From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Mar 2030
5 matches without a win for Uni-X Labs
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Uni-X Labs are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match16 Mar 2030
A goal on 92 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Uladzimir Shikavka, and the manager let it.
Match16 Mar 2030
A 1‑1 draw with Bumprom Gomel leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ivan Bykau chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Looking ahead18 Mar 2030
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Maxim Makarov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Uni-X Labs needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stanislau Shikavka trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match9 Mar 2030
4 matches without a win for Uni-X Labs
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Uni-X Labs are no longer polite ones.
Match9 Mar 2030
4 matches without a goal for Uni-X Labs
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Boardroom11 Mar 2030
Uni-X Labs still without a manager
10 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
“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.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ivan Bykau chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings11 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match9 Mar 2030
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Neman defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Looking ahead11 Mar 2030
Bumprom Gomel next, and one man in the Uni-X Labs dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Player ratings11 Mar 2030
12 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Uni-X Labs now.
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Uni-X Labs
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Match2 Mar 2030
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.
Match2 Mar 2030
Lida left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom25 Feb 2030
Window shuts: 1 in, 1 out at Uni-X Labs
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
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The dugout25 Feb 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Feb 2030
Ruslan Belov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
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Squad18 Feb 2030
Sotirios Retsos 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 Feb 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Anton Yablonski trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad18 Feb 2030
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Uni-X Labs would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Dmitriy Khalimonchikov has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets11 Feb 2030
Everything agreed with Dinamo Minsk, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The dugout11 Feb 2030
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Boardroom11 Feb 2030
The paperwork is done long before the player is. David Lund has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Uni-X Labs have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2030
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.
Squad11 Feb 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stanislau Shikavka and Uni-X Labs agree another 3 years.
Market11 Feb 2030
He is 20, and nobody at Uni-X Labs signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout11 Feb 2030
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Ilya Rabeshko has company in his position
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Ilya Rabeshko keeps the shirt for now, at Uni-X Labs's convenience rather than his own.
Market11 Feb 2030
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Alexey Yazepov leaves Uni-X Labs the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
Pressure builds in the Uni-X Labs boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The dugout4 Feb 2030
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Transfer targets4 Feb 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Uni-X Labs have done the hard part with Torpedo-BelAZ, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets4 Feb 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Minsk have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets4 Feb 2030
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Minsk: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout4 Feb 2030
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Veniamin Kostyukovich is on it.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
The dugout4 Feb 2030
“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.
The dugout4 Feb 2030
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout28 Jan 2030
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The dugout28 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Uladzimir Shikavka, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2030
Uni-X Labs 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.
Boardroom28 Jan 2030
A month in which every rumour is possible and most of them are nonsense. The manager has a list, the board has a number, and neither is telling the other the whole of it.
The dugout28 Jan 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad28 Jan 2030
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Jan 2030
Ruslan Belov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
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The dugout21 Jan 2030
“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
Uneasy
Boardroom14 Jan 2030
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
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Squad14 Jan 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ihar Klimovich and Uni-X Labs agree another 3 years.
Market14 Jan 2030
No place for Pavel Makas in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Pavel Makas has his answer from Uni-X Labs; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
Ihar Klimovich 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.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Anton Yablonski has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at Uni-X Labs
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Uni-X Labs is running low.
The dugout7 Jan 2030
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The dugout7 Jan 2030
Nobody at Uni-X Labs 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.
Market7 Jan 2030
No place for Ivan Vostrov in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ivan Vostrov has his answer from Uni-X Labs; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market7 Jan 2030
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ruslan Belov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout7 Jan 2030
Ihar Klimovich 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 Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout31 Dec 2029
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Squad31 Dec 2029
Sotirios Retsos 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 dugout31 Dec 2029
Edimilson Widmer 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout24 Dec 2029
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The dugout24 Dec 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Edimilson Widmer trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Veniamin Kostyukovich’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Dec 2029
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom17 Dec 2029
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
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From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout10 Dec 2029
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The dugout10 Dec 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout3 Dec 2029
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The dugout3 Dec 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
The manager plants his flag on Alexey Yazepov
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Alexey Yazepov’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout26 Nov 2029
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The dugout26 Nov 2029
“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.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
Ihar Klimovich knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ihar Klimovich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Nov 2029
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom19 Nov 2029
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
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From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout12 Nov 2029
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Squad12 Nov 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pietro Baietta commits to Uni-X Labs for another 3 years.
