The Belarus national football team ( be, Зборная Беларусі па футболе, Zbornaja Biełarusi pa futbole; russian: Сборная Беларуси по футболу, Sbornaya Belarusi po futbolu) represents

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 R ...

in international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, Kick (football), kicking a Football (ball), ball to score a Goal (sport), goal. Unqualified, Football (word), the word ''football'' normally means the form of football tha ...

and is controlled by the Football Federation of Belarus, the governing body for football in Belarus. Belarus' home ground is Dinamo Stadium in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the adm ...

. Since independence in 1991, Belarus has not yet qualified for a

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

History

After the split of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, Belarus played their first match against

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

on 20 July 1992. Before that, a number of Belarusian players played for the Soviet Union national team. The first

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was foun ...

-recognized international was a friendly against

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...

on 28 October 1992, and their first win came in a match against

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small land ...

on 12 October 1994. Belarus have never qualified for either the

, or the

. The team were defeated by

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

in the last 2002 group stage match, missing the chance to overtake

, who drew their last game, finishing the group second. Their

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

qualifying campaign was very unsuccessful as Belarus lost seven of their eight games. Belarus achieved some success in minor tournaments. In 2002, the team defeated Russia and

to win the LG Cup. In 2004 and 2008, they won the 12th and 14th editions of the Malta International Tournament respectively. During UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying, Belarus finished fourth in their group. With Belarus managing to top their group in the

2018–19 UEFA Nations League D The 2018–19 UEFA Nations League D was the fourth and lowest division of the 2018–19 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the inaugural season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associa ...

, it qualified for the country's first ever play-offs, and the team was scheduled to play against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to th ...

. However, they lost 1–0, the team missed out on a place at Euro 2020. Due to

Belarusian involvement in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Belarus, a close ally of Russia, has supported its eastern neighbour in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Before the start of the offensive, Belarus allowed the Russian Armed Forces to perform weeks-long military drills on its territory; ...

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs fo ...

, the European governing body for

, banned Belarusian national and club teams from hosting international matches and competitions.

Team image

Nickname

In August 2016, the Football Federation announced that the team's nickname would be the "White Wings". The name was influenced by the book The Land Beneath White Wings (1977) by Belarusian writer Uladzimir Karatkevich. The BFF's marketing and communications director said: "We are looking at various ways of establishing links with our literary heritage and cultural traditions", commenting that "If the Belarusian people opt to associate the team with Karatkevich, almost every phrase in the book can be used as a hashtag!"

Home venue

The team played the majority of its home matches at the Dinamo Stadium in

. In late 2012 Dinamo Stadium was closed for renovation and the team started alternating between different home venues. Since September 2021 Central Stadium in

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering ...

, Russia is the home venue because of travel sanctions imposed after an incident with Ryanair Flight 4978.

Kit

In 2011, home colors were changed to all red. All-White became the home colour a short time later and now appears with the pattern on the Belarus flag, with the away kit being in Black in 2016, also using an adidas template and placing the flag pattern on it.

Kit suppliers

Players

Current squad

The following players were called up for

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

es against

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

on 17 and 20 November 2022. ''Caps and goals are correct as of 20 November, after the game against

.''

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up to the Belarus squad during last 12 months. ^INJ Withdrew due to injury
^PRE Preliminary squad / standby
^COV Withdrew due to positive COVID-19 test result

Records

:''Players in bold are still active with Belarus.''

Most appearances

:NB Sergei Aleinikov reached a combined 81 caps and 6 goals for

, CIS and Belarus between 1984–1994.

Top goalscorers

Coaching history

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification

UEFA European Championship

UEFA Euro 2024 qualification

UEFA Nations League

2022–23 UEFA Nations League

Relegation play-outs

Head-to-head record

B-team

Belarus B national team has been assembled a number of times throughout the history to participate in occasional minor friendly matches and tournaments. The team was most recently assembled for participation in 2017 King's Cup in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

on 14–16 July 2017.

References

External links

Belarus Federation of Football
(in Belarusian) (in Russian) (in English)
Belarus
at FIFA

at UEFA
Football.by
(in Russian)
Fan Site of the Belarus National Team
(in Belarusian) {{UEFA teams European national association football teams National sports teams established in 1992 1992 establishments in Belarus