Since the start of its new season earlier in March, the league has extended its reach into ten international territories, according to the Reuters news agency.
Among the broadcast deals reported, TV networks in neighbouring Russia and Ukraine, as well as countries further afield such as Israel and India, have snapped up rights to the league.
The Belarus Football Federation (ABFF) has refused to postpone play while the country is taking a more relaxed approach to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“What is clear is that this situation has never happened before in our country’s competition. [Previously] it was difficult for us to sell,” said ABFF spokesperson Alexander Aleinik on the national football body’s website.
With the Belarusian Premier League not signalling its intent to halt competition as this stage, it is sure to delight fans around the world who are craving something to watch, after having their local leagues suspended and postponed with no clear date of resumption.
“We didn’t expect them to have a decent league over there. We didn’t know this before because we didn’t show the matches,” said Viktor Samoilenko, the head of Poverkhnost Ukraine, which owns the country’s Sport-1 network.
The decision to continue playing comes with the Belarusian government deciding not to enforce the COVID-19 social distancing measures seen in other countries. Those regulations elsewhere have created a near-total shutdown of live sports events.
It means that as we’ve seen with some competitions previously, the league will look to continue operating as per normal until it is deemed too unsafe or recommended not to by their government.
It has definitely proved to be a unique approach by the people of Belarus and could serve as one of the few welcome distractions to what is happening around the world.
At the time of reporting, there have been 163 reported cases of coronavirus in Belarus, including 2 reported deaths and 53 patients who have made full recoveries. At the moment Belarus has one of the fewest number of cases in the world.