Squad12 Nov 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
Edimilson Widmer 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.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Dmitriy Khalimonchikov has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout5 Nov 2029
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Market5 Nov 2029
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Uni-X Labs has been clear about where Edimilson Widmer stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout29 Oct 2029
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Squad29 Oct 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Raman Hleb and Uni-X Labs agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom29 Oct 2029
Wages swallow 90% of the Uni-X Labs income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
“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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
The manager plants his flag on Ilya Rabeshko
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Ilya Rabeshko’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Oct 2029
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom22 Oct 2029
The numbers do not look good at Uni-X Labs
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
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From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout15 Oct 2029
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The dugout15 Oct 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Veniamin Kostyukovich is on it.
Squad15 Oct 2029
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Uni-X Labs has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout8 Oct 2029
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Market8 Oct 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ruslan Belov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad8 Oct 2029
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Uni-X Labs has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout1 Oct 2029
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Boardroom1 Oct 2029
91% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad1 Oct 2029
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
The manager makes an example of Egor Klimovich
“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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Uni-X Labs would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Squad1 Oct 2029
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout24 Sep 2029
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The dugout24 Sep 2029
“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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Sotirios Retsos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom24 Sep 2029
The numbers do not look good at Uni-X Labs
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
Edimilson Widmer is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
Ihar Klimovich 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout17 Sep 2029
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Squad17 Sep 2029
Uni-X Labs are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Anton Yablonski trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market17 Sep 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Uni-X Labs, another week without a signature from Edimilson Widmer.
Market17 Sep 2029
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Dmitriy Turovets leaves Uni-X Labs the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Sep 2029
“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.
Boardroom10 Sep 2029
Window shuts: 15 in, 13 out at Uni-X Labs
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 13 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
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Transfer targets10 Sep 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torpedo-BelAZ have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Sep 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Uni-X Labs, another week without a signature from Uladzimir Shikavka.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edimilson Widmer, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout3 Sep 2029
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Squad3 Sep 2029
Pietro Baietta 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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Ruslan Belov slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ruslan Belov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
93% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad3 Sep 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Uladzimir Shikavka
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Uladzimir Shikavka has come out of that comparison in the side, and Uni-X Labs have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Uni-X Labs than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Aug 2029
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Transfer targets27 Aug 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Minsk keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
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Squad27 Aug 2029
Ruslan Belov 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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Aliaksandr Korzun 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.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout20 Aug 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Uni-X Labs may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
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Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruslan Belov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match18 Aug 2029
0‑1 to Orsha, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad20 Aug 2029
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Eduard Pavlov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aliaksandr Kendysh after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad20 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
Uni-X Labs 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
Pavel Makas, 15, steals the show — 7.74
Marked 7.74 at 15, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
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Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
Everything was agreed with Lokomotiv Gomel and then the doctor spoke. Uni-X Labs have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
Uni-X Labs asked and BATE said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces13 Aug 2029
The crowd has taken to Pavel Makas
At 15 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.
Market13 Aug 2029
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Anton Palitsevich 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.
Market13 Aug 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ruslan Signevich 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.
