The President of Belarus criticizes athletes for poor performance and points his finger at the U21 football team.
On Friday, the President of Belarus criticized his country’s athletes for poor performance and threatened to cut subsidies to athletes to the “average” level for the country, which in July was 1,472 rubles (about 492 euros).
“Everything else will depend on the results. There will be no more easy money, ”Alexander Lukashenko warned when opening the youth center of the Minsk football club Dynamo.
Lukashenko, quoted by the Zerkalo.io portal, guaranteed that the game presented by the Belarusian footballers was “unacceptable”.
The President, in particular, recalled the defeat of the Belarusian youth under 21 in the qualifying match of the European Championship against Iceland, played in Brest. “I don’t understand why they were allowed to enter the field if what they were doing was rest. I was embarrassed by their performance against the Icelanders, ”Lukashenka said about the duel in which Belarus lost 2: 1.
Lukashenko denied accusations by the authorities that they do not invest in the development of sports, and assured that athletes who have shown good results will have the right to receive “good money.”
“We’re going to get this money. But if there are no results, don’t even dream about it, ”he warned, also taking the opportunity to criticize the performance of the national team at the Tokyo Olympics.
Since last year, many Belarusian athletes have condemned the brutal suppression of demonstrations by the country’s security forces, which in many cases cost them reprimands and even illegal arrests.
Last month, sprinter Kristina Tsimanovskaya, a refugee in Poland after clashing with her country’s authorities during the Olympic Games in the Japanese capital, said authorities had banned “all athletes from leaving Belarus to compete, train or even take vacations.”
The plight of Belarusian athletes hit the headlines in Tokyo when the Belarusian Olympic delegation tried to repatriate Tsimanovskaya by force, who was defended by the International Olympic Committee.
Tsimanovskaya auctioned a medal to raise funds for targeted athletes in Belarus and signed a contract with a Polish club to pursue her sports career.
