International Friendship Cup tournament on beach football starts in Minsk

From October 16 to 18, the international tournament “Friendship Cup” will be held at the Sand Dune Beach Sports Center in Minsk. Among the participants are the national teams of Belarus, Iran and Oman, writes sb.by.

The Friendship Cup will be the first international tournament to host a new venue. The Beach Sports Center was opened in January 2026. During the work, it has confirmed its reliability and effectiveness. High-quality equipment of the Sand Dune was also noted by the head coach of the Belarusian beach football team Nikolas Alvarado:

- We have perfect conditions. Now this training infrastructure that we have is one of the best in the world. This also applies to the stadium in the fresh air. Of course, we have everything we need to prepare. Now all that matters is the desire to train and work. Those who created these conditions made every effort so that we could fully prepare and show high results. And we really have a desire to make the most of the opportunities and work out what we have to do.

Rivals of Belarusian “beachers” are quite famous. The teams of Iran and Oman have repeatedly participated in the world championships and at the moment are in the top ten ranking of the strongest teams in the world, being on the sixth and tenth lines respectively. Our team in this classification is in fourth place.

The Friendship Cup tournament involves the main composition of the national team. However, the coaching staff also called young players. The team included Maxim Yablonsky, who turned 19 in early October, as well as 18-year-old goalkeeper Nikita Melnichenko. Despite his young age, Nikita already has experience playing for the national team: his debut took place at the Euroleague stage in Batumi last summer. For the first time, invitations to the national squad were received by Daniil Belsky and Ivan Sarochinsky from Metallurg in Molodechno - both born in 2007.

On Friday, October 16, in the first match of the tournament will meet the owners of the sand and the national team of Oman. The Omanis will meet with the Iranians on Saturday. The competition will end on Sunday with a match between Belarus and Iran. The start of all fights is scheduled for 17:00. Photofact. Training of the national team of Belarus on beach football