Mini is maxi

Belarus’ national team at the European championship: not long to wait

The full list of participants for the European Futsal Championship has been determined. The national teams of Belarus, Armenia, Belgium, Hungary, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Ukraine, France, Croatia and the Czech Republic will play in the final stage. The tournament will take place from January 21st to February 7th, 2026 in Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Moment from match between Belarus’ national team and FC Stalitsa Minsk 

Fans of traditional football, tired of traditional defeats of our national team, would do well to turn their eyes to other variations of the popular game. In beach soccer, Belarus’ national team played in the world championship’s final this year and came third in the Euro League, and next year, I am sure, there will be a lot of talk about mini-football, aka futsal. 
Belarus’ national team will play in the final stage of the European championship for the second time in its history. What is important, they will play under their own flag, and this attempt will certainly not be a dull one.

When else would UEFA change the rules of the competition to suit the interests of our team exclusively (well, and common sense too!)?

Faced with the persistent unwillingness on the part of the original hosts of the championship — Lithuania and Latvia — to see the Belarusian team, the UEFA decided to add neutral Slovenia to the number of hosts. Moreover, following Belarus’ national team, the semifinal and final matches have been scheduled in Ljubljana, as an encouragement to Slovenians and a punishment to the Baltic States.
The draw for the final stage is still a month away, but for now we must admit that our futsal players are preparing for the European championship in nearly extreme conditions. In July, the team’s plans were adjusted due to a mass information failure at Moscow and St Petersburg airports. The airline Aeroflot’s services were attacked by hackers, which led to a disruption of communications across the entire corporate network. As a result, dozens of flights were cancelled, and others were delayed. One such flight was to Bangkok — and our national team almost missed the start of the prestigious tournament, the Continental Futsal Championship. There, our lads won against the national teams of Zambia, Australia and Chinese Taipei, lost to Saudi Arabia and Thailand, and finished third. September brought new anxieties. When the team was holding a training camp in Malorita and preparing to travel by bus to Serbia for friendly matches, news broke of the treacherous closure of the border by the Poles. The players were forced to spar with teams from the national championship.
In October, the Belarusians are expecting an unknown team from China to visit, and football fans, one would hope, have already begun studying the ‘technical specifications’ of Belarusian mini-football. And rightly so, because the champion there is VitEn (two decades ago this team was created on the basis of the Orsha CHP plant), and among the participants of the championship are BCH (Belarusian Railway, from Gomel), VRZ (formerly VetRaZ, now the team from Gomel Carriage Works), CKK (Svetlogorsk Pulp and Cardboard Mill), SCC (State Customs Committee) and UVD. 
Our mini is not mini at all. It is indoor football — may be small, but constantly growing.

By Sergei Gordiyenko