The 2022 Belarusian Premier League was the 32nd season of top-tier football in Belarus. Shakhtyor Soligorsk defended their championship winning the fourth league title in club history. The title was subsequently stripped on May 11, 2023 following a match-fixing scandal.[1]
Teams
The 15th-placed team of the last season Smorgon was relegated to the 2022 Belarusian First League, ending their one-year stay in the top division. Sputnik Rechitsa were excluded from the league halfway through the last season and will not play in any league in 2022. Smorgon and Sputnik were replaced by two best teams of 2021 Belarusian First League (Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, promoted to the top-flight for the first time in their history and Belshina Bobruisk, promoted after a one-year absence).
On 28 February 2022 Rukh Brest withdrew from the league, citing financial troubles caused by international sanctions upon club's owner Alexander Zaytsev and an undisclosed Russian company co-owning the club.[2] A few days later they were replaced by Dnepr Mogilev (5th-placed team of last year's First League season).
^ abcdeShakhtyor Soligorsk and Energetik-BGU Minsk were both found guilty of match-fixing by the Football Federation of Belarus and were denied UEFA licenses. As a result, the Champions league spot reserved to the first-placed team was awarded to the third-placed team (BATE Borisov), and the Europa Conference League spots reserved to the second and third-placed teams were awarded to the fourth and fifth-placed teams (Dinamo Minsk and Isloch Minsk Raion). Isloch Minsk Raion were later denied entry to the Europa Conference League due to the organization of match-fixing in 2016 (according to the UEFA regulations, a club can be suspended from European competitions due to the organization of match-fixing, regardless of the time). FC Gomel and FC Minsk did not apply for UEFA licences, and were therefore excluded, so the final Europa Conference League place was awarded to ninth-placed Neman Grodno.[3][4][5]
^Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino qualified to the Europa Conference League as Cup Winners.
Results
Each team plays home-and-away once against every other team for a total of 30 matches played each.