FC BATE Borisov - History

History

BATE is an acronym of Borisov Works of Automobile and Tractor Electric Equipment. The club was founded in 1973 and re-established in 1996. Since 1996, BATE have won the Belarusian Premier League eight times and competed in UEFA competitions.

In 2001, BATE reached the first round of the UEFA Cup, their first appearance in the competition beyond the qualifying rounds. 2008 saw BATE beat Valur, Anderlecht and Levski Sofia to become the first Belarusian team to qualify for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League. In a group also featuring Juventus, Real Madrid and Zenit St. Petersburg, BATE finished at the bottom with three points, having drawn against Zenit in Russia, and both games with Juventus. BATE were drawn in Group I of the inaugural Europa League in 2009–10, along with Portuguese club Benfica, English team Everton and Greek side AEK Athens, but were eliminated in the group stage. In the same competition in 2010–11 they play in Group E along with AZ of the Netherlands and two teams from other former Soviet republics, Dynamo Kyiv of Ukraine and Sheriff Tiraspol from Moldova. They qualified from the group for the Round of 32. Then, they were eliminated in the Round of 32 in the away goals rule by Paris Saint-Germain.

Notable former players of BATE include Alexander Hleb (Stuttgart, Arsenal, Barcelona, and Birmingham City) he has since returned to the club and currently plays for them, Vitali Kutuzov (Milan, Sporting CP, Avellino, Sampdoria, Parma, Pisa, and Bari) and Yuri Zhevnov (FC Moscow, and Zenit St. Petersburg). Having started their professional careers with BATE, all are also now members of the Belarus national team.