATE.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Andrés Molinas 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.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Zakhar Gitselev has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Andrés Molinas was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.63. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Ilya Raschenya
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilya Raschenya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at BATE
Willy Pretel 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Yegor Kortsov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means BATE have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at BATE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Molinas 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for BATE against Smorgon
0‑2 to Smorgon, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilya Raschenya, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at BATE who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Doors closed at BATE
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for BATE
0‑1 against Lokomotiv Gomel, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match29 Aug 2026
BATE strike at the death to beat Molodechno
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Molodechno had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and BATE did not stop to explain themselves.
Market31 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BATE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Pavel Dubovskiy at 20 — 9.08
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pavel Dubovskiy did not need any: 9.08, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Modibo Maïga, 39, rolls back the years — 8.38
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.38 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Christian Intsoen 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at BATE
Filip Kurto 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup progress for BATE
A 3‑2 win over Slonim, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match19 Aug 2026
BATE win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 96th minute. Slonim will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Gleb Protasenya, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 9.46
A mark of 9.46 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BATE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market24 Aug 2026
Osipovichi come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and BATE did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what BATE can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A first appearance Danila Firsov will want to forget — 5.78
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.78, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BATE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
BATE say no — this time
The offer from Naftan for Vladislav Yatskevich was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Pavel Dubovskiy at 20 — 8.52
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pavel Dubovskiy did not need any: 8.52, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Danila Sokol has come up in conversations BATE were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market17 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BATE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Vladislav Yatskevich has agreed terms with Dinamo Minsk for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at BATE
Vladislav Yatskevich 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Match15 Aug 2026
Minsk take the points off BATE
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
In brief
-
The terraces
The crowd has taken to Pavel Dubovskiy
-
Squad
Words at BATE training over how hard people work
-
Boardroom
Nobody left the BATE dressing room in a hurry
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Ilya Raschenya
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilya Raschenya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A debut Pavel Dubovskiy will not forget — 7.69
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.69 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Anatoliy Yarmolich, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.75
A mark of 8.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Boardroom10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at BATE
Vladislav Yatskevich 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at BATE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Kovalev 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 terraces10 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match8 Aug 2026
Three points for BATE, 1‑0 the final word against Arsenal Dzerzhinsk in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
BATE say no — this time
The offer from Osipovichi for Gleb Protasenya was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Artem Rakhmanov commits to BATE for another 2 years.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BATE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Anton Kovalev 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for BATE against Neman
0‑2 to Neman, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Kovalev, and the manager let it.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the BATE dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at BATE, another week without a signature from Vladislav Yatskevich.