Licka on Belarus: Some refuse to represent, quality of the league went down

He knows Belarusian football very well, as two seasons ago he lifted the trophy for the league winner over his head. Marcel Lička spoke to Aktuálně about the bad atmosphere around and in the team of Thursday’s Czech opponent.

Lička knows the players of both teams very well, having coached Dinamo Brest in Belarus and played for Slavia and Baník Ostrava in the Czech Republic. Only Jaroslav Šilhavy’s implementation team asked him for advice.

Lička retired from the Brest bench in December 2019 and is currently coaching Russian second division club Orenburg. From the September nomination, he led only one player, the other two only fit into the wider nomination.

“I personally know only Pavel Sedek, who was with me for a while in Brest before I let him go on loan to rival Ruch. Artyom Bykov is an unpleasant midfielder, he’s a runner, aggressive. But many experienced players are missing, Denis Laptev, Sergey Kislyak, who has torn cruciate ligaments, the experienced captain Igor Stasevich is missing.”

Belarusian players are basically prevented from moving abroad, because of the political situation in the country they can play only in Russia or Kazakhstan. Some even refuse to represent Belarus because of the regime there, one of them (Mikhail Sivakov) is even being trained by Lychka.

“There are more. But I’d rather not give specific names so as not to hurt them, they are still active in Belarus. Everything can be traced. I know of at least two. The representatives sign a paper saying they stand behind President Lukashenko, some refused and made a cross over themselves.”

The quality of the Belarusian league has gone down a lot, Bate Borislov has lost its name, only Shakhtar Salihorsk is doing well because it has superior financial conditions. Even Lychek’s former employer (Dinamo Brest) didn’t make it to the cups again this year, being knocked out by Viktoria Plzen.

“He is in a bad situation, he has no money. They call me and offer me players to take to the second Russian league, they say they need financial help. Unfortunately, I told them frankly that I am not satisfied with the current quality of the players.”

Source: Aktuálně