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49-575: The league is lower than the Ukrainian First League ( Persha Liha ) and the lowest level of professional football competitions in the country. Since 1996 the league, after being merged with its lower tier (in 1992–1995 there was the Third League), consists of two main regions roughly north-west and south-east. The league's relegated teams lose their professional status and return to their regional associations. The third division of

98-649: A bye straight to the Quarter-finals. Dnipro-75 were excluded from all competitions organized by the PFL for their unpaid debts. The place of Dnipro-75 was granted to and excepted by Olympik. Notes: This stage was scheduled to take place in two-leg (home-away) match-ups. The first leg was played on April 28, 2010, and the second leg – May 5, 2010. Illichivets-2 1–1 Hirnyk-Sport on aggregate. Hirnyk-Sport won on away goals. Myr Hornostaivka 0–2 Nyva Vinnytsia on aggregate. Notes: Initially set for May 29,

147-461: A couple of years. The PFL Cup competitions involved united teams of different leagues such as two from the second and one from the first and the students, players of which had earned a few gold medals in several international competitions (see Universiada ). At first the League Cup was supposed to be an extension of those PFL tournaments, but later was reorganized as a supplementary competition to

196-456: A foreign player during the 2021–22 war season, Matheus Peixoto (Brazil, playing for Metalist Kharkiv ). No manager has won the league more than two times. With 2 league titles there are Valeriy Zuyev (both Dynamo-2 Kyiv), Oleksandr Ishchenko ( Zirka and Illichivets ), Yuriy Koval (Zirka and Zorya), Oleksandr Sevidov (Hoverla and Illichivets), Volodymyr Sharan (both Oleksandriya). Considered to be as second tier competitions,

245-441: A higher tier, on few occasions when a second club team finished in top two places the third-placed team was admitted to the top division. In 2013 there was set a precedent when a club on its own will has refused to be promoted. In 2017 there was created another precedent when a club that earned promotion was denied it based on administrative decision. With relegation, the league's policy is a bit different, although originally it also

294-463: A major disruption in competitions when Football Federation of Ukraine allowed to enter a quickly assembled team of amateur players for the First League to replace withdrawn Shepetivka club. For a couple of years after that, there was relative stabilization, but not perfect with at least one club being withdrawn in a middle of ongoing season. In the 1998-99 season 10 teams quit the league before

343-440: A mid-season winter break is usually longer than the summer break between competition seasons. Since 1995 the league also follows the same system of points calculation that is adopted throughout the whole European continent, 3 points for win, one for draw, and none for loss. During its history the number of members in the league has fluctuated. In its first years before 1999 the league consisted of 20 or more participants. Later there

392-564: A neutral field. The winners of this competition were awarded the Cup and the prize money (150,000 Hryvnia ) from Umbro , the general sponsor of the event. Initially FC Luzhany (town of Luzhany , Chernivtsi Oblast ) was set to participate in the competition, but was eventually replaced by FC Volyn-Tsement Zdolbuniv. On March 1, 2010, it was decided to suspend the competition due to a lack of funds. The clubs FC Dnister Ovidiopol , PFC Oleksandria , and FC Arsenal Bila Tserkva were represented in

441-625: A relegation mini tournament that took place in July 1998 in Kyiv and Boryspil . It involved three group winners of the Second League and Bukovyna that placed 18th place in the First League. The tournament identified clubs which would qualify for the 1998–99 Ukrainian First League . The next year the league featured its first promotion play-off. see Ukrainian Premier League#Relegation play-offs Notes: Top-20. All figures are correct through

490-450: A season. Since the 2009–10 season the First League has started to broadcast selected matches over the internet in order to increase its popularity. The most successful clubs in the league are FC Dynamo-2 Kyiv , FC Hoverla Uzhhorod , and FC Zirka Kropyvnytskyi . All of those teams were either disbanded or went through some sort of reorganizations. In 2016 Dynamo Kyiv withdrew its second team from professional competitions, while FC Hoverla

539-537: A single game until 2017–18 season, when Metalist Kharkiv phoenix club Metalist 1925 participated in the Druha Liha together with their original club rivals FC Dnipro and SC Dnipro-1 . The record was set on in a Metalist 1925–Dnipro-1 match, which was attended by 14,521 people. The most attended seasons were in the beginning of 1990s and the beginning of 2000s. Ukrainian First League The Persha Liha ( Ukrainian : Перша ліга ) or Ukrainian First League

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588-438: A team's withdrawal from the league and often were not scheduled until after the season had concluded. Since 2011 relegation play-offs have become a well established tradition. Since the turn of the millennium the frequency of withdrawals in the First League has increased among the competing clubs. In order to fight this, the league has been applying a stricter approach to every club's financial situation to avoid withdrawals during