Market13 Aug 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Viktar Makas is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Aug 2029
Beaten 0‑3 by Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
Pietro Baietta: 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.” Uni-X Labs have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
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Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
The paperwork begins on Andrei Rios
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Uni-X Labs have done the hard part with Isloch, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slonim have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruslan Belov 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 dugout6 Aug 2029
The manager makes an example of Anton Yablonski
“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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Egor Klimovich and Uni-X Labs agree another 3 years.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Egor Klimovich 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
Market30 Jul 2029
Ruslan Belov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Market30 Jul 2029
The bid was some way short and Uni-X Labs did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruslan Belov 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 dugout30 Jul 2029
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Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Dmitriy Khalimonchikov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Aliaksandr Kendysh kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
A promise honoured at Uni-X Labs
Something was said to Alexey Yazepov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Everything agreed with Dinamo Minsk, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
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Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Uni-X Labs asked and Torpedo-BelAZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad23 Jul 2029
43 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Looking ahead23 Jul 2029
Niva next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
Ruslan Belov 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 Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
Nobody at Uni-X Labs 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.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sergey Kirikovich, and the manager let it.
Market23 Jul 2029
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Uni-X Labs could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout16 Jul 2029
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Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Smorgon have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Dmitriy Turovets 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.
Match14 Jul 2029
Uni-X Labs rescue it on 95 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 95. Baranovichi had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Player ratings16 Jul 2029
Marked 7.68. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings16 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match14 Jul 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Pietro Baietta 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 dugout16 Jul 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Jul 2029
1‑4 against Osipovichi, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match9 Jul 2029
17 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings9 Jul 2029
No sign of nerves from Anton Yablonski at 17 — 7.94
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Anton Yablonski did not need any: 7.94, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The dugout9 Jul 2029
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Squad9 Jul 2029
Aliaksandr Korzun and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings9 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Uni-X Labs asked and Slonim said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Jul 2029
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruslan Belov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Jul 2029
The team sheet said everything about Ruslan Belov
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Ruslan Belov.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Jul 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 15 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market2 Jul 2029
“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.
Market2 Jul 2029
Egor Snapkov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Egor Snapkov has agreed terms with Belshina for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Minsk have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match30 Jun 2029
Slonim left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
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The dugout2 Jul 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Uni-X Labs have done the hard part with Dinamo Minsk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
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Squad25 Jun 2029
Ruslan Belov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Aleksey Lermontov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Uni-X Labs have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
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.
The terraces25 Jun 2029
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match23 Jun 2029
The drought breaks for Uni-X Labs
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Bumprom Gomel were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Match23 Jun 2029
Bumprom Gomel made Uni-X Labs work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings18 Jun 2029
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yaroslav Khramtsevich did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match16 Jun 2029
No end in sight to Uni-X Labs's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Uni-X Labs has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
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Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Uni-X Labs have done the hard part with Volna Pinsk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Player ratings18 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Dmitriy Turovets 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Egor Snapkov 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 Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Jun 2029
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market11 Jun 2029
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings11 Jun 2029
Egor Snapkov beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
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Match9 Jun 2029
No end in sight to Uni-X Labs's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Uni-X Labs has to find a result from somewhere.
Match9 Jun 2029
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.
Match9 Jun 2029
Lida left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
Ruslan Belov 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.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aliaksandr Kendysh after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 May 2029
The small margins put Uni-X Labs out
Out, 0‑4 to Dinamo Minsk, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market4 Jun 2029
“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 terraces4 Jun 2029
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.
Player ratings4 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match2 Jun 2029
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.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
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Match4 Jun 2029
Halfway: Uni-X Labs sit in position 9
14 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings4 Jun 2029
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 May 2029
Matvey Svidinskiy 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 dugout28 May 2029
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Player ratings28 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Player ratings28 May 2029
Marked 7.18. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout28 May 2029
Nobody at Uni-X Labs 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.
The dugout28 May 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Aliaksandr Kendysh was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Uni-X Labs dressing room was either.
Squad28 May 2029
Anton Yablonski is the weekend's best young player
At 17 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
Match26 May 2029
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Molodechno will be the happier side with the point.
The dugout28 May 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings21 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Market21 May 2029
Only the photograph left for Egor Snapkov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Egor Snapkov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings21 May 2029
Marked 7.88 at 17, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad21 May 2029
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 May 2029
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The terraces21 May 2029
At 21 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.
