Ukrainian Premier League

Ukrainian Premier League

Founded	1991 (Vyshcha Liha) 2008 (Premier League)
Country	Ukraine
Confederation	UEFA
Number of teams	12
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Ukrainian First League
Domestic cup(s)	Ukrainian Cup Ukrainian Super Cup
International cup(s)	UEFA Champions League UEFA Europa League
Current champions	Shakhtar Donetsk (10th title) (2016–17)
Most championships	Dynamo Kyiv (15 titles)
Website	Official website
2017–18 Ukrainian Premier League

The Ukrainian Premier League (Ukrainian: "Прем'єр-ліга") or UPL is the highest division of Ukrainian annual football championship. As the Vyshcha Liha (Top League) it was formed in 1991 as part of the 1992^[1] Ukrainian football championship upon discontinuation of the 1991 Soviet football championship and included the Ukraine-based clubs that competed previously in the Soviet competitions. In 1996 along with other the professional football leagues of Ukraine, the Top League became a member of the Professional Football League of Ukraine.^[1][2]

In 2008^[3][4] it was withdrawn from Professional Football League of Ukraine and reformed into a self governed entity of the Football Federation of Ukraine, officially changing its name to the current one. Its rank was 8th highest in Europe as rated by UEFA as of 2017.

Among Ukrainian fans the most popular Ukrainian clubs are Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk.^[5] Other popular clubs include FC Dnipro, Karpaty Lviv and Chornomorets Odesa.^[5]

General overview and format

The 2017–18 season is the league's tenth after the restructuring of professional club football in 2008 and the 27th season since establishing of professional club's competition independent from the Soviet Union. As of 2017, Shakhtar Donetsk is the reigning Ukrainian Premier League champion. To summarise, Tavriya Simferopol won the first championship, while all the subsequent titles have gone to either Dynamo Kyiv or Shakhtar Donetsk. Only 3 teams, Dynamo Kyiv, Shakhtar Donetsk and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk have participated in all previous 26 Ukrainian Top League competitions.

On 15 April 2008 the new Premier-League was formed. The new sports organization consists of 12 football club organizations that take control of the league's operations under the statues of Football Federation of Ukraine, UEFA, and FIFA. With the new reorganization the format of the League was preserved, while the changes that were made were exclusively administrative. Competitions continued to be conducted in a double round robin format among 16 clubs. There were couple seasons when the 14-clubs league's composition was experimented. Since the 2014 Russian aggression, the league was reduced to 12 members, while its format also has changed. The season is still being played in a double round robin in the first half of a season, after which the league splits in half into two groups of six (6) teams. Both the top six and the bottom six play another a double round robin tournament with the clubs of own group.

The teams that reach the top ranks of the competition table at the end of each season as always gain the chance to represent Ukraine internationally in several prestigious tournaments (continental club tournaments). Also at the end of the season, the bottom clubs (usually two) are relegated to the First League (part of the lower Professional Football League) and replaced by the top clubs from that league. All the participants of the Premier League enter the National Cup competition and enter it at the round of 32 (1/16th of the final) or Round of 16 stage. Also the winner of the League at the beginning of every next season plays against the winner of the National Cup for the Ukrainian Super Cup (under administration of the Premier League).

Emblem

The old emblem depicts a football that is wrapped around by the blue-yellow stripe (the national colors of Ukraine) on the blue background. Across the top and around the ball there are 16 stars that represent the league's participants (although in 2014 the league was shortened up to 14 teams the emblem was not changed). On the bottom the script says "Premier-League - Union of Professional Football Clubs of Ukraine".

Season regulations

Season regulations is one of the two most important documents (other being the competition calendar) that are adopted by the Premier League prior to each season.

Premier League directly organizes and conducts competitions among member clubs. Competitions are conducted on principle of "Fair play" and according to competitions calendar which is approved by the Premier League General Assembly and the FFU Executive Committee 30 days before start of competitions. Until 2019 all advertisement, commercial rights and rights on TV and radio broadcasting of games of championship and cup belong to the club that hosts them (except for the Ukrainian Cup final, the Super Cup of Ukraine, and the "Gold game"). All advertisement, commercial rights and rights on TV and radio broadcasting of the Ukrainian Cup final belong to the Football Federation of Ukraine, while the game of Super Cup and the "Gold game" - to the Premier League.

There are currently 12 club members of the league. All participants get approved by the Premier League General Assembly. Each club fields each team for senior competitions, and competitions for under 21 and under 19 teams (three teams). A club is required to have a stadium (registered with FFU) and an education and training facility (or center). A club is also obligated to finance its own youth sports institution and a complex scientific-methodical group as well as to own and finance a number of youth teams. A Premier League club needs to ensure participation of at least four youth teams (ages groups between 14 and 17) in the Youth Football League of Ukraine. A club cannot field more than one team for a certain competition.