637-482: A third team gets a chance of promotion, but there were also seasons when only one team would get promoted. Only twice three teams were promoted to the top division, both times happening due to the top tier expansion. The league's winner and usually the second placed runner-up get accepted to the Premier League. However, due to the rule that a second team of the club cannot be promoted when its senior team plays in

686-712: Is a level of national football competitions (second tier) in Ukraine governed by the Professional Football League at the discretion of the Ukrainian Association of Football . Members of the league also participate in the Ukrainian Cup . The league is the intermediate level of competitions within the three-tiered "competition pyramid". The league was set up by the newly reorganized Football Federation of Ukraine (a successor of

735-554: Is just Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Group C existed for short time and had no exclusive region representation. Such regions like Kyiv Oblast and City, Cherkasy Oblast, Kirovohrad Oblast, Chernihiv Oblast, Sumy Oblast, and Kharkiv Oblast at some point were represented in all three groups. Such regions like Donetsk Oblast, Luhansk Oblast, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, and Poltava Oblast were represented only in groups B and C. Promoted teams are indicated in bold . Notes: Post-season play-offs are not common feature of

784-481: The 1998–99 Ukrainian First League . In bold are shown still active professional clubs Conflict of succession Top-20. All figures are correct through the 2022–23 season. Club status is current of the 2024–25 season: Among notable players of the league are its top scorers. Most of the most attended games in the league since 1992 recorded at Zirka Stadium (Kropyvnytskyi), and since 1993–94 season FC Zirka Kropyvnytskyi all time attendance record on

833-561: The 2022–23 season. Club status is current of the 2023–24 season: Among notable players of the league are its top scorers. The title of the league's top scorer earned on multiple occasions the following players, Serhiy Chuichenko (4 times, Polihraftekhnika Oleksandriya ), Oleh Hrytsai (2 times, FC Cherkasy ), Oleksandr Aliyev (2 times, Dynamo-2 Kyiv ), Matviy Bobal (2 times, Ihroservis Simferopol ), Oleksandr Akymenko (2 times, Stal A. / Inhulets ), Stanislav Kulish (2 times, Stal D. / Dnipro-1 ). Once among top scorers became

882-632: The Football Federation of the Ukrainian SSR ) with the falling apart Soviet Union as a second tier, lower than Ukrainian Higher League (Vyshcha Liha) and higher that Ukrainian Transitional League (Perekhidna Liha). The very first round of games that took place for this league was on 14 March 1992. The league itself was organised just a few months before that and consisted mostly of all the Ukrainian clubs that previously competed in

931-589: The Ukrainian Premier League ) and is the second division of the Ukrainian professional football league system. The First League was incorporated into the PFL organisation that combined all the football leagues of non-amateur clubs (Top, First, and Second). On 26 May 1996 the Constituent Conference of non-amateur clubs took place which created the professional league, and confirmed its statute as well as its administration. Most of

980-436: The 1996 reorganization, the auxiliary league was merged back to the Second League. In 1996 Ukrainian football witnessed major changes in its organization as the Professional Football League of Ukraine was established. The new organization took control of the competition of former non-amateur clubs that were given attestation of professional clubs and included all the leagues of the Ukrainian championship. Concurrently with this

1029-473: The First League. Because each club is only allowed to be represented with a single squad per each league, the second squad's promotion often is voided, thus, allowing the promotion of the third placed club during a season. One of the most successful second squads is of Dynamo Kyiv ( FC Dynamo-2 Kyiv ). The following teams are competing in the 2024–25 season. Two teams were spared from relegation from previous season due to other teams' withdrawal. In addition to

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1078-412: The Second League championship of 2009–2010. A chronic problem follows the Second League especially in recent years as several clubs of the league have a difficult time just to finish their season, not even worrying about winning anything. That, of course, reflects negatively on the performance not only of a club, but the whole league. A new working commission was organized in 2010 to offer an alternative for

1127-590: The Second League clubs structure of competitions which was supposed to be presented for the 2010–2011 season. Please, note that the League Cup is not such an authentic tournament as a similar competition involving exclusively the Second League clubs had taken place in 1999–2001 known as the Cup of the Second League . The Cup began with a group tournament where teams from Druha Liha and amateur level competitors participated. At this stage all 24 teams were divided into eight groups. The best two teams out of each group advanced to

1176-417: The Second League competition. Over the years there were several instances when clubs contested promotion or relegation berths. The first post-season feature consisted of a promotion mini-tournament that took place in July 1998 in Kyiv and Boryspil . It involved three group winners of the Second League and Bukovyna that placed 18th place in the First League. The tournament identified clubs which would qualify for

1225-564: The Second League has had some supplementary tournaments which include the Second League Cup as well as the Ukrainian Cup qualification tournament called the 2009–10 Ukrainian League Cup . In summer of 2017 it was announced that the Second League is planned to be discontinued after the 2017-18 season. The league has suffered from chronic club withdrawals since its reorganization when the Ukrainian Third League