Match19 May 2029
The drought breaks for Uni-X Labs
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Orsha were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Match19 May 2029
A 1‑0 win over Orsha, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout21 May 2029
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Aliaksandr Kendysh on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 May 2029
Vitaliy Klimovich damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings14 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Squad14 May 2029
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.
Match12 May 2029
5 matches without a win for Uni-X Labs
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Uni-X Labs are no longer polite ones.
The dugout14 May 2029
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Match12 May 2029
5 matches without a goal for Uni-X Labs
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad14 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 May 2029
Lokomotiv Gomel left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout14 May 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aliaksandr Kendysh after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 May 2029
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Uni-X Labs lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match7 May 2029
9 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match5 May 2029
The wait goes on for Uni-X Labs
4 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.
Match5 May 2029
The goals have deserted Uni-X Labs
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Uni-X Labs can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad7 May 2029
Matvey Svidinskiy 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 May 2029
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Uni-X Labs now.
Match5 May 2029
0‑1 to Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout7 May 2029
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The dugout7 May 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Apr 2029
Vitaliy Klimovich damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market30 Apr 2029
“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 ratings30 Apr 2029
Egor Snapkov beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Match28 Apr 2029
3 matches without a goal for Uni-X Labs
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
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Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.48 on the card, and the Uni-X Labs support went home talking about one name.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vitaliy Urbanovich is on it.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Aliaksandr Kendysh after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Apr 2029
Egor Snapkov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
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The dugout23 Apr 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Looking ahead23 Apr 2029
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Niva in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Alexey Yazepov 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 Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead23 Apr 2029
Next up on the road: Niva, position 6. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
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Squad16 Apr 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ivan Vostrov and Uni-X Labs agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.63 on the card, and the Uni-X Labs support went home talking about one name.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Matvey Svidinskiy is on it.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“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.
Match14 Apr 2029
Point won or two lost for Uni-X Labs?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Baranovichi? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market16 Apr 2029
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Uni-X Labs money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 41. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match4 Apr 2029
Molodechno are out and Uni-X Labs go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yaroslav Khramtsevich provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad9 Apr 2029
A one-man rearguard from Ruslan Belov
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Boardroom9 Apr 2029
The numbers do not look good at Uni-X Labs
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The terraces9 Apr 2029
At 15 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.
Match7 Apr 2029
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
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From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Apr 2029
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
Egor Snapkov: 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.” Uni-X Labs have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
Egor Snapkov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.07
A mark of 8.07 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Match31 Mar 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Egor Snapkov. 2‑1 against Slonim, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces2 Apr 2029
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Market2 Apr 2029
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Uni-X Labs has been clear about where Dmitriy Turovets stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ruslan Belov, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
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From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Egor Snapkov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Egor Snapkov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Mar 2029
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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match24 Mar 2029
3 matches without a goal for Uni-X Labs
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match24 Mar 2029
0‑2 to Bumprom Gomel, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
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Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Aliaksandr Kendysh to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Nobody at Uni-X Labs 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
Uneasy
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 54. 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.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
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Squad19 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Marked 7.35 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Uni-X Labs had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Aliaksandr Kendysh chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Match17 Mar 2029
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Ostrovets will be the happier side with the point.
Looking ahead19 Mar 2029
Bumprom Gomel next, and one man in the Uni-X Labs dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Veniamin Kostyukovich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 39. 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.
Match10 Mar 2029
Beaten 0‑3 by Lida, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market12 Mar 2029
“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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Boardroom12 Mar 2029
The numbers do not look good at Uni-X Labs
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
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Boardroom12 Mar 2029
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 dugout12 Mar 2029
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yaroslav Khramtsevich is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Mar 2029
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Anton Yablonski, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.86
A mark of 7.86 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces5 Mar 2029
At 21 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.