All club's staff members (coaches, physicians, massage specialists) have to be contracted and be UEFA licensed. All coaches should have A-diploma, while head coaches - PRO-diploma. Football players are listed in "A" and "B" rosters. "A" roster contains no more than 25 players, while "B" roster has unlimited number of players no older than 21 who have professional contracts or agreements for sports training. The 25-players "A" roster includes the number of slots allotted for players developed by the club.

During breaks in competitions in summer and winter there are two periods for registering players.

A championship is conducted after the round robin system in two cycles "fall-spring" with one game at home and another at opponent's field with each participant. A competition calendar is formed after a draw that is conducted based on the Premier League club rankings. The calendar of the second cycle repeats the first, while hosting teams are switched. There should be no less than two calendar days between official games of a club. All games take place between 12:00 and 22:00 local time. Any game postponement is allowed only in emergencies and on decision of the Premier League Administration (Dyrektsiya). Game forfeitures are controlled by technical win/loss nominations and fines, followed by additional sanctions of the FFU Control-Disciplinary Committee, and possible elimination from the league.

Competition calendar

Clubs play each other twice (once at home and once away) in the 26-match season. The league begins in mid-July and ends in mid-June. After 13 rounds of fixtures, there is a winter break that lasts for three months (from early December to early March). Thus, the winter break is significantly longer than the interval between seasons. This schedule accounts for climatic conditions and matches that of most European leagues in terms of the beginning and the end of the season.

The first season of the League in 1992 was an exception, as it lasted only half a year. This was because the last Soviet league season ended in the autumn of 1991, and the Football Federation of Ukraine decided to shift the calendar from “spring-fall” to “fall-spring” football seasons. In the inaugural season, 20 clubs were divided into two 10-team groups. In both groups, each club played each other twice, and the championship was decided by a play-off match between the group winners, in which Tavriya Simferopol surprised the pre-season favorite Dynamo Kyiv.

After the first season, in each of the following seasons each team played each other team in the League twice. The number of participating teams fluctuated between 14 and 18, stabilizing since 2002–03 season at 16.

As of the 2005–06 season, the golden match rule was introduced. According to the rule, if the first two teams obtain the same number of points, the championship is to be decided by an additional "golden" match between the two teams. In fact, in that season Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk had earned the same number of points and Shakhtar won the championship by winning the golden match (2–1 after extra time).

History

The first decade (1992–2000)

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the inaugural independent championship took place hastily at the start of spring 1992 after the creation of the Ukrainian Supreme League (Ukrainian: Вища Ліга, Vyshcha Liha). The League was created out of the six teams that took part in the Soviet Top League, two teams from the Soviet First League, and nine out of the eleven Ukrainian teams from the Soviet Second League. The other two of that eleven were placed in the Ukrainian First League as they were to be relegated anyway. The two best teams of the Soviet Second League B of the Ukrainian Zone were also placed in the Supreme League along with the winner of the 1991 Ukrainian Cup which finished ninth in the same group (Soviet Second League B).

The 20 participants were split into two groups with the winners playing for the championship title and the runners-up playing for third place. Three teams from each group were to be relegated. As expected, the five favorites, Dynamo Kyiv, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Shakhtar Donetsk, Chornomorets Odesa, and Metalist Kharkiv finished at the top of each group. In the championship play-off game in Lviv, a sensation took place as Tavriya Simferopol beat Dynamo Kyiv 1–0. The Crimeans earned the first Ukrainian title (thus far their only one), losing only once to Temp Shepetivka.

After being stunned in the first championship by the tragedy in Lviv, Dynamo Kyiv were anxious to earn their first title at the second opportunity. In the second Ukrainian championship, which had a regular League format of 16 teams, the main rivals of the Kyivians were Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, who were top after the first half of the season. By the end of the season both teams were neck and neck and at the end they finished with the same number of points. The championship title was awarded to Dynamo Kyiv as they had a better goal difference. Neither the Golden match, nor the fact that Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk had a better head-to-head record was considered.

The next seven years were known as the total domination of Dynamo Kyiv. During this period 'the main Soviet protagonists' had changed as some of the best teams were facing a crisis. After the 1993–94 season Metalist Kharkiv were surprisingly relegated to the First League. In the 1995–96 season Shakhtar Donetsk had the worst year in the club's history, coming tenth. Chornomorets Odesa were relegated twice during that first decade after which manager Leonid Buryak was sacked. A few newly created teams have since emerged such as Arsenal Kyiv and Metalurh Donetsk, as well as Vorskla Poltava, who surprisingly came third in the club's first season at the Top Level in the 1997.

