 The typical format of the league involves 16 clubs playing a double round-robin tournament over 30 matchdays (with the exception of shortened 1992 and 1995 seasons, which were a single round-robin tournaments).On several occasions the number of participating teams was smaller (15 or 14), due to last minute withdrawals and no teams available for replacement.In most of the seasons, two best teams are getting promoted to Belarusian Premier League, while two worst teams are relegated Belarusian Second League.