The Niva Courier
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Mikhail Gordeychuk, 36, rolls back the years — 8.09
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.09 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Dmitriy Sibilev beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Dmitriy Sibilev stays put
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dmitriy Sibilev and Niva agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Niva
Dmitriy Sibilev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mikhail Gordeychuk 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Niva rebuffed over Matvey Martinkevich
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Kirov have kept their man, and Niva go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Nikita Dovnar gets it from the manager
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Talks stall between Niva and Mikhail Gordeychuk
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Niva are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
- Match Niva and Uni-X Labs take a point apiece
- Transfer targets Niva try to borrow Vladislav Stepanenko
- The dugout The view from the dugout