The second decade (2001–2010) – Ukrainian derby

The next decade was marked by fierce competition between Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk. Since 2000, Shakhtar Donetsk has proved to be the real challengers to Kiev's dominance. In 2000 Shakhtar earned their first qualification to the Champions League earning a place in the Group stage. Nonetheless, Dynamo Kyiv is still considered to be the benchmark of excellence in the country and the primary feeder to the Ukrainian national football team. 2002 became the real cornerstone in the miners history when they earned their first national title under the management of the newly appointed Italian specialist, Nevio Scala, who managed to secure the Ukrainian Cup title as well. Since that time the issue of foreign players has become particularly acute and brought a series of court cases. The FFU and PFL worked together to solve that issue, coming up with a plan to force the transitional limitation of foreign players over time.

The clubs such as Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and Chornomorets Odesa, who were recent contenders for the title, had to put up a fierce fight against the newly established contenders Metalurh Donetsk and Metalist Kharkiv to qualify for the European competitions. Metalist Kharkiv shone brightly in the late 2000s (decade) by consistently finishing right behind Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk in third place. Their most remarkable feat was their participation in the 2009 European season when they had to face Dynamo Kyiv to earn a place in the quarter-finals of the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, but lost on the away goals rule. That same 2008–09 UEFA Cup competition was won for the first time by Shakhtar Donetsk, the first club of independent Ukraine to win the title. It was also the last UEFA cup title before it changed its name to the Europa league.

In the 2008–2009 season the league earned the highest UEFA league coefficient in Europe for that season. On the political side of the League it was transformed on 15 April 2008 into an autonomous entity, parting away from the PFL. The Premier League has been split since the moment it was created in regards to its president. The dispute went as far as even canceling the 13th round of 2009–10 season and moving it to the spring half, while having the 14th round still playing in the fall. The representatives of five clubs: Arsenal Kyiv, Dynamo Kyiv, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih, and Metalist Kharkiv have been boycotting most of the League meetings, not complying with its financial obligations and giving the broadcasting rights to TV-channels other than the League official supplier. They justified their actions due to what they deem to be the illegal election of the Premier League president. The representatives of the above-mentioned clubs did not recognize the election in 2008 of Vitaliy Danilov as the president and believed that the elections should have been won by Vadim Rabinovich.

To resolve this conflict Vitaliy Danilov instigated the re-election of the Premier League president in September 2009, and on 1 December 2009 won the election again with 11 clubs voting for his candidature, 3 were against, 1 abstained, and 1 was absent. This time most club presidents of the Premier League of Ukraine acknowledged Vitaliy Danilov legality. In the subsequent elections on 9 December 2011 Vitaliy Danilov was challenged by Andriy Kurhanskyi (through the proposal of Karpaty Lviv). The other available candidates, Miletiy Balchos (president of the Professional Football League of Ukraine) and Yuriy Kindzerskyi, were not picked by any members of the Premier League. Vitaliy Danilov managed to retain his seat with nine votes for him.

The third decade (2011–present)

Because of the Ukrainian crisis in the oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk the number of teams participating in the league was cut from 16 in the 2013–14 season to 14 in the following seasons.^[6] With the continuation of the military conflict in the eastern oblasts (regions) of Ukraine since 2014, the league was forced to change its format again and will now be contested by 12 teams after being cut from 14 in the 2015–16 season.

Clubs established after fall of the Soviet Union

FC Arsenal Kyiv, FC Metalurh Donetsk, FC Borysfen Boryspil, FC Kharkiv, FC Lviv, FC Obolon Kyiv, FC Oleksandriya (based on the Soviet club FC Polihraftekhnika), FC Olimpik Donetsk, FC Sevastopol (based on the Soviet club FC Chaika), FC Zirka Kropyvnytskyi (inherited record of the original Soviet club FC Zirka).

Officials

Presidents

• Vitaliy Danilov (president of FC Kharkiv), 27 May 2008 – 1 July 2009 (temporary acting president)
• Vitaliy Danilov (president of FC Kharkiv), 1 July 2009 – 9 December 2011^[7]
• Vitaliy Danilov, 9 December 2011 – 29 February 2015^[8]
• Volodymyr Heninson, 29 February 2015 – present^[9]

Directors

• General director: Olexandr Efremov
• Executive director: Maksym Bondarev
• Sport director: Petro Ivanov
• Development director: Vadym Halahan

Current clubs

The following teams are competing in the 2017–18 season:

