There have been very few good things about 2020, which has been the most uniquely awful years in most of our lifetimes. People have lost relatives and friends to an incurable, invisible disease. Many more have lost jobs and livelihoods and are reduced suddenly to living from day-to-day, with little clarity on how their long term futures will be secured. It seems likely the the consequences of the pandemic, in terms of finance, mental health, employment, politics and society will be felt for at least a decade to come.
Just about the only good thing for those of us who love football has been getting to know a new league, a new set of clubs and players, and a new country in such close detail since March. In normal times, football provides a backing rhythm for many people's lives. The disappearance of live football in the UK in March silenced that rhythm, as with so many other aspects of daily life. Our involvement with the Belarusian Vysheyshaya Liga and in particular Energetik-BGU has been a wonderful alternative reality to have immersed ourselves in, locked down and cut off so suddenly from the old normality.
During this process we have met many other fans across the UK who have developed the same passion for other clubs in the league. At Energetik we are lucky to be part of one of the most loyal and vocal on-line presences for any of the Belarusian teams. Our English-speaking followers stretch from Canada to the Philippines and most points in between.
Most importantly we have also met virtually many fellow fans and followers of the game from Belarus itself. Some of us are in regular contact with club officials and supporters' groups. Many of these people have been incredibly helpful and patient with inquiries from the English-speaking world and have tried their best with requests for merchandise, player information and the wider geography of the country.
Many of us are now keenly looking forward to visiting Belarus when the pandemic is forced into retreat. Discussions have been on-going for months regarding the best way to get there, flights, where to stay, what we'd all like to do and see when we are not watching football. People have been reading up on Belarusian history, reading Belarusian novels, watching Belarusian films.
Against this backdrop it has been enormously distressing to watch the events unfolding in the country in the last week, since the presidential elections of Sunday, 9 August. Most expected Aleksandr Lukashenko not to give up power, regardless of the result, but few anticipated the scale of the support for the opposition unity candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
Even fewer anticipated the savagery of the police, OMON and KGB in responding to the pro-democracy demonstrations. The most appalling footage of gut-wrenching beatings on television, and tales of torture, life-changing injuries, and death from jails across the country, have disfigured the social media timelines of those following events this week. At the same time the genuine popular uprising across the country, from towns we are more familiar with through the football card- Grodno, Brest, Mozyr, Bobruisk, Soligorsk, Vitebsk, and of course the capital, Minsk, have been astonishing and inspiring to witness.
Of course, talk is cheap, and it is easy to offer an opinion from another country where there are no consequences to us speaking up as we like. Yet, in times such as these, we do not have the luxury of equivocation, false impartiality, hand-wringing or indifference. It's not really human to turn our backs when the country and the people that has provided us with such rich entertainment and fun in the last few months, is convulsed like this.
When we all visit Belarus to see our clubs play a football match, we hope very much that we will be watching the games in the democratic, free and peaceful country that the vast majority so clearly voted for last weekend.
It is in this spirit that we stand, in a spirit of empathy and solidarity, with those demonstrating across Belarus for that future, today.
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