FC Slutsk

The City Stadium in Slutsk holds fewer than 2,000 people — 1,896 seats, by official count — a ground built for a town, not a title challenge, and one match day there rarely stretches its limits. It has been home to the club since long before anyone in Minsk paid Slutsk much attention.

The team traces back to 1998, though it took a decade before it turned professional in 2008. Locals still call the players Sakharniki — the Sugarmen — a name left over from the years when the town's sugar refinery kept the club afloat financially, long after the factory's role in running things had faded.

Yuri Krot took charge in 2005 and stayed a decade, the kind of tenure that reshapes a small club from the inside. Under him Slutsk climbed out of the lower divisions, and in 2013 they won the First League to reach the Higher League for the first time. Four years later came the club's high point: seventh place in the top flight in 2017, plus a run to the Belarusian Cup semi-final the same year. Evgeny Shikavka, who came through the club, became the first Slutsk player called up to the national side that year.

Alexander Brazevich took over in 2020 and got the club through that season without a relegation scare, a result that mattered more than it might read on paper for a side with Slutsk's budget. Alexander Gurinovich succeeded him in 2022 and stayed until 2025.

That year brought a change of a different kind: from January 2025 the club passed under the management of the Slutsk district executive committee and became a state institution, now registered as FC Slutsk-2024. On the pitch, the season ended in relegation, Slutsk finishing 15th in the Higher League. The Sugarmen head back into the First League looking to repeat what they managed in 2013.