// Workers AI · dad joke modeDoes FC Slutsk have a soccer ball? It's a kicking team.
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| Full name | Football Club Slutsk-2024[1][2] | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | Sakharniki (The Sugarmen)[3] | ||
| Founded | 1998 | ||
| Ground | City Stadium, Slutsk | ||
| Capacity | 1,896 | ||
| Owner | Slutsk District Executive Committee[4] | ||
| Head Coach | Aleksandr Gordeychik[5] | ||
| League | Belarusian First League | ||
| 2025 | Belarusian Premier League, 15th of 16 (relegated) | ||
| Website | sfc-slutsk | ||
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FC Slutsk, officially Football Club Slutsk-2024 (Russian: Футбольный клуб «Слуцк-2024») and formerly SFC Slutsk, is a Belarusian association football club based in Slutsk, Minsk Oblast. Founded in 1998 with the backing of the local sugar refinery, the club spent twelve seasons in the Belarusian Premier League between 2014 and 2025 and attracted a global online following during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when the Belarusian league was one of the few in the world still playing. Since early 2025 the club has been run as a state institution of the Slutsk District Executive Committee. As of the 2026 season, Slutsk play in the Belarusian First League, the second tier of Belarusian football.
History
[edit]Origins and predecessor clubs
[edit]There was competitive football in Slutsk as early as 1913,[6] with a Slutsk team entering the third season of the republican competition in 1926, but it did not enter a BSSR competition again until 1936. From the 1940s, the city of Slutsk was represented at a very low level by a team called Slutsk Spartak.[7]
During World War 2, the city's football pitch was the site of "fierce battles" and extensive trench construction. In 1948, the city's executive committee decided to promote and fund football. The same year, the city stadium, originally built in 1935, was rebuilt. In addition to government funding, the city team was funded by the "trade union voluntary sports society and individual enterprises." Despite this, by 1974, the Slutsk team faced financial difficulties and dropped out of the BSSR republican championship. There were short-lived revivals in 1980 and the late 1980s before the city registered a self-supporting club in 1990. The name of the Slutsk team changed frequently in the 1990s, based on sponsorship.[6]
In 1997, there was a new sports center in Slutsk funded by Nikolai Prudnik, of the local sugar refinery. The sports complex created a football team funded by Oleg Karanevsky, a physical educator. It was initially effectively a company team for the sugar plant,[8] with all the players working for the plant, but later players from previous Slutsk representative teams joined. The coach was Alexander Dubitsky.[6]
1998–2019: Professionalisation and growth
[edit]The current team was founded in 1998 as Slutsksakhar Slutsk after success in local futsal and financial guarantees from the sugar refinery.[6] Between 1998 and 2007, they played in the Minsk Oblast championship. In 2008, they joined the Belarusian Second League. In 2010, they finished in second place and were granted a promotion to the First League in 2011. In early 2011, the team changed its name to Slutsk. After becoming a "city club", initially all home matches were played at a stadium in Salihorsk.[9] Starting in 2012, after the expansion of the Slutsk city stadium, with a new administrative building, new stands, and a pitch extension, the team began playing at their proper home ground. The pitch had initially been too small, as a running track around the field had been only 360 meters instead of the standard 400.[6] In 2013, Slutsk became the league leader in home attendance.[7] The town stadium would be further renovated in the 2014 season.
In 2014, the club signed Japanese player Yōsuke Saitō, who would score 7 goals in 17 games in his debut season.
In the 2015 off-season, Slutsk was one of the few Belarusian teams to play friendlies abroad, facing Danish and Russian clubs in Turkey.
In the following seasons, the club went through a series of management changes. In 2015, long-time head coach Yuriy Krot was fired, and replaced by Vyachaslaw Hryharaw, who was also a player. In 2017, Vitaliy Pavlov was appointed head coach.
The same year, Oleg Karanevsky, club chairman, was detained for allegedly taking a bribe.[10]
In 2018, forward Yevgeny Shikavka was the first FC Slutsk player to represent Belarus at the national level.