1274-665: The Second League is also obligated to finance at least two junior teams from under the age of 10 to under the age of 19. The junior teams must participate either in regional competitions of the Children-Youth Football League of Ukraine. All stadiums must have a certificate of the State Commission in control of sports structures conditions. A club cannot play matches at its training sites nor stadiums not registered with PFL. Promotions of tobacco products at stadiums are prohibited. All stadiums must fly

1323-510: The Third League was disbanded and all clubs that were not in the "relegation zone" were invited to join the Second League. The Second League in its turn was split into two groups. Only in the very first season the teams in this league were divided somewhat randomly, while later becoming more of regional sub-leagues. From 1997 the league was divided into three groups (Druha Liha A (west), B (south), and C (east)). In 1998 unlike other seasons

1372-472: The Ukrainian championship originally was organized as the Transitional League due to numerous amateur clubs competing in it 15 out of 18. Out of the 1992 Transitional League the top clubs qualified for the 1992-93 Second League, while the bottom - the 1992-93 Transitional League, thus, creating an extra tier. Basically in the first seasons there was no promotion. For the second season (1992-93)

1421-621: The actual home cities and stadiums. The calendar of competitions is adopted by the Central Council of PFL and the Executive Committee of FFU. The Bureau (Administration) of PFL regulates the league's operations and forms the Second League. All clubs of the PFL are obligated to own or sponsor a Children-Youth Sports School. All clubs of PFL are obligated to participate in the National Cup competition. A club of

1470-505: The annual budget of league's clubs varied between ₴6 million to ₴30 million in 2010. The League officially became the top league of the Professional Football League (PFL) from 15 April 2008 when the Ukrainian Premier League reorganized itself into a self-governed entity. Usually the top two teams from the First League are promoted to the Premier League, while the two lowest teams from the Premier League are demoted to

1519-407: The clubs that had previously participated in the Ukrainian football league competitions were reorganized as professional, a process that actually started in the late 1980s. On 17 July the professional league signed an agreement with several other national football organizations to organize competitions among the professional clubs (its members). According to the newspaper Halychyna ( Ivano-Frankivsk )

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1568-494: The competition by their junior teams (doubles). Several clubs officially quit the competition (FC Khodak Cherkasy, FC Dnister Ovidiopol, PFC Olexandria), while FC Dnipro-75 Dnipropetrovsk was excluded from the Professional Football League due to unpaid debts. The Rivne Oblast clubs (Veres and Volyn) and Teplovyk Yuzhnoukrainsk informed the PFL during the winter break of their unwillingness to continue in

1617-543: The competition. On March 16 it was decided to resume the competition. The following clubs were given until March 20 to pay off their debts to the referees: Teplovyk, Olexandria, Arsenal, Volyn-Tsement, Veres, Ros, Olympik, Tytan, and Dnipro-75. Umbro became the official partner of the competition and its title sponsor. When the Second round pairs were formed a few teams that finished last advanced due to numerous withdrawals of other clubs. Three teams (Lviv-2, Ros, and Myr) got

1666-404: The each team's name, its home city and stadium is shown. The following displays the location of teams. Group A teams marked in red. Group B teams marked in green. The league conducts its competition in a regular double round-robin format where each team plays with every other one twice. The league conducts its competitions from fall to spring, however due to climate conditions in Ukraine,

1715-482: The final took place on a neutral ground on June 6, 2010. Surprisingly the PFL picked Oleksandia's Nika Stadium which is 71 km (~46 mi) or about an hour drive from the city of Komsomolsk and 387 km (~255 mi) from Vinnytsia . As a justification, the main reason can be drawn from the fact that it lies in the heartland of Ukraine, and, thus, such a game could draw a greater audience. MATCH OFFICIALS MATCH RULES In parentheses are goals scored from

1764-879: The flags of Ukraine, FFU, and PFL. Only accredited photo-correspondents and junior footballers who collect balls are allowed behind goalposts. The games are allowed to start not earlier than 12:00 and not later than 20:30. There must be at least a 48-hour break between two official games. Games can only be rescheduled if the following three criteria exist: a) unforeseen circumstances occur, b) delegation of four or more footballers to any national teams, or c) organization of direct tele-broadcasting. Throughout history certain regions were represented only in certain groups, some competed in all groups. Among regions that were represented only in Group A are Lviv Oblast, Ternopil Oblast, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Rivne Oblast, Zhytomyr Oblast, Chernivtsi Oblast, Zakarpattia Oblast, Volyn Oblast, only in Group B