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity	Position in 2016–17	Position in 2015–16	Position in 2014–15
Chornomorets Odesa	Odesa	Chornomorets Stadium	34,164	6th	11th	11th
Dynamo Kyiv	Kiev	Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex	70,050	2nd	1st	1st
Karpaty Lviv	Lviv	Ukraina Stadium	28,051	10th	7th	13th
Mariupol	Mariupol	Illichivets Stadium	12,680	FL:1st	FL:4th	14th
FC Oleksandriya	Oleksandria	CSC Nika Stadium	7,000	5th	6th	FL:1st
Olimpik Donetsk	Donetsk	Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium	16,873	4th	9th	8th
Shakhtar Donetsk	Donetsk	Metalist Stadium	40,003	1st	2nd	2nd
FC Stal Kamianske	Kamianske	Meteor Stadium	24,381	8th	8th	FL:2nd
Veres Rivne	Rivne	Arena Lviv	34,915	FL:3rd	SL:2nd	—
Vorskla Poltava	Poltava	Oleksiy Butovsky Vorskla Stadium	24,795	7th	5th	5th
Zorya Luhansk	Luhansk	Slavutych-Arena	12,000	3rd	4th	4th
Zirka Kropyvnytskyi	Kropyvnytskyi	Zirka Stadium	13,667	9th	FL:1st	FL:4th

Broadcasting

Free-to-air live matches from the Ukrainian Premier League will be broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays on satellite channel 2+2 (Sirius 5E). This is a list of television broadcasters which provide coverage of the Ukrainian Premier League, which is Ukrainian football's top level of competition.

International broadcasters

Europe (UEFA)

Country	Language	Broadcasters
Andorra	French	Ma Chaine Sport
Armenia	Armenian	12 TV
Azerbaijan	Azerbaijani	CBC Sport
Belgium	French	Ma Chaine Sport
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Serbian	SportKlub
Croatia	Croatia	SportKlub
France	French	Ma Chaine Sport
Greece	Greek	Action 24
Luxembourg	French	Ma Chaine Sport
Macedonia	Macedonian	SportKlub
Monaco	French	Ma Chaine Sport
Montenegro	Serbian	SportKlub
Poland	Polish	Polsat Futbol
Romania	Romanian	Dolce Sport
Russia	Russian	Futbol
Serbia	Serbian	SportKlub
Slovenia	Slovenian	SportKlub
Switzerland	French	Ma Chaine Sport
Turkey	Turkish	-
Ukraine	Ukrainian	Kanal Futbol,2+2

Africa (CAF)

Country	Language	Broadcasters
Algeria	French	Ma Chaine Sport
Morocco	French	Ma Chaine Sport
Tunisia	French	Ma Chaine Sport

UEFA ranking and European competitions

Ukrainian clubs being part of the Soviet Union competed in European competitions since 1960s when the Soviet clubs started to participate in continental competitions. In fact the very first Soviet club that took part in European competitions was Ukrainian club, FC Dynamo Kyiv, that took in the 1965–66 European Cup Winners' Cup. Before the fall of the Soviet Union, the following Ukrainian clubs participated in European competitions: FC Dynamo Kyiv (1965), FC Karpaty Lviv (1970), FC Zorya Luhansk (1973), FC Chornomorets Odessa (1975), FC Shakhtar Donetsk (1977), FC Dnipro (1984), and FC Metalist Kharkiv (1988).

At least four clubs participated in top continental competitions the European Cup and the UEFA Champions League among which are FC Dynamo Kyiv, FC Dnipro, FC Shakhtar Donetsk, and FC Metalist Kharkiv.

Two teams (Dynamo and Shakhtar) were able to obtain trophies of European competitions including two Cup Winners' Cup, one UEFA Supercup, and one UEFA Cup. One more team (Dnipro) came just short to join their company losing in the 2015 UEFA Europa League Final.

Club seeding

UEFA Club Ranking for club seeding in 2017–18 European football season.

Note: Since 1999 the country index (coefficient) indicates the lowest possible value any team of that country will get in the ranking. Currently it's 6.866 for Ukraine. Teams ranked below their country's ranking are positioned by the ranking of their country rather its own. Teams in bold will be participating in the 2017–18 European football season.^[10]Last Updated:27 July 2017.

Country ranking

UEFA Country Ranking for league participation in 2017–18 European football season

Last Updated: 27 July 2017.^[11]

International relations

In 2009 The Ukrainian Premier League joined the European Professional Football Leagues.^[12] Also in 2009 the league signed a partnership with IMG of which during the first month of cooperation sold broadcasting rights for the Ukrainian Cup to Poland and Armenia. On its own initiative the Ukrainian Premier League sold broadcasting rights to Romania and Russia as well.

Champions and top goalscorers

Top League (Vyshcha Liha)

• Professional Football League of Ukraine was the governing body of the Top League (Vyshcha Liha) since 1996 till 2008.

