Belarusbank - the championship of the Republic of Belarus on football among the teams of the highest league

The first sovereign championship of Belarus took place in 1992. Starting tour was held on April 18 in 7 cities of the country. Early draws were held on the system "autumn-spring", so the first champion was identified on the basis of one lap. Among the 16 teams of the First League (as the elite division was called until 1998), there was no equal for Dynamo Minsk. The flagship of the Belarusian football, previously successfully competing with the best clubs of the USSR, expectedly tried on gold medals. Further, Mogilev Dnipro and Dynamo Brest, who had experience in the second league of the Union Championship, were placed on the pedestal.

Subsequently, the Minsk Dynamo became the first four times in a row. And only Mozyr MPCC was able to interrupt the hegemony of the “white-blue”. In 1999, BATE won the championship title, and in the mid-2000s the era of Borisov's club began: the yellow-blue finished 11 times in a row at the head of the tournament table. In total, the Borisov team won the trophy 13 times, 7 titles from the Minsk Dynamo. Also, the “golden” seasons were in the history of the football clubs “Dnepr-Transmash” (the current “Dnepr”), “Slavia-Mozyr” (which is considered to be the successor of the IPCC), “Belshina”, “Gomel”, and “Shakhtar”.

Since 1996, the championship began to be held on the system "spring-autumn." Not changed the size of the Major League. Until 2000, 16 clubs took part in the competition (in the 1992/1993 season, there were 17 teams as an exception). Then there was a reduction to 14 participants, but after 3 years they returned to the previous formula. However, not for long. Seasons 2005-2007 were held with 14 teams. The main innovations occurred in 2010, when 12 clubs took part in the rally, which revealed the champion in the 3 round tournament, and in the seasons of 2013-2014 in the 4 round with the division into two subgroups of 6 teams. Then in 2015, the number of teams increased again to 14 participants, and a year later - to 16.

In 2012, the championship acquired the first title sponsor in history, which was Alfa Bank. Since 2013, Belarusbank has been in this capacity.