FC Slutsk

FC Slutsk (Belarusian: ФК Слуцк; Russian: СФК Слуцк) is a Belarusian association football club based in Slutsk, Minsk Oblast.

Slutsk
Full nameAthletic Football Club Slutsk[1]
Founded1998
GroundCity Stadium, Slutsk
Capacity1,896
ChairmanVitaliy Bunos[2]
Head CoachAlexander Konchits
LeagueBelarusian Premier League
201911th
WebsiteClub website

History

There was competitive football in Slutsk as early as 1913,[3] with a Slutsk team entering the third season of the republican competition in 1926, but it did not enter a BSSR competition again until 1936. From the 1940s, the city of Slutsk was represented at a very low level by a team called Slutsk Spartak.[4] During World War 2, the city's football pitch was the site of "fierce battles" and extensive trench construction. In 1948, the city's executive committee decided to promote and fund football. The same year, the city stadium, originally built 1935, was rebuilt. In addition to government funding, the city team was funded by the "trade union voluntary sports society and individual enterprises." Despite this, by 1974, the Slutsk team faced financial difficulties and dropped out of the BSSR republican championship. There were short-lived revivals in 1980 and the late 1980s, before the city registered a self-supporting club in 1990. The name of the Slutsk team changed frequently in the 1990s, based on sponsorship.[3]

In 1997, there was a new sports center in Slutsk funded by Nikolai Prudnik, of the local sugar refinery. The sports complex created a football team funded by Oleg Karanevsky, a physical educator. It was initially effectively a company team for the sugar plant,[5] with all the players working for the plant, but later players from previous Slutsk representative teams joined. The coach was Alexander Dubitsky.[3]

The current team was founded in 1998 as Slutsksakhar Slutsk after success in local futsal and financial guarantees from the sugar refinery.[3] Between 1998 and 2007, they played in the Minsk Oblast championship. In 2008, they joined the Belarusian Second League. In 2010, they finished in second place and were granted a promotion to the First League in 2011. In early 2011, the team changed its name to Slutsk. After becoming a "city club", initially all home matches were played at a stadium in Salihorsk.[6] Starting in 2012, after expansion of the Slutsk city stadium, with a new administrative building, new stands, and a pitch extension, the team began playing at their proper home ground. The pitch had initially been too small, as a running track around the field had been only 360 meters instead of the standard 400.[3] In 2013, Slutsk became the league leader in home attendance.[4] The town stadium would be further renovated in the 2014 season.

In 2014, the club hired Japanese player Yōsuke Saitō, who would score 7 goals in 17 games in his debut season.

In the 2015 off-season, Slutsk was one of the few Belarusian teams to play friendlies abroad, facing Danish and Russian clubs in Turkey.

In the following seasons, the club went through a series of management changes. In 2015, long-time head coach Yuriy Krot was fired, replaced by Vyacheslav Grigorov, who was also a player. In 2017, Vitaliy Pavlov was appointed head coach. The same year, Oleg Karanevsky, club chairman, was detained for allegedly taking a bribe.[7]

In 2018, forward Yevgeniy Shikavka was the first FC Slutsk player to represent Belarus at the national level.

In 2020, the club suffered a financial setback when the major sponsor, a local sugar refinery, withdrew after suffering losses.[4] The decision was made by new management, since the former head was imprisoned.[8][9]

FC Slutsk gained global media attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the Belarusian league was one of the few in the world still playing (along with Nicaragua and Tajikistan - and as of April 2020, Taiwan), an online following began around FC Slutsk, started by Australians who found the name funny.[10][11][12][13][14][2][15][16] This led to coverage of the club by international media outlets including the BBC, the New York Times, NBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Russia Today, and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The new fandom also had financial benefits: when the club's financial problems came to light, online fans raised "over $3,000 in less than two weeks" to help the club, and led to new sponsorship from Parimatch, a Ukrainian betting company.[17][18][5] The movement also led to the adoption of a club song, "We love our Slutsk", composed by Andy Bajana and performed by Yury Trubila,[19][20] which was played at home games starting in April 2020.[21][8]

As of 2020, despite the reduction in financial support from the sugar factory, a majority of players continued to live "on the second floor of the sugar factory dormitory allocated for them".[22]

On 30 June, 2020, Slutsk manager Vitaly Pavlov was fired after an extended period of poor performances in the league. His replacement was Alexander Konchits.[23]