Match3 Mar 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Anton Yablonski. 1‑0 against Volna Pinsk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
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Squad5 Mar 2029
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
A date was given and it came and went. Nobody upstairs will call it a broken promise, and nobody downstairs will call it anything else for a long time.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Boardroom
Uni-X Labs say no to the training-ground money
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The dugout
The plan did not have a place for Maksim Pavlov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Feb 2029
Egor Snapkov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Window shuts: 5 in, 2 out at Uni-X Labs
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets26 Feb 2029
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.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
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The dugout26 Feb 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market26 Feb 2029
Uni-X Labs have made Ruslan Belov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Match26 Feb 2029
Uni-X Labs have something to play for
Position 6 on 35 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Market26 Feb 2029
Uni-X Labs opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Matvey Svidinskiy stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
Market26 Feb 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Uni-X Labs, another week without a signature from Aliaksandr Kavalyou.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets19 Feb 2029
Everything agreed with Volna Pinsk, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets19 Feb 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Minsk keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad19 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets19 Feb 2029
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.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yahor Nekhaichik, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets19 Feb 2029
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Minsk: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market19 Feb 2029
Uni-X Labs have made Pavel Shikavka available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
Yan Rios 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 Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Egor Makas is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Feb 2029
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 Feb 2029
The offer from Bumprom Gomel for Egor Snapkov 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Uni-X Labs now.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
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.
Market12 Feb 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Artem Bykau is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market12 Feb 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Egor Signevich 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 dugout12 Feb 2029
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Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
A loan enquiry to Minsk: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Feb 2029
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Feb 2029
The offer from BATE for Yaroslav Khramtsevich 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.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Uni-X Labs have done the hard part with Minsk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Matvey Svidinskiy 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 dugout5 Feb 2029
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Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. BATE have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Feb 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ivan Vostrov and Uni-X Labs agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
Dinamo Minsk have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Jan 2029
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bumprom Gomel have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad29 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Turovets was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
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Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Uni-X Labs have made the call to Dinamo Minsk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Veniamin Kostyukovich is on it.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Veniamin Kostyukovich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market29 Jan 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yaroslav Khramtsevich signs something — a contract at Uni-X Labs or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Turovets 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 dugout22 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Hleb Yablonski
“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
Uneasy
Market15 Jan 2029
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
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Boardroom15 Jan 2029
The numbers do not look good at Uni-X Labs
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Jan 2029
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
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Market8 Jan 2029
Uni-X Labs have let the market know Vitaliy Urbanovich can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Uni-X Labs would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market8 Jan 2029
The clock does Egor Snapkov’s negotiating for him
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Uni-X Labs could ask drops and the wages Egor Snapkov can ask rise.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
Ivan Vostrov 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 Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Jan 2029
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Jan 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
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The dugout1 Jan 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Uni-X Labs told Maksim Pavlov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Uni-X Labs told Yaroslav Khramtsevich something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
Yahor Nekhaichik 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Dec 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matvey Svidinskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
A promise honoured at Uni-X Labs
Something was said to Matvey Svidinskiy and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Boardroom18 Dec 2028
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Nobody at Uni-X Labs 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.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
No hiding place for Yan Rios
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yan Rios, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Dec 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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 dugout11 Dec 2028
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Squad11 Dec 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Edimilson Widmer commits to Uni-X Labs for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Dec 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Market4 Dec 2028
Only the photograph left for Egor Snapkov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Egor Snapkov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
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Squad4 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yan Rios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad4 Dec 2028
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Market4 Dec 2028
Egor Makas told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Egor Makas has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Uni-X Labs.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hleb Yablonski, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Nov 2028
Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 21-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.
Market27 Nov 2028
Egor Snapkov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Nov 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Boardroom20 Nov 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Uni-X Labs now.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Nobody at Uni-X Labs 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
Uneasy
Market13 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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 dugout13 Nov 2028
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The dugout13 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pavel Shikavka, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market13 Nov 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Vitaliy Urbanovich may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Nov 2028
Egor Snapkov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
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The dugout6 Nov 2028
Nobody at Uni-X Labs 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.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
Yahor Nekhaichik 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.
