FC Slutsk, officially Football Club Slutsk-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 Origins and predecessor clubs There was competitive football in Slutsk as early as 1913, 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.
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.
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,Parimatch Press, "We Love Our Slutsk | Parimatch Press about FC Slutsk (ФК Слуцк)", April 28, 2020. with all the players working for the plant, but later players from previous Slutsk representative teams joined. The coach was Alexander Dubitsky.
1998–2019: Professionalisation and growth The current team was founded in 1998 as Slutsksakhar Slutsk after success in local futsal and financial guarantees from the sugar refinery. 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. 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. In 2013, Slutsk became the league leader in home attendance. 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.
In 2018, forward Yevgeny Shikavka was the first FC Slutsk player to represent Belarus at the national level.
2020 season: global fame and fandom
In 2020, the club suffered a financial setback when the major sponsor, a local sugar refinery, withdrew after suffering losses. The decision was made by new management, since the former head was imprisoned.Lusted, Peter, "Saving Slustk", ABC News Australia, aired April 25, 2020.
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."Belarus' Global League: Sport during the coronavirus era", SBS Dateline, April 24, 2020. 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.Fundraiser by Shane Robinson : FK Slutsk Worldwide Official Donation Fund, Apr 24, 2020. The movement also led to the adoption of a club song, "We love our Slutsk", composed by Andy Bajana and performed by Yury Trubila,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. which was played at home games starting in April 2020.
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".
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.Announcement by SFC Slutsk, June 30, 2020. In October 2020, Konchits was replaced by Alexander Brazevich after the club slipped into the relegation zone.Announcement by SFC Slutsk, October 6, 2020.
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.NEXT MATCH CANCELED!, SFC Slutsk, November 27, 2020.
2021–2025: Decline, nationalisation, and relegation
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.
While the pandemic-era online fandom around Slutsk became the topic of academic research as a case study for the sociology of sports fandom, 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.
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. Gurinovich left the club, and his assistant Aleksandr Gordeychik was appointed head coach in January 2026.
Current squad As of 25 August 2026 FC Slutsk squad
Out on loan
League and Cup history SeasonGoalsPointsDomestic CupNotes 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 Belarusian First League Champions (1): 2013
Managers 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
External links