Photos and Words: @thefabjab
In a closed airport café, I made my final preparations for entry into Belarus.
Armed with a new smartphone, my passport as the most sacred of all documents and my insurance papers folded twice, I ignored the advice of my friends and family not to take this trip.
At 5 am, I boarded the bus from Vilnius to Minsk. The Lithuanian capital is currently the best and least expensive option.
Although the journey was supposed to take three hours on paper, the border officials on both sides managed to extend the travel time to seven hours.
After we passed the last barrier, the bus driver told me we’d been lucky it had gone so quickly today.
Packed terraces and a vibrant ultras culture were once a common sight in various Belarusian stadia, but no longer seem to be the order of the day.
The Soviet railway lines cut straight through Belarus, connecting Kaliningrad and Moscow. 50km from the Russian border, in Orsha, the once-famous Dynamo Minsk were set to meet league newcomer FK Maxline Vitebsk.
Surprisingly, almost 200 fans from Vitebsk followed their club to the Russian border, while Dynamo had just around 50 fans in attendance.
The highlight of the short trip was Dynamo Brest´s home game the following day. Located at the other end of the country, on the Polish border, they welcomed FC Slutsk.
Given the current situation in Belarusian football, the stadium was well filled with 6,695 spectators, and a small group of supporters also seemed to be gathering again in Brest.
Even stranger, though, was the sight of about 200 soldiers from a local unit, all dressed in green, who attended together and eventually joined in chants for the home side.
Here in Brest, one almost had the feeling that football triggers something like euphoria among the city´s residents.
It is no coincidence that they have by far the highest average attendance in the country.
The contrast could not have been sharper the next day at FC BATE Borisov. Once the pride of Belarusian football, the club from a modest town of 140,000 famously hosted Real Madrid and Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
The official figure of 1,755 was again eye-catching. Once again, a detachment of local soldiers swelled the numbers, while the only attempts at chanting came from a handful of children in the stands.
One can only hope that the situation in the country and Eastern Europe will revive to such an extent that solid structures can be re-established in the stands.