Market6 Nov 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Uni-X Labs, another week without a signature from Ihar Klimovich.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Oct 2028
Egor Snapkov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Turovets was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
Wages swallow 102% of the Uni-X Labs income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market30 Oct 2028
Ruslan Belov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Uni-X Labs has been clear about where Ruslan Belov stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Oct 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Turovets was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Uni-X Labs now.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yaroslav Khramtsevich is on it.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Pavel Makas 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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 dugout16 Oct 2028
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From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Oct 2028
Egor Snapkov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Turovets was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
Nobody at Uni-X Labs 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.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edimilson Widmer, and the manager let it.
Market9 Oct 2028
Uni-X Labs have let the market know Dmitriy Turovets can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Match9 Oct 2028
Uni-X Labs in the hunt for Europe
Position 6, 35 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Uni-X Labs will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
Ruslan Belov 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Oct 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Turovets was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
Wages eat 96% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
Roman Babaev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Uni-X Labs 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.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dmitriy Turovets trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market2 Oct 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Uni-X Labs, another week without a signature from Uladzimir Shikavka.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Sep 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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 dugout25 Sep 2028
“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.
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Uni-X Labs now.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yaroslav Khramtsevich is on it.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
Dmitriy Turovets 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Sep 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
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Squad18 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matvey Svidinskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
Yahor Nekhaichik 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.
Market18 Sep 2028
Uni-X Labs opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Matvey Svidinskiy stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Sep 2028
“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.
Market11 Sep 2028
Only the photograph left for Egor Snapkov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Egor Snapkov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Window shuts: 11 in, 11 out at Uni-X Labs
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad11 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Minsk have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“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.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
Uni-X Labs have made the call to Dinamo Minsk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yan Rios 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Sep 2028
“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 targets4 Sep 2028
Everything agreed with Dinamo Minsk, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
Uni-X Labs asked and Torpedo-BelAZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
96% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Egor Snapkov 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.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
Roman Babaev gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Roman Babaev is on it.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Ruslan Belov is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ruslan Belov has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Market4 Sep 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Pavel Shikavka has his answer from Uni-X Labs; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Aug 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Slutsk waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market28 Aug 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Minsk is saying, and nobody at Uni-X Labs is enjoying the guessing.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Egor Snapkov 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 Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Aug 2028
Uni-X Labs rescue it on 90 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Smorgon had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
A loan enquiry to Torpedo-BelAZ: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Aug 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market21 Aug 2028
The bid was some way short and Uni-X Labs did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market21 Aug 2028
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Veniamin Kostyukovich had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Marked 7.74 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Isloch keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
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.
Market21 Aug 2028
The phone has started ringing about Egor Snapkov again, and this time the name on the line is Slutsk. Uni-X Labs are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Uni-X Labs asked and Isloch said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Aug 2028
The name of Yaroslav Khramtsevich has come up in conversations Uni-X Labs were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Egor Snapkov beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
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.
Match12 Aug 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
“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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Anton Yablonski and Uni-X Labs agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market14 Aug 2028
“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.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Aliaksandr Kendysh left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Aug 2028
Egor Snapkov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Aug 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
The paperwork begins on Ivan Bykau
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Uni-X Labs have done the hard part with Minsk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ruslan Belov and Uni-X Labs agree another 3 years.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Ruslan Belov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lida have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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 terraces7 Aug 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Yahor Nekhaichik 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yaroslav Khramtsevich did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Match29 Jul 2028
The run at home goes on for Uni-X Labs
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Match29 Jul 2028
It finished 3‑1, and it was Vladimir Popov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Uni-X Labs.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Turovets was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces31 Jul 2028
At 20 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.
