From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Osipovichi's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Osipovichi has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 23 signed and 16 gone
That is the business done at Osipovichi until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Match12 Sep 2026
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market14 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Osipovichi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Maxim Samartsev has agreed terms with Lida for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Nikita Karpuk pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Boardroom14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Osipovichi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeniy Elezarenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Evgeniy Elezarenko 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.
Market7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
18 new faces, and Osipovichi 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Petr Kazantsev asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Osipovichi than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Valeriy Kumalagov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Minsk is saying, and nobody at Osipovichi is enjoying the guessing.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Petr Kazantsev 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
A loan move for Prokhor Struk is in the works
Osipovichi have made the call to Minsk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexandr Zverev's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market31 Aug 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ilya Tishurov signs something — a contract at Osipovichi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑3 against Baranovichi, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad24 Aug 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Osipovichi's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Osipovichi has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 Aug 2026
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Petr Kazantsev 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Osipovichi
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ilya Tishurov
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Osipovichi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeniy Elezarenko 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Daniil Kulikov
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Prokhor Struk is in the works
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
The small margins put Osipovichi out
Out, 0‑4 to Slavia Mozyr, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
0-4. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Marat Vasilkevich 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Transfer targets17 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 24 days on the sidelines for Vladislav Zvyagov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Osipovichi have done the hard part with Isloch, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Marat Vasilkevich and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
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.
Match8 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Slonim, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yan Filipenko 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vadzim Savitski 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. Sergei Shikavka 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 8.03 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ramazan Ibragimov arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ramazan Ibragimov has, at Osipovichi, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market3 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Osipovichi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Artem Zimin and Osipovichi agree another 4 years.
Market3 Aug 2026
The shirt still fits. Maxim Marchenko is back at Osipovichi, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Marat Vasilkevich 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.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniil Kulikov 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 ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.