Belarus football team prepares to plunge into the unknown

In the coming weeks, something unprecedented will happen in world football. At the height of the club season in the middle of autumn, many players will travel to their national teams. And all because this year, FIFA on the recommendation of the famous coach Arsene Wenger radically reformed the international calendar, changing the usual system of autumn breaks. The main innovation is the merging of September and October windows into one long window. Instead of two separate breaks of 9 days in September and October, there is now a single 16-day block, during which teams can play up to 4 matches. This is done to reduce the number of flights and reduce the burden on players who no longer need to fly twice in the fall to their national teams (especially players from South America, Africa and Asia).

Belarus is also facing such a situation for the first time. The team starts in the fifth Nations League draw, but has never played four official matches in a row before. In Group 1 of League C, our team will host the first match at the Albanian national team on September 26. In three days – the game in Helsinki with the Finns, on October 3 and 6, our team will also have conditionally home games against San Marino and Finland. They will be held in Budapest. Two more games are scheduled for Nov.

The tasks are how to master difficult logistics, how to distribute the load on players, how not to be fooled with the choice of tactics and game combinations. Head coach Viktor Gancharenko has already admitted that he does not have such a large selection of options at his disposal, as, for example, the Germans, who together with new head coach Jurgen Klopp for four matches in September-October called two different squads. However, the Belarusians need to play exclusively to win each match. You can’t take one of the first two places in the group.

From Monday, preparations for the matches will begin 25 players:

Goalkeepers - Pavel Pavlyuchenko (ML Vitebsk), Fedor Lapoukhov (CSKA Sofia, Bulgaria), Andrey Kudravets (Dynamo-Minsk).

Defenders are Kirill Pechenin (“Wings of the Soviets”, Russia), Zakhar Volkov, Kirill Gomanov (both “ML Vitebsk”), Vladislav Malkevich (“Ural”, Russia), Gleb Shevchenko (“Torpedo” Moscow, Russia), Roman Begunov, Vladislav Kalinin (both “Dynamo-Minsk”), Ivan Tikhomirov (“Isloch”).

Midfielders - Max Ebong (CSKA Sofia, Bulgaria), Evgeny Yablonsky (Asteras, Greece), Valery Gromyko, Valery Bocherov, Artem Kontseva (all - "ML Vitebsk"), Alexander Selyava, Evgeny Malashevich (both - "Dynamo-Minsk"), Artem Shumansky ("Akron", Russia), Daniil Galata ("Aris", Cyprus), Anton Kovalev ("Torchel", Russia).

The attackers are Vitaly Lisakovich (Tobol, Kazakhstan), German Barkovsky (Polonia, Poland), Trofim Melnichenko (Port, Portugal), Timofey Simanenka (Gomel).

FIFA INTERNATIONAL WINDOW CALENDAR (EXAMPLE 2026/2027)

November: Standard window lasting 9 days – up to 2 matches.

March: standard window lasting 9 days – up to 2 matches.

• June: summer international window lasting 9 days (unless a major tournament like the World Cup or the Euro is held this year) - up to 2 matches.