Current squad

As of August 2020 [24]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
3 FW  BLR Yevgeniy Apanasovich
4 DF  BLR Vitali Trubila
7 MF  UKR Yuriy Teterenko
8 MF  BLR Yegor Semenov
9 FW  RUS Artyom Serdyuk
11 MF  BLR Vladislav Sychev
12 FW  BLR Pavel Zuyevich
15 DF  BLR Andrey Rum
17 DF  NGA Umar Bala Mohammed
18 DF  BFA Souleymane Koanda
22 MF  BLR Yevgeniy Velko
23 MF  BLR Igor Bobko
No. Pos. Nation Player
24 MF  BLR Yury Kazlow
25 DF  UKR Serhiy Chebotayev
30 GK  BLR Ilya Branovets
34 GK  BLR Barys Pankrataw
35 GK  BLR Ilya Velich
55 DF  BLR Alyaksandr Anyukevich
59 DF  BLR Roman Krivulkin
71 MF  RUS Marat Burayev
78 FW  BFA Abdoul Gafar Sirima
88 MF  BLR Igor Mikhnovets
99 MF  BFA Dramane Salou

League and Cup history
Season Level Pos Pld W D L Goals Points Domestic Cup Notes
200835th30156953–3751
200934th26143948–3745Round of 64
201032nd34256379–3081Round of 32Promoted
201125th301310744–3349Round of 32
201225th28157659–2752Round of 32
201321st30199254–1966Round of 32Promoted
201419th321171426–3440Round of 16
2015111th26671326-3025Round of 16
2016112th306121222-3430Quarter-finals
201718th301281030-3444Quarter-finals
201818th301131626-3636Quarter-finals
2019111th30971429-4634Quarter-finals
2020110th1453617-2118Round of 16After 14 rounds

Honours

Managers
gollark: * magna
gollark: * magna
gollark: brb, going to spoil a mangma
gollark: I mostly don't *do* anything, so don't worry.
gollark: Not the same thing as actual lax rules.

References
  1. "Общественное объединение "Спортивный футбольный клуб "Слуцк"". Sfc-slutsk.by. СФК "Слуцк". Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  2. "In Belarus, unlike most places, soccer plays on despite virus". NBC News. April 20, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  3. "История слуцкого футбола". Наследие Слуцкого края (in Russian). Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  4. "Centennial Timeline of Slutsk Football • Слуцк • Газета «Інфа-Кур'ер»". Слуцк • Газета «Інфа-Кур’ер». April 10, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  5. Parimatch Press, "We Love Our Slutsk | Parimatch Press about FC Slutsk (ФК Слуцк)", April 28, 2020.
  6. "Горки :: Портал города". Regiony.BY (in Russian). Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  7. "Председателя СФК «Слуцк» задержали. Предположительно, за получение взятки • Слуцк • Газета «Інфа-Кур'ер»". Слуцк • Газета «Інфа-Кур’ер» (in Kyrgyz). September 7, 2017. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  8. Lusted, Peter, "Saving Slustk", ABC News Australia, aired April 25, 2020.
  9. Kalinovskaia, Tatiana; Marchand, Thibaut (April 27, 2020). "Belarusian Football Wins Fans Abroad as Locals Boycott Matches". The Moscow Times. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
  10. "FC Slutsk finds unexpected fame with 1,500 fans worldwide". «Белсат ТВ» онлайн. March 22, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  11. Today, Russia (March 31, 2020). "The story of FK Slutsk, football's unlikely Belarusian heroes". RT International. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  12. "Belarus football's new global following as Belarusian Premier League continues unabated". BBC Sport. April 2, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  13. Dunne, Jessica (April 5, 2020). "What Sports Are Still Being Played Around The World?". 10 daily. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  14. "Belarus' Global League: Sport during the coronavirus era", SBS Dateline, April 24, 2020.
  15. Post, South China Morning (April 7, 2020). "Coronavirus: football stands firm in Belarus, Tajikistan, Burundi, Nicaragua". LINE TODAY. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  16. "How a Band of Australians Made Belarus Soccer an Internet Smash". The New York Times. May 12, 2020. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  17. Lusted, Peter (April 24, 2020). "How Australians in shutdown suddenly became a Belarusian soccer club's number one fans". ABC News. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  18. Fundraiser by Shane Robinson : FK Slutsk Worldwide Official Donation Fund, Apr 24, 2020.
  19. Trubila, Yury, "FK SLUTSK WORLDWIDE ANTHEM - WE LOVE OUR SLUTSK (Гимн ФК Слуцк)", YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91axfV3yiY.
  20. Young Climate Activists vs. Clive Palmer, Hack, Triple J, Wednesday 13 May 2020.
  21. Reich, Stephan (April 24, 2020). "Fleisch pökeln, Tampons verzieren". SZ Magazin (in German). Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  22. ""Slutsk" is a like a warm-hearted Soviet movie. Some words about «Slutsk» from within". Sports.ru (in Russian). Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  23. Announcement by SFC Slutsk, June 30, 2020.
  24. FC Slutsk squad
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