Season	Champion	Runner-up	Third Place	Top Goalscorer	Rank
1992	Tavriya Simferopol	Dynamo Kyiv	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Yuriy Hudymenko (Tavriya Simferopol, 12 goals)	N/A[13]
1992–93	Dynamo Kyiv	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Chornomorets Odesa	Serhiy Husyev (Chornomorets Odesa, 17 goals)	28/39
1993–94	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Chornomorets Odesa	Tymerlan Huseinov (Chornomorets Odesa, 18 goals)	24/44
1994–95	Dynamo Kyiv	Chornomorets Odesa	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Arsen Avakov (Torpedo Zaporizhya, 21 goals)	24/47
1995–96	Dynamo Kyiv	Chornomorets Odesa	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Tymerlan Huseinov (Chornomorets Odesa, 20 goals)	19/48
1996–97	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Vorskla Poltava	Oleh Matveyev (Shakhtar Donetsk, 21 goals)	22/48
1997–98	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Karpaty Lviv	Serhiy Rebrov (Dynamo Kyiv, 22 goals)	17/49
1998–99	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih	Andriy Shevchenko (Dynamo Kyiv, 18 goals)	15/50
1999–00	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih	Maksim Shatskikh (Dynamo Kyiv, 20 goals)	12/50
2000–01	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Andriy Vorobey (Shakhtar Donetsk, 21 goals)	13/51
2001–02	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dynamo Kyiv	Metalurh Donetsk	Serhiy Shyshchenko (Metalurh Donetsk, 12 goals)	13/51
2002–03	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Metalurh Donetsk	Maksim Shatskikh (Dynamo Kyiv, 22 goals)	14/52
2003–04	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Giorgi Demetradze (Metalurh Donetsk, 18 goals)	14/52
2004–05	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dynamo Kyiv	Metalurh Donetsk	Oleksandr Kosyrin (Chornomorets Odesa, 14 goals)	15/52
2005–06	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dynamo Kyiv	Chornomorets Odesa	Brandão (Shakhtar Donetsk, 15 goals) Emmanuel Okoduwa (Arsenal Kyiv, 15 goals)	13/52
2006–07	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Metalist Kharkiv	Oleksandr Hladkyi (FC Kharkiv, 13 goals)	11/52
2007–08	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dynamo Kyiv	Bronze stripped *	Marko Dević* (Metalist Kharkiv, 19 goals)	12/53

Premier League

Season	Champion	Runner-up	Third Place	Top Goalscorer	Rank
2008–09	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Metalist Kharkiv	Oleksandr Kovpak (Tavriya Simferopol, 17 goals)	7/53
2009–10	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dynamo Kyiv	Metalist Kharkiv	Artem Milevsky (Dynamo Kyiv, 17 goals)	7/53
2010–11	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dynamo Kyiv	Metalist Kharkiv	Yevhen Seleznyov (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, 17 goals)	8/53
2011–12	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dynamo Kyiv	Metalist Kharkiv	Yevhen Seleznyov (Shakhtar Donetsk, 14 goals) Maicon (Volyn Lutsk, 14 goals)	9/53
2012–13	Shakhtar Donetsk	Metalist Kharkiv	Dynamo Kyiv	Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Shakhtar Donetsk, 25 goals)	7/53
2013–14	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Metalist Kharkiv	Luiz Adriano (Shakhtar Donetsk, 20 goals)	9/53
2014–15	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Alex Teixeira (Shakhtar Donetsk, 17 goals) Eric Bicfalvi (Volyn Lutsk, 17 goals)	8/54
2015–16	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Alex Teixeira (Shakhtar Donetsk, 22 goals)	8/54
2016–17	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dynamo Kyiv	Zorya Luhansk	Andriy Yarmolenko (Dynamo Kyiv, 15 goals)	8/55

Notes:

• Rank column shows the ranking of the league amongst members of UEFA.
• In bold are the league winners that also won the Ukrainian Cup (season double).
• In italics are the league runner-up that also won the Cup competition.
• Metalist Kharkiv had been stripped of their bronze award for 2007–08 season after the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne ruled against the game Karpaty – Metalist (April 19, 2008).^[14][15]
• A citizen of Serbia, Marko Devich was granted the Ukrainian citizenship after the 2007–08 season.

Performance by club

Club	Winners	Runners-up	Third place	Winning years
Dynamo Kyiv	15	9	1	1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2014–15, 2015–16
Shakhtar Donetsk	10	12	–	2001–02, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2016–17
Tavriya Simferopol	1	–	–	1992
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	–	2	7
Chornomorets Odesa	–	2	3
Metalist Kharkiv	–	1	6
Metalurh Donetsk	–	–	3
Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih	–	–	2
Vorskla Poltava	–	–	1
Karpaty Lviv	–	–	1
Zorya Luhansk	–	–	1
Total	26	26	25

Notes

• Italics identifies either defunct or teams that lost professional status.