2020 season: global fame and fandom
[edit]In 2020, the club suffered a financial setback when the major sponsor, a local sugar refinery, withdrew after suffering losses.[7] The decision was made by new management, since the former head was imprisoned.[11][12]
FC Slutsk gained global media attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the Belarusian league was one of the few in the world still playing (along with Nicaragua and Tajikistan – and as of April 2020, Taiwan), an online following began around FC Slutsk, started by Australians who found the name funny.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19] This led to coverage of the club by international media outlets including the BBC, The New York Times, NBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Russia Today, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The new fandom also had financial benefits: when the club's financial problems came to light, online fans raised "over $3,000 in less than two weeks" to help the club, and led to new sponsorship from Parimatch, a Ukrainian betting company.[20][21][8] The movement also led to the adoption of a club song, "We love our Slutsk", composed by Andy Bajana and performed by Yury Trubila,[22][23] which was played at home games starting in April 2020.[24][11]
As of 2020, despite the reduction in financial support from the sugar factory, a majority of players continued to live "on the second floor of the sugar factory dormitory allocated for them".[25]
On 30 June 2020, Slutsk manager Vitaly Pavlov was fired after an extended period of poor performances in the league. His replacement was Alexander Konchits.[26] In October 2020, Konchits was replaced by Alexander Brazevich after the club slipped into the relegation zone.[27]
On November 27, 2020, before the last game of the season against FC Smolevichi, Slutsk announced that most of the team had been diagnosed with COVID-19. Since the result would not affect the league standings, both teams agreed to cancel the game.[28]
2021–2025: Decline, nationalisation, and relegation
[edit]Slutsk remained in the top flight over the following seasons, finishing ninth in 2021, 11th in 2022, eighth in 2023 and ninth in 2024, with Aleksandr Gurinovich succeeding Aleksandr Brazevich as head coach in 2022.[29]
While the pandemic-era online fandom around Slutsk became the topic of academic research as a case study for the sociology of sports fandom,[30] many of the team's international fan partnerships broke down after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Belarus is on the Russian side of the war and fan partnerships with Britain and Australia were seen by the government as contrary to the Belarusian cause. In addition, global viewership had already declined after pandemic lockdowns ended and other football outlets re-opened. In early 2025, the club was reorganised as a state-run institution and formally renamed Slutsk-2024.[1]
In the 2025 season, Slutsk finished 15th of 16 and were relegated to the Belarusian First League, ending a twelve-season stay in the top division.[5][3] Gurinovich left the club, and his assistant Aleksandr Gordeychik was appointed head coach in January 2026.[5]
Current squad
[edit]As of 28 April 2026 [31]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Out on loan
[edit]Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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League and Cup history
[edit]| Season | Level | Pos | Pld | W | D | L | Goals | Points | Domestic Cup | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 3 | 5th | 30 | 15 | 6 | 9 | 53–37 | 51 | ||
| 2009 | 3 | 4th | 26 | 14 | 3 | 9 | 48–37 | 45 | Round of 64 | |
| 2010 | 3 | 2nd | 34 | 25 | 6 | 3 | 79–30 | 81 | Round of 32 | Promoted |
| 2011 | 2 | 5th | 30 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 44–33 | 49 | Round of 32 | |
| 2012 | 2 | 5th | 28 | 15 | 7 | 6 | 59–27 | 52 | Round of 32 | |
| 2013 | 2 | 1st | 30 | 19 | 9 | 2 | 54–19 | 66 | Round of 32 | Promoted |
| 2014 | 1 | 9th | 32 | 11 | 7 | 14 | 26–34 | 40 | Round of 16 | |
| 2015 | 1 | 11th | 26 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 26–30 | 25 | Round of 16 | |
| 2016 | 1 | 12th | 30 | 6 | 12 | 12 | 22–34 | 30 | Quarter-finals | |
| 2017 | 1 | 7th | 30 | 12 | 8 | 10 | 30–34 | 44 | Quarter-finals | |
| 2018 | 1 | 8th | 30 | 11 | 3 | 16 | 26–36 | 36 | Quarter-finals | |
| 2019 | 1 | 11th | 30 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 29–46 | 34 | Quarter-finals | |
| 2020 | 1 | 14th | 29 | 8 | 3 | 18 | 31–55 | 27 | Round of 16 | |
| 2021 | 1 | 9th | 30 | 9 | 8 | 13 | 36–44 | 35 | Round of 16 | |
| 2022 | 1 | 11th | 30 | 7 | 11 | 12 | 26–41 | 32 | Quarter-finals | |
| 2023 | 1 | 8th | 28 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 38–40 | 35 | Round of 16 | |
| 2024 | 1 | 9th | 30 | 11 | 6 | 13 | 26–41 | 39 | Quarter-finals | |
| 2025 | 1 | 15th | 30 | 5 | 6 | 19 | 20–51 | 21 | Round of 16 | Relegated |
Honours
[edit]- Belarusian First League
- Champions (1): 2013
Managers
[edit]
Yuriy Krot (2005–15)- Vyachaslaw Hryharaw (2015–2016)
- Vitaliy Pavlov (2017–2020)
- Alexander Konchits (2020)
- Aleksandr Brazevich (2020–2022)
- Aleksandr Gurinovich (2022–2025)
- Aleksandr Gordeychik (2026–)
References
[edit]- 1 2 "Футбольный клуб «Слуцк» сменил название и стал государственным" [Football club Slutsk has changed its name and become state-owned]. eSoligorsk.by (in Russian). 20 January 2025. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- ↑ "Футбольный клуб «Слуцк-2024»" [Football Club Slutsk-2024] (in Russian). FC Slutsk-2024. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- 1 2 "Александр Гордейчик официально возглавил «Слуцк»" [Aleksandr Gordeychik has officially taken charge of Slutsk]. Sport5.by (in Russian). 5 January 2026. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- ↑ ""Слуцк" будет передан под управление местного райисполкома. У клуба задолженности перед сотрудниками и БФФ" [Slutsk to be transferred to the management of the local district executive committee. The club has debts to its staff and the BFF]. football.by (in Russian). 12 December 2024. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Александр Гордейчик стал главным тренером «Слуцка»" [Aleksandr Gordeychik has become head coach of Slutsk]. football.by (in Russian). 5 January 2026. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "История слуцкого футбола". Наследие Слуцкого края (in Russian). Retrieved April 25, 2020.
