The Belarusian First League is the second tier of professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

. It was created in 1992, following the Belarusian independence.

History and format

The typical format of the league involves 16 clubs playing a double round-robin tournament over 30 matchdays (with the exception of shortened

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

and

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

seasons, which were a single round-robin tournaments). On several occasions the number of participating teams was smaller (15 or 14), due to last minute withdrawals and no teams available for replacement. In most of the seasons, two best teams are getting promoted to

Belarusian Premier League The Belarusian Premier League or the Vyšejšaja Liha or the Vysheyshaya Liga ( be, Вышэйшая ліга, russian: Высшая лига, "Top League") is the top division of professional football in Belarus, and is organized by the Belarus ...

, while two worst teams are relegated

Belarusian Second League Belarusian Second League is the third tier of professional football in Belarus. It was established in 1992. History and format A strict number of teams and competition format are not defined for the league. Before the start of each season the for ...

First League in 2019

In 2019, the Belarusian First League will consist of the following 15 teams:

Winners and promoted teams

Teams in bold were promoted to

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

at the end of the season. *¹ Team lost promotion/relegation play-off *² Team was eligible for promotion but was denied Premier League license *³ Team won promotion/relegation play-off but disbanded after the season *⁴ Smorgon promoted from the 6th place

External links

Official website
{{Football in Belarus 2 Second level football leagues in Europe Professional sports leagues in Belarus