Post-season play-offs

Golden matches

• 1992 – Ukraina Stadium (Lviv), 21 June 1992
• 2006 – Metalurh Stadium (Kryvyi Rih), 14 May 2006

Third place matches

• 1992 – Metalurh Central Stadium (Zaporizhia), 20 June 1992

Relegation play-offs

• 1999 – Dynamo Stadium (Kiev), 4 July 1999
• 2002 – CSK ZSU Stadium (Kiev), 16 June 2002

Honored teams

A representative star is placed above the team's badge to indicate 10 league titles.^[16] Dynamo Kyiv became the first Ukrainian team to achieve the prestigious honor of winning the Soviet Top League for the 10th time in 1981. Dynamo Kyiv after having entered the Ukrainian championship has become the same dominant leader as during the Soviet times by earning its 20th national title at the top level in 1999. The two stars, however, were only added to the club's logo in 2007.^[17] No other club in Ukraine has come close to such an honour yet.

The current (as of 2017) officially sanctioned Premier League stars are:

• Dynamo Kyiv (28, the second received in 1999).
• Shakhtar Donetsk (10, all Ukrainian titles)
• Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (2, all Soviet titles)
• Zorya Luhansk (1, Soviet Union)
• Tavriya Simferopol (1, Ukraine)

Premier League players

All-time Premier League appearance leaders

Rank	Player	Games
1	Oleksandr Shovkovskiy	426
2	Oleh Shelayev	412
3	Oleksandr Chizhevskiy	400
4	Oleksandr Horyainov	391
5	Vyacheslav Checher	387
6	Serhiy Nazarenko	373
7	Ruslan Rotan	365
8	Serhiy Shyshchenko	363
9	Ruslan Kostyshyn	359
10	Serhiy Zakarlyuka	356
Players in bold are still playing in Premier League Data as of 31 May 2017[18]

All-time Premier League scorers

Rank	Player	Goals	Games
1	Serhiy Rebrov	123	261
	Maksim Shatskikh	123[lower-alpha 1]	341
3	Yevhen Seleznyov	111	230
4	Andriy Vorobey	105	315
5	Andriy Yarmolenko	96	223
6	Oleksandr Haydash	95[lower-alpha 2]	258
7	Marko Dević	90	219
	Serhiy Mizin	90	342
9	Tymerlan Huseynov	85	215
10	Oleksandr Kosyrin	84	240
Players in bold are still playing in Premier League Data as of 31 May 2017[20]

Ex-Dynamo Kyiv strikers Maksim Shatskikh and Serhiy Rebrov hold the record for most Ukrainian Premier League goals with 123, with Shatskikh winning the top single season scorer title twice in 1999–2000 and 2002–03, Rebrov once in 1997-98. Since the first Ukrainian Premier League season in 1992, 22 different players have won or shared the top scorer's title. Only four players have won the title more than once, Tymerlan Huseynov, Maksim Shatskikh, Yevhen Seleznyov and Alex Teixeira. Henrikh Mkhitaryan holds the record for most goals in a season (25), Serhiy Rebrov and Maksim Shatskikh are the only two players to score at least 20 goals twice. The most prolific all-time scorers are Ivan Hetsko and Viktor Leonenko, respectively attaining 0.59 and 0.56 goals per game.

Premier League managers

All-time League games

Rank	Coach	Games
1	Myron Markevych	620
2	Mykola Pavlov†	546
3	Mircea Lucescu	355
4	Vitaliy Kvartsyanyi	340
5	Valeriy Yaremchenko	297
6	Mykhailo Fomenko	294
7	Oleh Taran	273
8	Semen Altman	249
9	Vyacheslav Hrozny	214
10	Oleksandr Ishchenko	204
Coaches in bold are still active in the League Data as of 31 May 2017[21]

Winning managers

Rank	Name	Club(s)
1	Mircea Lucescu	Shakhtar	8	4	—
2	Valery Lobanovsky†	Dynamo	5	1	—
3	Yozhef Sabo†	Dynamo	2	1	—
	Serhiy Rebrov	Dynamo	2	1	—
5	Oleksiy Mykhailychenko	Dynamo	2	—	—
6	Yuri Semin	Dynamo	1	3	—
7	Mykola Pavlov†	Dynamo(1) Dnipro	1	1	1
8	Anatoliy Demyanenko	Dynamo	1	1	—
9	Anatoliy Zayaev†	Tavria	1	—	—
	Mykhailo Fomenko	Dynamo	1	—	—
	Nevio Scala	Shakhtar	1	—	—
	Paulo Fonseca	Shakhtar	1	—	—
Data as of 31 May 2017

The league's record holder for winnings is Mircea Lucescu.

