Belarus: Football in the shadow of the autocrat

Vasil Khamutowski is one of the few players from Belarus who were also in demand in Western Europe. At the beginning of the millennium, the former goalkeeper also played in Germany, including for Carl Zeiss Jena and FC Augsburg. Khamutowski played 26 international matches. He enjoyed a good reputation in Belarus. But he wasn’t safe.

After his career, Khamutowski worked as a coach, most recently in Lviv, Ukraine. In 2022 he suffered a knee injury during training. He traveled to Minsk to undergo surgery, but upon arrival he was arrested and detained for 15 days. Afterwards, Khamutowski had to report regularly to the authorities. His coaching career could be over.

Despite this development, Belarus, a close partner of Russia, is allowed to take part in international football matches. This Friday Belarus will be guests in the Nations League in Northern Ireland and on Monday in Bulgaria. As if the escalations of the past few years hadn’t happened.

In the summer of 2020, after the manipulated presidential elections in Belarus, hundreds of thousands demonstrated against the autocrat Alexander Lukashenko. Among them were dozens of athletes, officials and coaches, including former goalkeeper Vasil Khamutowski. “The regime is hitting back hard,” says activist and former handball manager Alexander Apeikin. “Critical voices are demonized and silenced so that protests cannot happen again.”

Apeikin founded the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation with colleagues in 2020. In an open letter they condemned the state’s violence against the demonstrators and called for free elections. More than 2,000 people from the sport signed. In football, players took a video to protest against the crackdown on protests. “Lukashenko viewed athletes as ambassadors for his country,” says Apeikin. “He rejects political statements. Some players can no longer continue their careers – and others don’t want to.”

“Many athletes bowed to the pressure and showed remorse,” says activist Apeikin. “They want to protect their families and friends from repression.”

One of the best Belarusian strikers, Ilya Shkurin, posted the opposition’s white and red flag on Instagram in 2020, along with the message: “I refuse to represent the interests of the national team as long as the Lukashenko regime rules.” Shkurin is now in favor of the Polish one Club Stal Mielec active. He has not traveled to Belarus since the protests.

Other players who also protested but remained in the country were no longer selected for the national team, such as defender Nikolay Zolotov and midfielder Stanislaw Drahun. Some of their colleagues also had to be content with the role of reserves in their Belarusian clubs. “Many athletes bowed to the pressure and showed remorse,” says Alexander Apeikin, who now lives in Ukraine. “Some took part in propaganda videos. They want to protect their families and friends from repression.”

Alexander Lukashenko has long placed confidants from the military, state-owned companies and parliament in sports associations and the sports ministry. Athletes also have connections to the secret service and police. It was therefore not surprising that the Belarusian Football Association called for Lukashenko’s election in 2020 and publicly dropped key players after the protests. “It’s not the best who play, but the politically reliable,” wrote journalist Igor Lenkevich in the online medium Decoder.

But the interventions went deeper. At least a dozen sports officials were sentenced to prison, including rugby official Aliaksandr Danilevich and American football player Rastsislau Stefanovich. In addition, the Krumkachy football club, whose players spoke out against police violence, was demoted from the second to the third league. And high-reach sports media like Tribunewhich reported on protesting footballers, were blocked.

Despite this political influence in football, the Belarusian national team is allowed to play competitive international games. However, since Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which Lukashenko supports, Belarus has had to play its home games outside the country. Usually in Hungary or Serbia, two states that are relatively close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Since the war began in 2022, Belarus has only played one friendly match in Minsk: last June against Russia, which was banned by UEFA. It was the “Game of the Year” for Belarusian state television. The regime did not have to fear protests, says Belarusian journalist Yagor Khawanski, who lives in Lithuania: “The police and secret service have been taking action against subcultures for years. Several ultras were also sentenced to prison terms in show trials.” A fan who protested in 2020 was found dead in a forest. The exact cause of death: unclear.

Protests are only possible abroad. Last week Dinamo Minsk was a guest at Legia Warsaw in the Conference League. Polish fans and Belarusian exiles displayed dozens of banners against Lukashenko. Belarusian television did not broadcast the game. There could be similar images this Friday in Belfast, where the national teams from Northern Ireland and Belarus meet in the Nations League.

So how to deal with Belarus? The footballers from Lithuania did not want to make any compromises in qualifying for the 2025 European Championship. They declined their two games against Belarus. UEFA fined them and scored both games 3-0 for Belarus.