- 1 2 3 "Centennial Timeline of Slutsk Football • Слуцк • Газета "Інфа-Кур'ер"". Слуцк • Газета «Інфа-Кур’ер». April 10, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
- 1 2 Parimatch Press, "We Love Our Slutsk | Parimatch Press about FC Slutsk (ФК Слуцк)", April 28, 2020.
- ↑ "Горки :: Портал города". Regiony.BY (in Russian). Retrieved April 25, 2020.
- ↑ "Председателя СФК "Слуцк" задержали. Предположительно, за получение взятки • Слуцк • Газета "Інфа-Кур'ер"". Слуцк • Газета «Інфа-Кур’ер» (in Kyrgyz). September 7, 2017. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
- 1 2 Lusted, Peter, "Saving Slustk", ABC News Australia, aired April 25, 2020.
- ↑ Kalinovskaia, Tatiana; Marchand, Thibaut (April 27, 2020). "Belarusian Football Wins Fans Abroad as Locals Boycott Matches". The Moscow Times. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
- ↑ "FC Slutsk finds unexpected fame with 1,500 fans worldwide". «Белсат ТВ» онлайн. March 22, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
- ↑ "Belarus football's new global following as Belarusian Premier League continues unabated". BBC Sport. April 2, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
- ↑ Dunne, Jessica (April 5, 2020). "What Sports Are Still Being Played Around The World?". 10 daily. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
- ↑ "Belarus' Global League: Sport during the coronavirus era", SBS Dateline, April 24, 2020.
- ↑ "In Belarus, unlike most places, soccer plays on despite virus". NBC News. April 20, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
- ↑ Post, South China Morning (April 7, 2020). "Coronavirus: football stands firm in Belarus, Tajikistan, Burundi, Nicaragua". LINE TODAY. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
- ↑ "How a Band of Australians Made Belarus Soccer an Internet Smash". The New York Times. May 12, 2020. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
- ↑ Lusted, Peter (April 24, 2020). "How Australians in shutdown suddenly became a Belarusian soccer club's number one fans". ABC News. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
- ↑ Fundraiser by Shane Robinson : FK Slutsk Worldwide Official Donation Fund, Apr 24, 2020.
- ↑ Trubila, Yury, "FK SLUTSK WORLDWIDE ANTHEM – WE LOVE OUR SLUTSK (Гимн ФК Слуцк)", YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91axfV3yiY.
- ↑ Young Climate Activists vs. Clive Palmer, Hack, Triple J, Wednesday 13 May 2020.
- ↑ Reich, Stephan (April 24, 2020). "Fleisch pökeln, Tampons verzieren". SZ Magazin (in German). Retrieved April 24, 2020.
- ↑ ""Slutsk" is a like a warm-hearted Soviet movie. Some words about "Slutsk" from within". Sports.ru (in Russian). 13 May 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
- ↑ Announcement by SFC Slutsk, June 30, 2020.
- ↑ Announcement by SFC Slutsk, October 6, 2020.
- ↑ NEXT MATCH CANCELED!, SFC Slutsk, November 27, 2020.
- ↑ "Belarus – Premier League 2024". Soccerway. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- ↑ Fiadotava, Anastasiya (2021). ""We came for the Sluts, but stayed for the Slutsk": FK Slutsk Worldwide Facebook page between ironic and genuine football fandom". HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research. 34 (2): 259–282. doi:10.1515/humor-2021-0007. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- ↑ FC Slutsk squad