Who reigns supreme on parquet floor?

The Belarusian national futsal team has come into the spotlight

We have got a truly great team! Representatives of the national futsal team are seriously determined to break into the final part of the 2026 UEFA Futsal Euro Championship. Having started the qualifying tournament with a battling draw in Italy (2:2), Aleksandr Chernik’s team confidently dealt with Malta (5:0). Recently they have played two matches with the Finns and emerged victorious in both — 3:0 and 3:1. Thus, our futsal players have already guaranteed themselves the second place in the group and will almost certainly qualify for the playoffs. Yet, there is another goal: to defeat the Italians in a home match and enter the EURO directly, bypassing playoff matches. This team is quite capable of accomplishing such a task!

Sometimes you want to put all the routine politeness behind and quote the phrase of the boy from the movie Seryozha — sincerely and without equivocation: ‘Uncle Petya, are you a fool?’ The Finns definitely pulled a trick. To begin with, they refused to host the Belarusian national team, moving their home match to a neutral venue in Budapest. It seems there is no need to explain what they wanted to prove by doing so, and before whom they wanted to bow and scrape. Yet, at the end of the day, they punished only themselves. The Belarusian team, having received a ban from UEFA to play in Belarus, holds its home matches specifically in Budapest, whereas the ‘hot Finnish guys’ had to play away two matches, in an environment familiar to the opponent. Realising that they were driving themselves into a corner, the Finns became frustrated, which further deteriorated their sportsmanship. They refused to shake hands with their opponent before and after the matches, and also did not grant Belarus the right to broadcast their second ‘home’ match (as if there was no Internet in the world). We do not know if the Finns’ bow was taken into consideration by those to whom it was intended, but normal people responded to such petty dirty tricks simply and clearly — with the same rhetorical question from Georgiy Daneliya’s film referred to above.


As for our players, they reigned supreme! Although the Finnish futsal players are a very serious and reputable opponent, the Belarusians dismantled their opponent into cogs, not for a second allowing them to doubt their superiority. Aleksei Luksha played brilliantly in goal. Team captain Vladislav Selyuk confidently led the squad, Sergei Krykun and Dmitry Shimanovsky showed a stellar performance. However, one should not single out anyone in particular. Aleksandr Chernik’s squad is strong, first of all, by its unity — it is a really coherent team with a capital letter. Their success is by no means spontaneous. The team has been built through the efforts of the coaching staff and the leadership of the Belarusian Futsal Association over a considerable period. There are 12 teams participating in the top league of the national championship, each of which has a decent level. Moreover, the clubs that are fighting for medals are quite a formidable force. The championship is loved by fans — and there are a lot of them in the country — and top matches are held with completely packed stands.
Two more matches are left for the Belarusian national team before the end of the group stage. We will lock horns with the Italians in Budapest on April 11th, and finish the tournament with a match in Malta on April 16th. Interestingly, the final stage of EURO 2026 with the participation of 16 national teams will be held in January-February next year in Belarus’ neighbouring countries — in the arenas of Latvia and Lithuania. Can you imagine how happy the hosts will be to have us as their guests?

By Sergei Kanashits