FC BATE Borisov
Also written as BATE.
The club
BATE is an acronym of Borisov Automobile and Tractor Electronics, the Soviet-era plant in the Belarusian town of Borisov that gave its name to the works football team founded in 1973. That original club won the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic league three times, in 1974, 1976 and 1979, before it was disbanded in 1984. The club was re-established in its present form by Anatoli Kapski in 1996 and within a decade had become the dominant force in Belarusian football.
The home ground is the Borisov Arena, opened in 2014 with a capacity of 13,126. The club's colours are yellow and dark blue and the nickname is Zholto-Sinie, the Yellow-Blues. The chairman is Andrei Kapski and the head coach is Vital Rahozhkin.
Recent seasons
BATE were runners-up in the Belarusian Premier League in 2019 with 70 points, in 2020 with 58 and in 2021 with 65, then third in 2022 on 59 points. Results have fallen away sharply since: fifth in 2023 with 47 points, eighth in 2024 with 40, and tenth in 2025, also on 40 points. Through 17 matches of the 2026 season the club have won only two, drawn eight and lost seven for 14 points, 12 goals scored and 19 conceded, and sat 14th of 16 in the table, a position that currently carries a relegation play-off place. That is uncharted territory for a club that spent well over a decade as the country's dominant side.
Honours and landmarks
BATE have won the Belarusian Premier League fifteen times: in 1999 and 2002, then thirteen consecutive titles from 2006 to 2018. They have not won the league since 2018. The club have also won the Belarusian Cup six times, in 2005-06, 2009-10, 2014-15, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2025-26, and the Belarusian Super Cup eight times, in 2010, 2011, every year from 2013 to 2017, and 2022.
In 2008 BATE became the first Belarusian club to reach the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, and went on to do so four more times, in 2011-12, 2012-13, 2014-15 and 2015-16. No other Belarusian club has reached the Champions League group or league phase.
Notable scorelines
The best-remembered result in the club's history is a 3-1 home win over Bayern Munich in the 2012-13 Champions League group stage, one of the shock results of that campaign; Bayern won the return leg in Munich 4-1 and went on to win the competition outright that season. BATE also beat Roma 3-2 at home in the 2015-16 group stage and held them to a 0-0 draw in Rome, and drew twice with Juventus, 2-2 at home and 0-0 away, in their first-ever Champions League group campaign in 2008-09.
The heaviest defeats on record came against Barcelona: 0-5 at home and 0-4 away in the 2011-12 group stage, then 0-2 at home and 0-3 away in 2015-16. BATE also lost home and away to AC Milan in the 2001-02 UEFA Cup, 0-2 and 0-4.
On 16 May 2026, BATE won the Belarusian Cup for the sixth time, beating Dinamo Minsk at the National Football Stadium in Minsk in front of 21,137 spectators. Artem Sokolovskiy put Dinamo ahead in the 28th minute before Kirill Apanasevich equalised for BATE in the 63rd; the match finished 1-1 after extra time and BATE won the penalty shootout 8-7.
The club's all-time record win and record defeat, domestic or European, were not established from the sources read here.
European record
BATE's European history dates to UEFA Cup qualifying in 1999-2000. Details of the earliest campaigns were not established from the sources read here beyond a home-and-away UEFA Cup first-round defeat to AC Milan in 2001-02, lost 0-2 and 0-4.
2008-09 brought the club's breakthrough: BATE became the first Belarusian side to reach the Champions League group stage, drawn into Group H with Real Madrid, Juventus and Zenit Saint Petersburg. They drew both games with Juventus, 2-2 at home and 0-0 away; their results against Real Madrid and Zenit were not established from the sources read here.
BATE returned to the group stage in 2011-12, again in a group with Barcelona and AC Milan, plus Viktoria Plzeň. They lost 0-5 at home and 0-4 away to Barcelona, and drew 1-1 at home with Milan before losing 0-2 away; the results against Plzeň were not established from the sources read here.
2012-13 produced the win over Bayern Munich described above, in a group that also contained Valencia and Lille; BATE's results against those two clubs were not established from the sources read here. BATE reached the Champions League group stage again in 2014-15, though the opponents and results of that campaign were not established from the sources read here.
The fifth and, to date, last Champions League group-stage appearance came in 2015-16, in a group with Barcelona, Roma and Bayer Leverkusen. BATE beat Roma 3-2 at home and drew 0-0 away, and lost both games to Barcelona as above; the result against Leverkusen was not established from the sources read here. BATE also reached the UEFA Europa League group stage four times, in 2009-10, 2010-11, 2017-18 and 2018-19, though the opponents and results of those campaigns were not established from the sources read here.
Since 2021, BATE's European football has been in the qualifying rounds of the third-tier UEFA Europa Conference League. They lost in the second qualifying round of 2021-22 to Dinamo Batumi of Georgia, winning 1-0 away before losing 1-4 at home, out 2-4 on aggregate. In 2022-23 they lost in the second qualifying round to Konyaspor of Turkey, 0-3 at home and 0-2 away. BATE also entered qualifying rounds across the three UEFA club competitions in 2023-24, though the specific rounds, opponents and scores were not established from the sources read here.
UEFA has barred Belarusian clubs and the national team from hosting competitive matches inside Belarus since March 2022, over Belarus's role in the invasion of Ukraine; Belarusian sides have played their "home" European fixtures at neutral venues in Hungary and Serbia. Whether that arrangement still applied to BATE's specific home legs in the 2026-27 qualifying rounds described below was not established from the sources read here.
Head-to-head notes
BATE have met Barcelona in two separate Champions League group campaigns, 2011-12 and 2015-16, and lost all four matches without scoring: 0-5, 0-4, 0-2 and 0-3. They have also met AC Milan twice, in the 2001-02 UEFA Cup and the 2011-12 Champions League group stage, taking a single point from four games, a 1-1 home draw in the second meeting, and conceding ten goals for one scored across the four ties.
Right now (2026/27)
Vital Rahozhkin is the head coach. Domestically, BATE are having their worst season in living memory: 14th of 16 in the Belarusian Premier League after 17 rounds of the 2026 season, with two wins, eight draws and seven defeats, and sitting in a relegation play-off position, a stunning fall for a club that won thirteen straight titles between 2006 and 2018. They did win the Belarusian Cup in May 2026, beating Dinamo Minsk on penalties as described above.
In Europe, BATE entered the 2026-27 UEFA Conference League as a seeded club in the first qualifying round, drawn against AF Elbasani of Albania. They drew 1-1 away and then 0-0 after extra time in the home leg, going through 5-4 on penalties. In the second qualifying round they were eliminated by FC Sion of Switzerland, losing 4-0 away before drawing 1-1 in the home leg, out 5-1 on aggregate. BATE Borisov are therefore not currently in UEFA competition for 2026-27, having gone out at the second qualifying round stage; Belarusian clubs remain eligible to enter UEFA competitions this season, contrary to any assumption of an outright ban, but BATE's own campaign is already over.
The full details of BATE's summer 2026 transfer business, and the exact dates and venues of the Elbasani and Sion ties, were not established from the sources read here.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_BATE_Borisov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus_national_football_team https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Belarusian_Premier_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AF_Elbasani https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Sion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Belarusian_Cup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.