Alyaksandr Lukashenka criticized the current situation in Belarusian soccer during the opening of the children’s and youth soccer center of the “Dinamo-Minsk” club on September 3.
“We mustn’t accept the mediocre state of today’s football,” said Lukashenka, as BelTA reports.
He said this after the players of the Belarusian national team suffered their second loss in a row in the qualifying tournament for the World Cup 2022. The Belarusians lost their third qualifying game in Group E with a score of 0-1. Before that, the Belarusian team had defeated the Estonian team in Minsk (4:2) and then lost on a visit to Belgium (0:8).
After that, at a meeting about football and the sports industry as a whole, Lukashenka said that there will always be money for good athletes, but he wants good results.
“It’s not true that we will not pay money to good athletes and athletes who show good results. We will pay money, and we will pay good money. We will find the money. But if there are no achievements, forget about it. And you will answer for the money you’ve spent. That’s what I’m telling you, sports officials. There will be no more easy money. And God forbid the State Control Committee reports to me that you have not properly worked out a system of salaries,” warned Lukashenka.
According to him, if an athlete performs for a particular team in sports, they can only count on an average salary.