Match29 Jul 2028
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Vladimir Popov in the middle of it, and Niva unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Vostrov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Veniamin Kostyukovich is on it.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market24 Jul 2028
The clock does Artur Kats’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Uni-X Labs could ask drops and the wages Artur Kats can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Jul 2028
“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 dugout17 Jul 2028
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Squad17 Jul 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Match15 Jul 2028
0‑1 to Volna Pinsk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Jul 2028
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Aliaksandr Kendysh left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Yan Pavlov 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 dugout17 Jul 2028
Nobody at Uni-X Labs 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.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitaliy Urbanovich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Jul 2028
“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.
Market10 Jul 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Uni-X Labs people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
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Market10 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match8 Jul 2028
The run at home goes on for Uni-X Labs
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Uni-X Labs asked and Lida said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces10 Jul 2028
At 22 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 Jul 2028
A 1‑0 win over Baranovichi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Jul 2028
“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 dugout3 Jul 2028
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Market3 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match1 Jul 2028
No end in sight to Uni-X Labs's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Uni-X Labs has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ilya Rabeshko and Uni-X Labs agree another 4 years.
Player ratings3 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Jul 2028
Level with 94 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Uni-X Labs had all but put away. Orsha will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
Uni-X Labs have made the call to Dinamo Minsk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Jun 2028
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Vladimir Popov will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Uni-X Labs escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Market26 Jun 2028
“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 targets26 Jun 2028
Everything agreed with BATE, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Daniil Chergeyko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jun 2028
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matvey Svidinskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 Jun 2028
Uni-X Labs make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings26 Jun 2028
Vladimir Popov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. 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.
Match24 Jun 2028
It needed Vladimir Popov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Lokomotiv Gomel, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Jun 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
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Squad19 Jun 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Match17 Jun 2028
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Aliaksandr Kendysh to a room that had heard them before.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Dinamo Minsk have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Yahor Nekhaichik and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
“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.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
“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
Upbeat
Market12 Jun 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
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Market12 Jun 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match10 Jun 2028
0‑2 to Neman, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aliaksandr Kendysh after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yaroslav Khramtsevich is on it.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Vostrov 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Jun 2028
“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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
8 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.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
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The dugout5 Jun 2028
Matvey Kovruk: 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.” Uni-X Labs have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market5 Jun 2028
Matvey Kovruk has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Jun 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniil Chergeyko. 3‑2 against Lida, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market29 May 2028
“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.
Squad29 May 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Match27 May 2028
0‑1 to Smorgon, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 May 2028
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout29 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Timofey Statkevich, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 May 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad29 May 2028
Yan Pavlov 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 Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout29 May 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 May 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings22 May 2028
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yaroslav Khramtsevich provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings22 May 2028
No sign of nerves from Egor Snapkov at 20 — 7.80
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Egor Snapkov did not need any: 7.80, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match20 May 2028
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Uni-X Labs have 3 straight wins of it.
The dugout22 May 2028
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Squad22 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match20 May 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yaroslav Khramtsevich. 2‑0 against Osipovichi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout22 May 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Aliaksandr Kendysh could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings15 May 2028
Marked 7.98 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout15 May 2028
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Market15 May 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Yablonski will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match13 May 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vladislav Fezhenko. 2‑1 against Slonim, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad15 May 2028
Daniil Chergeyko 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 terraces15 May 2028
At 20 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.
Player ratings15 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
The dugout15 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Aliaksandr Kendysh kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 May 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings8 May 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout8 May 2028
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Player ratings8 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market8 May 2028
Matvey Kovruk has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 May 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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 terraces8 May 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Vladislav Fezhenko 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.
Market8 May 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mikalai Kavalyou is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings1 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 42. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market1 May 2028
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Match29 Apr 2028
Niva left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market1 May 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yauhen Arlouski 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.
Market1 May 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Uladzislau Filipenko 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.
Market1 May 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ihar Klimovich 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 dugout1 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Timofey Statkevich, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 May 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Apr 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
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Squad24 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Nobody at Uni-X Labs 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.
Market24 Apr 2028
Still no signature from Artur Kats
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Uni-X Labs could get for him.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aliaksandr Ihnatovich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
Looking ahead24 Apr 2028
They sit in position 12 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.