COVID-19 is winning the match against football. Except for a few and far-out locations, the pandemic has quietly and rapidly shut down almost 90% of world football.
After the Nigerian Premier League was suspended on Wednesday evening, and even the Palestinian League, the last active league in the Middle East, faced its first postponement. The general feeling is that the pandemic is more significant than the game. It's almost unlikely to see a professional football match nowadays. The world is in quarantine.
Belarusian Premier League, Vysshaya Liga
On the day that the English Premier League has announced they are delaying their return to April 30th, the Belarusian Vysshaya Liga has kicked off a new season. Yes. A new season has opened in Belarusian football. A country where, according to reports, there are zero coronavirus cases.
The season’s opening match included Energetic BGU from Minsk and the national mega-club BATE Borisov.
BATE is an acronym of Borisov Automobile and Tractor Electronics, and it is the most popular club in Belarus. In the past two decades, BATE is essentially Belarusian football. The club has won 12 consecutive titles between 2006 to 2018. In addition, the club is so dominant in the local scene that it is participating in European competitions for 20 years straight - since its debut season in the 1999-2000 edition of the UEFA Cup.
Last year BATE surprisingly lost the title to Dynamo Brest. Still, prior this new season, the club from Barysaŭ, a city near the Berezina River, had the hopes to jump back to their familiar place - the undoubted champions of Belarusian football.
On the opening match-day, Energetik BGU had different plans for the giants. Energetik is a much smaller club than BATE and practically started their way at the end of the 1990’s as a university team, representing BGU - the Belarusian Government University. The first half was all about the Uzbek midfielder, Jasurbek Yaxshiboev, who netted twice on the 26th and 34th minutes. For Yaxshiboev himself, this match was his debut in European football since his signing in for Energetik from AGMK. One thing is sure: the 22-year-old won’t forget this dream start for his new club.
BATE tried to come back in the second half with a goal by Maksim Skavysh six minutes after the hour mark, but this day belonged to Energetik. The locals scored the third on the 88th minute via Montenegrin striker Dušan Bakić, who made his debut as well after he signed this winter from Budoćnost.
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