The league's record holder for games that the coach led a team in the league is Myron Markevych. Among other coaches who stayed in the league the longest, there are Volodymyr Bezsonov (197), Anatoliy Zayaev^† (191), Ihor Nadein^† (184), Leonid Buryak (180), and Yevhen Kucherevsky^† (176).

^† – Managers that have retired out of sport. In bold are managers that are still active in the current season.

Premier League referees

All-time League games

Rank	Coach	City	Games
1	Serhiy Shebek	Kiev	226
2	Vitaliy Hodulian	Odessa	202
3	Vasyl Melnychuk	Simferopol	190
4	Ihor Ishchenko	Khmelnytskyi / Kiev	186
5	Ihor Yarmenchuk	Kiev	168
6	Andriy Shandor	Lviv	149
7	Valeriy Onufer	Uzhhorod	141
8	Serhiy Tatulian	Kiev	137
9	Serhiy Dzyuba	Kiev	136
10	Anatoliy Zhosan	Kherson	134
	Ihor Khiblin	Khmelnytskyi
Referees in bold are still active in the League Data as of 19 May 2014[22]

All-time participants

The table lists the place each team took in each of the seasons.

Teams marking: green – member of the Premier League, blue – member of the First League, gray – member of the Second League, pink – no longer member of UPL or PFL.

	1992	92/93	93/94	94/95	95/96	96/97	97/98	98/99	99/00	00/01	01/02	02/03	03/04	04/05	05/06	06/07	07/08	08/09	09/10	10/11	11/12	12/13	13/14	14/15	15/16	16/17
Teams	20	16	18	18	18	16	16	16	16	14	14	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	14	14	12
Arsenal Kyiv[23]					4	11	10	7	10	6	12	5	9	9	12	14	6	11	7	9	5	8	16
Borysfen Boryspil													7	16
Bukovyna Chernivtsi	10	12	17
Chornomorets Odesa	5	3	3	2	2	7	15		15			8	5	6	3	6	7	10	15		9	6	5	11	11	6
Dnipro	3	2	4	3	3	4	4	12	11	3	6	4	3	4	6	4	4	6	4	4	4	4	2	3	3	11
Dynamo Kyiv	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	2	2	1	2	1	2	2	2	3	4	1	1	2
Hoverla Uzhhorod											14			12	16		16		16			15	12	12	13
Karpaty Lviv	13	6	5	8	8	5	3	4	9	10	8	7	15			8	10	9	5	5	14	14	11	13	7	10
Kharkiv															13	12	14	16
Kremin Kremenchuk	14	9	15	10	9	15
Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih		8	6	6	14	12	8	3	3	11	9	12	10	13	14	10	13	12	14	13	10	7
Lviv																		15
Mariupol							14	5	8	4	10	10	8	5	4	15		14	12	14	11	9	10	14
Metalist Kharkiv	6	5	18					6	5	9	5	16		11	5	3	(3)*	3	3	3	3	2	3	6	10
Metalurh Donetsk							7	14	7	5	3	3	4	3	9	9	12	4	8	8	7	5	6	10
Metalurh Zaporizhya	11	7	16	9	5	8	9	8	6	8	4	15	11	10	8	7	9	7	9	16		16	14	7	14
Mykolaiv	18			13	16			16
Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka	16																15
Nyva Ternopil	7	14	7	12	13	9	6	13	12	14
Nyva Vinnytsia	15		10	14	15	16
Obolon Kyiv												14	6	15					11	10	15
Odesa	20
Oleksandriya											13	13									16				6	5
Olimpik Donetsk																							8	9	5	4
Prykarpattya Ivano-Frankivsk	17			11	11	13	13	15	14
Sevastopol																				15			9
Shakhtar Donetsk	4	4	2	4	10	2	2	2	2	2	1	2	2	1	1	2	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	1
Stal Alchevsk										13					11	16
Stal Kamianske																									8	8
Tavriya Simferopol	1	10	8	5	12	6	12	9	13	7	7	9	12	7	7	5	5	8	6	7	6	11	15
Temp Shepetivka	19		9	17
Torpedo Zaporizhya	8	13	13	7	7	14	16
Veres Rivne		16	11	18
Volyn Lutsk	9	11	12	15	17							6	13	8	15					11	12	13	13	9	12	12
Vorskla Poltava						3	5	10	4	12	11	11	14	14	10	13	8	5	10	6	8	12	8	5	5	7
Zirka Kropyvnytskyi					6	10	11	11	16				16													9
Zorya Luhansk	12	15	14	16	18											11	11	13	13	12	13	10	7	4	4	3

