Fan Boycott: Belarus Football Championship Starts with Empty Grounds

The total number of fans who attended the first round matches this year is 58.5% less than last season.

Attendance of matches of the Belarusian football championship has halved. Journalists by.tribuna.com analyzed the data on the first tour of the championship and found that the total number of fans who attended the matches of the first round was 58.5% less than last season.

Last year, Week 1 welcomed 1,309 people, this year - only 544.

The most mass and the most "unnoticed" games were held at the same stadium - FC Minsk. Many fans attended the match Dinamo Minsk - Torpedo-BelAZ (993), least of all - Isloch - Slavia (only 180).

We shall recall that fans of almost all major league clubs announced their intention to boycott matches because of the situation in the country. The fan team of Brest Dinamo was the first to announce it on Instagram. Then there was a domino effect: fans of Nyoman, Slutsk, BATE, Molodechno, Vitebsk, Minsk and other clubs made similar statements. The main reason was the disagreement with the developments in the country.

"We do not agree with the fact that there is a legal collapse in the country; there are no human rights; the institutions of investigation, courts and prosecution are destroyed. Of course, we do not agree with the fact that our country is sinking into an economic, humanitarian and political abyss," one of the fans of Minsk Dinamo explained to Euroradio the reasons for the boycott.