For many Canadian sports fans Belarus is no doubt synonymous with hockey (or, for the rural among us, tractors). The country’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, wouldn’t have it any other way.
Following an unlikely quarterfinal victory over Sweden at the 2002 Olympic Games the former Soviet border trooper was said to be “rejoicing.” His sports and tourism minister described the triumph as the stuff of dreams. And despite subsequent losses to Canada and Russia (by a combined score of 14-3) the Belarussian team, nicknamed The Bisons, came fourth in the tournament.
Lukashenko, who in 2008 suited up for a team of international all-stars alongside Vyacheslav Fetisov, Jari Kurri, Mats Naslund and the famous “KLM” line of Sergei Makarov, Igor Larionov and Vladimir Krutov, is a lifelong hockey fan. (Nevermind that his on-ice skills are said to be “completely useless.”) And his fondness for the sport comes at the expense of others, such as football, which he reportedly doesn’t much like.
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As a result, and as it tends to be in post-Soviet oligarchies, his personal preferences are, by extension, the preferences of the state. Belarussian football is a charity case compared to a well-funded hockey setup, although several Lukashenko supporters are also stakeholders in the country’s Premier League. Anatoli Kapski is one of them.
Appointed director general of the Barysaw-based Borisov Plant of Automotive and Tractor Electrical Equipment, or BATE, in 2011, Kapski assumed as part of his duties the chairmanship of the city’s football club. They’ve not conceded the title since and on Friday secured a 10th successive championship with a 2-0 win over Vitebsk, competing the third league and cup double in team history.
But it’s the Champions League that Kapski’s BATE Borisov have used to put themselves on the map. They’ve progressed into the group stage of the competition in four of the last five years and in 2012 provided a major upset in the shape of a 3-1 win at home to Bayern Munich. In 2011 they earned a 1-1 draw with AC Milan and have also picked up victories against Lille and Athletic Bilbao.
But their most recent upset came just last month in a Group E showdown with AS Roma in Barysaw. Ahead 3-0 after half-an-hour they withstood a second-half fight-back from the Serie A side and moved into a share of second-place in the bracket with Bayer Leverkusen.
“We talked a lot before the game about psychology, which is a key factor for us,” remarked manager Aleksandr Yermakovich. “I can’t say BATE are ready to beat everyone. Today our plan worked but I can’t say it’ll be the same tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow” happens to be a home match on Tuesday against Barcelona, who are coming off a 5-2 win over Rayo Vallecano in which Neymar bagged a quadruple. BATE right-back Denis Polyakov will have his hands full with the Brazil international, although Yermakovich will surely be preparing another well-organized operation as kick-off approaches.
“I don’t distinguish between defenders and forwards,” he said after the Roma win. “We attack as a team and defend as a team.”
They certainly kept their shape against Roma, at least for the first hour, and will require a similar commitment to unity and concentration to even compete with Barcelona. It’s perhaps appropriate that organization, unity and concentration are the defining characteristics of what remains very much a factory team.
BATE, which underwrites the club, was established nearly 60 years ago as a small workshop tasked by the Soviet administration with making starters for diesel engines. Initially a modest company it currently employs more than 4,000 people and has produced more than 60 million starters since its founding. It also got into the football business in 1973, although its current club dates back only two decades.
Commendably, Kapski and BATE run BATE Borisov at arm’s length. The team isn’t micromanaged by its sponsors, which is something of an anomaly in Belarus. They’ve employed only two managers since 2007 and Yermakovich, appointed in 2013, was an understudy to predecessor Viktor Goncharenko before succeeding him.
It was Goncharenko, hired as a 27-year-old after injuries shortened his playing career, who established the tactical philosophies still espoused by the club, and the success he enjoyed during his six-year tenure had more than a thing or two to do with the opening of the new, UEFA-approved Borisov Arena in 2014.
A small but attractive ground, it will be filled with 13,000 spectators for Tuesday’s Champions League appointment with the holders. Lukashenko, incidentally, all but ordered it built. He knows a winner when he sees one, even if it’s not a hockey team.
It’s BATE Borisov, after all, who are putting Belarus on the map.
Jerrad Peters is a Winnipeg-based writer. Follow him on Twitter