All-time table

All figures are correct through the 2016–17 season.^[24][25]

Rank	Team	Seasons	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts	Achievement	Other names used
1	Dynamo Kyiv	26	766	566	127	73	1661	494	1825	champions (15)
2	Shakhtar Donetsk	26	766	527	135	104	1603	574	1716	champions (10)
3	FC Dnipro	26	765	379	199	187	1127	718	1336	runners-up (2)
4	Chornomorets Odesa	22	651	252	160	239	738	737	916	runners-up (2)
5	Karpaty Lviv	24	704	237	196	271	781	857	907	3rd (1)
6	Metalist Kharkiv	20	573	254	144	175	755	664	906	runners-up (1)
7	Tavriya Simferopol	23	681	237	170	274	795	873	881	champions (1)
8	Metalurh Zaporizhya	24	702	206	173	323	699	949	791	5th (2)[lower-alpha 3]
9	Vorskla Poltava	21	614	205	170	239	663	715	785	3rd (1)	Vorskla-Naftogaz
10	Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih	21	634	201	173	260	633	786	776	3rd (2)
11	Metalurh Donetsk	18	526	203	142	181	655	623	751	3rd (3)
12	Arsenal Kyiv	18	536	184	151	201	628	619	703	4th (1)[lower-alpha 4]	CSKA
13	FC Mariupol	17	496	154	118	224	551	711	580	4th (2)	Illichivets
14	Zorya Luhansk	16	472	150	100	222	488	702	550	3rd (1)	Zorya-MALS
15	Volyn Lutsk	16	472	140	102	230	473	710	519	6th (1)
16	Nyva Ternopil	10	296	93	62	141	319	388	341	7th (3)
17	Torpedo Zaporizhya	7	210	64	42	104	214	315	234	7th (2)
18	Prykarpattya Ivano-Frankivsk	7	206	55	52	99	215	315	217	10th (1)
19	Zirka Kropyvnytskyi	7	216	55	48	113	187	328	213	6th (1)	Zirka-NIBAS
20	Kremin Kremenchuk	6	180	54	40	86	182	269	202	9th (2)
21	Hoverla Uzhhorod	9	256	41	64	151	186	421	187	12th (3)	Zakarpattia
22	Obolon Kyiv	6	180	44	44	92	153	253	176	6th (1)
23	Nyva Vinnytsia	5	150	42	32	76	140	213	158	10th (1)
24	FC Oleksandriya	5	144	36	43	65	142	212	151	5th (1)	Polihraftekhnika, PFC Oleksandriya
25	FC Kharkiv	4	120	25	33	62	94	156	108	12th (1)
26	Veres Rivne	3	98	27	25	46	89	141	106	12th (1)
27	SC Mykolaiv	4	116	26	23	67	100	208	101	13th (1)	Evis
28	Olimpik Donetsk	3	84	24	23	37	80	143	95	4th (1)
29	Temp Shepetivka	3	86	24	16	46	79	113	88	9th (1)
30	Bukovyna Chernivtsi	3	82	23	18	41	69	99	87	11th (1)
31	Stal Alchevsk	3	86	17	21	48	67	126	72	11th (1)
32	Stal Kamianske	2	58	18	16	24	49	62	70	8th (2)
33	FC Sevastopol	2	58	17	11	30	58	91	62	9th (1)	PFC Sevastopol
32	Borysfen Boryspil	2	60	14	19	27	40	60	61	7th (1)
34	Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka	2	48	11	11	26	30	66	44	15th (1)	Naftovyk
36	FC Lviv	1	30	6	8	16	24	39	26	15th
37	SC Odesa	1	18	3	1	14	15	32	10	10th

Stadiums

Ukraine has several big stadiums with capacity of 30,000+ spectators and at least two stadiums with capacity of over 50,000 which also are considered to be by UEFA the elite stadiums. Since the 2014 Russian invasion and partial occupation of Ukraine, the access to some stadiums was restricted. Many stadiums in Ukraine and their surrounding infrastructure were renovated in preparation to the Euro 2012.

UEFA Elite Stadiums

#	Stadium	Capacity	City	Club	Opened
1	Olimpiysky National Sports Complex	70,050	Kiev	Ukraine, Dynamo Kyiv	1923, 2011
2	Donbass Arena	52,518	Donetsk	Shakhtar Donetsk	2009

See also

• Ukrainian First League
• Ukrainian Second League
• Ukrainian derby
• Football records in Ukraine
• List of foreign Ukrainian Premier League players

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ukrainian Premier League.

• Official website
• Soccerway
• Ukraine - List of Champions, RSSSF.com