From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
38 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mikhail Alexandrov 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.
Boardroom31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fawaz Abdullahi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.81 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Dinamo Minsk had the best player on the pitch.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Gleb Sereda has agreed terms with Naftan for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Fawaz Abdullahi 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 terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kirill Tsepenkov 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Kirill Tsepenkov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Edgar Silva
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Dinamo Minsk will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Dinamo Minsk
A 0‑3 beating by Dinamo Brest was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market17 Aug 2026
Molodechno come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Minsk did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Fawaz Abdullahi 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
Neman will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Dmitriy Girs has pre-agreed a move to Dinamo Minsk, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Dinamo Minsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Shvetsov 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Dinamo Minsk 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Dinamo Minsk will not try tonight.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Artem Sokolovskiy 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Fawaz Abdullahi 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Smorgon have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdoul Aziz Touré. The answer from Dinamo Minsk has not changed — yet.
Market10 Aug 2026
Minsk paid $36.0K and Dinamo Minsk took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad10 Aug 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Dinamo Minsk will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Dinamo Minsk
6 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 65. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Aug 2026
178 appearances across 8 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Dinamo Minsk know what they have.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Vladislav Kibak has agreed terms with Torpedo-BelAZ for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexey Ivanov and Dinamo Minsk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Fawaz Abdullahi 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Fawaz Abdullahi
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market3 Aug 2026
Kirill Kaplenko is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Dinamo Minsk has been clear about where Kirill Kaplenko stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 Dinamo Minsk, another week without a signature from Evgeniy Malashevich.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Alexey Ivanov’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.