1813-439: The last into several groups, but it was abandoned. During the same season a new tournament was organized to add some games to the calendar of the Second League clubs which had thinned away substantially, this was called the 2009–10 Ukrainian League Cup . The following teams are competing in the 2024–25 season. Two teams were spared from relegation from previous season due to other teams' withdrawal. Note, in parentheses are shown

1862-505: The league (1992-2017) recorded at Yuvileiny Stadium (Sumy). The most attended seasons were in the beginning of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. 2009%E2%80%9310 Ukrainian League Cup The 2009–10 Ukrainian League Cup was the only season of Ukraine 's football knockout competition designated for the members of the Ukrainian Second League and amateur clubs. The main purpose of this tournament

1911-1250: The league has number of big stadiums with capacity of 20,000+, among which the most notable are Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv , Dnipro-Arena in Dnipro , Ukraina Stadium in Lviv , Yuvileiny Stadium in Sumy and Shakhtar Stadium in Donetsk . Just before the Euro 2012 , the First League clubs also played at the RSC Olimpiyskiy also located in Donetsk . Among smaller stadiums (10,000 – 20,000) are Central Stadium in Mykolaiv , Dynamo Stadium in Kyiv , Avanhard Stadium in Lutsk , Chernihiv Stadium in Chernihiv and Central Stadium in Cherkasy . Most attended games in

1960-467: The league was officially organized as the Second League, while the name of transitional league was passed to the newly formed fourth division. Between seasons 1993 and 1995, there existed an auxiliary level (the Third League in 1994-95) of the football championship in Ukraine , lower than the Second League. From 1993 season to 1995 the Second League had a single group competition of over 20 clubs. During

2009-459: The next round of the competition (second round) while all the last placed participants were eliminated. In the second round teams were paired with each other with the winners of each group playing at home. The winner of each pair advanced to the next round (quarter-finals). The Quarter-finals took place in the same manner. The Semi-finals consisted of two home-away matches, while the Final took place at

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2058-639: The one of groups of the Soviet Lower Second League (4th tier, see Ukrainian Soviet competitions ). To the league were also added some Soviet Top League reserve squads of the Soviet Top League reserve squads competition and the three best performers of the Ukrainian football championship among amateurs, KFK (Fitness clubs). The Persha Liha (First League) is lower than the Vyshcha Liha (Higher League) (currently known as

2107-403: The season started. During the 2002-03 season Ukrainian football saw the withdrawal of a Top League club for the first time ( Polihraftekhnika Oleksandriya ). Due to those withdrawals the Second League suspended relegation of clubs since 2006-07, while there were some talks for the league to be discontinued. An idea surfaced during the 2009-10 season to merge the league with the First League breaking

2156-546: The winners of the groups were not promoted automatically; instead a promotion-relegation tournament was organized involving four teams, three group winners and one of the weaker clubs of the First League. In 2006, the Ukrainian Professional Football League consolidated the Druha Liha due to a shortage of teams, and now the third level of professional football is divided into two groups once again (A - West and B - East). Throughout its history

2205-434: Was an idea to decrease the number of members in all leagues in order to improve the quality of competition. Until 2013 the number of participants was reduced to 18 except for couple of seasons in 2006–2008. Recently since 2013 the number was reduced further to 16 where it remains since. Traditionally two better teams out of First League are being swapped for two worse teams out of Premier (Higher) League. On more rare occasions

2254-612: Was liquidated in 1995. The first club that withdrew in the middle of a season from Ukrainian championship was FC Elektron Romny which on 5 May 1994 withdrew from the Transitional League (Third League). The reorganization of the competition in 1995 (merging Third and Second leagues) saw a number of clubs that discontinued their participation. At the start of season withdrew Temp Shepetivka which prior to that merged with Advis as well as Kosmos Pavlohrad , and five more clubs withdrew at winter break. Withdrawal of Temp led to

2303-487: Was refused in attestation. Previously in 2008 FC Zirka that went through reorganization was re-established based on a local youth football club FC Olimpik Kropyvnytskyi and in 2016 won its third championship in the league. Promoted teams are indicated in bold . Post-season play-offs are not common feature of the First League competition. Over the years there were several instances when clubs contested promotion or relegation berths. The first post-season feature consisted of

2352-530: Was to supplement the 2009–2010 playing calendar of the Second League clubs whose number had declined remarkably triggering some talks of reforming the Ukrainian Second League . Currently amateur clubs are invited at the discretion of their respective regional football associations. The tournament was organized after a few mini-tournaments of the PFL Cup had taken place in the span of less than

2401-436: Was two for two. In 1996 the Second League (lower tier) was converted into a de facto regional league with two (three) regional groups. The league has also decreased its number of participants from originally 22-24 to only 16-18. There were also number of withdrawals which triggered sometime additional number in rotation. The relegation or promotion play-offs were previously usually organized under unforeseen circumstances such as

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