Belarusian Premier League Reserves Championship is an annual competition for the reserve teams of Belarusian Premier League clubs.
Contents
History
The competition was established in 2001. Prior to 2001, most of Belarusian Premier League clubs had their reserve teams or affiliated farm clubs playing in lower divisions of Belarus football league system. After the reserve league creation, all Premier League clubs created the new reserve teams to participate in it, and most of old reserve teams were folded, either immediately or in next several years.
Several Premier League clubs with developed youth system still continue running separate farm clubs in the First or Second League, most notably Minsk-2 and Bereza-2010 (current Dinamo Minsk farm club). Furthermore, a number of clubs, that have relegated from Premier League and thus lost a spot in a Reserves League, continued running the reserve team in the Second League for some time. As of 2014, only one such team (Vitebsk-2) is active.
Format
The format of each season of the league is virtually identical to that of respective Premier League season. There is no promotion or relegation depending on the season's final table. Instead, only the reserve teams of current Premier League members are admitted for each season. Match schedule of each season follows closely the calendar of Premier League, except all games are played one day earlier than seniors' game. For the 2013 and 2014 seasons, only the First Round fixtures counted as a Championship games. Fixtures of the Second Phase were played as a part of Belarusian Reserves Cup.
Belarusian Reserves Cup
For the 2013 and 2014 seasons, the Premier League format included two phases: 12 teams in a double round-robin league followed by a Championship playoff group and Relegation playoff group. The same groups were used for the Reserves Cup tournament. Winners of both groups played a final game at the end of the season.