2017–18 Ukrainian Premier League

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Ukrainian Premier League 2017–18
Season information
Winners	Shakhtar Donetsk
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	Shakhtar Donetsk Dynamo Kyiv
Europa League	Vorskla Poltava Zorya Luhansk Mariupol
Season statistics
Matches played	183
Goals scored	407
Top goalscorer	21 – Facundo Ferreyra (Shakhtar)
Biggest home win	5 – Dynamo 5–0 Karpaty (Round 3) Zorya 5–0 Chornomorets (Round 7) Shakhtar 5–0 Chornomorets (Round 20) Shakhtar 5–0 Zirka (Round 21)
Biggest away win	5 – Karpaty 1–6 Veres (Round 8)
Highest scoring	8 – Zorya 4–4 Dynamo (Round 11)
← 2016–17	2018–19 →

The 2017–18 Ukrainian Premier League season is the 27th top level football club competitions since the fall of the Soviet Union and the tenth since the establishment of the Ukrainian Premier League.

The tournament started on 16 July 2017 with the competition set to end on 19 May 2018. The relegation play-offs will take place on 23 May and 26 May 2018. The league has scheduled to take its winter intermission after Round 19 on 9–10 December 2017 and resume its competition of the Championship with Round 20 on 17 February 2018.

The defending champion is the 10-times winner FC Shakhtar Donetsk.

The league's last season title sponsor, a bookmaker company Pari-Match, withdrew from the sponsorship. On 7 July 2017, Pari-Match announced that it had ended its cooperation with the Ukrainian Premier League.

Before the start of the season a scandal arose around promotion between the First League clubs FC Desna Chernihiv and NK Veres Rivne when Veres that placed lower in tournament table was admitted to the Premier League ahead of Desna. Later it was announced that Desna might be promoted as well due to rumors around a financial situation of FC Stal Kamianske. The final decision of the league's composition was adopted at the FFU Conference on 16 June 2017.

With the ongoing War in Donbass, the Round 2 games started with a minute of silence to commemorate the warriors of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who had perished in the ATO zone.

Promotions

Two teams were promoted to the league (instead of the relegated FC Dnipro and FC Volyn Lutsk):

• FC Mariupol (renamed after the previous season) – the champion of the 2016–17 Ukrainian First League (returning after two seasons absence)
• NK Veres Rivne – third place of the 2016–17 Ukrainian First League (returning for the first time since 1994–95, 22 seasons absence)

Stadiums

Five teams play their matches outside of home towns. The minimum threshold for the stadium's capacity in the UPL is 5,000.

The following stadiums are regarded as home grounds:

Rank	Stadium	Place	Club	Capacity	Notes
1	NSC Olimpiyskiy	Kyiv	Dynamo Kyiv	70,050
2	OSC Metalist	Kharkiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	40,003	Used as home ground during the season.
3	Arena Lviv	Lviv	Veres Rivne	34,915	Used as home ground during the season.
4	Chornomorets Stadium	Odesa	Chornomorets Odesa	34,164
5	Ukraina Stadium	Lviv	Karpaty Lviv	28,051
			NK Veres Rivne		Round 32 (last round)
6	Vorskla Stadium	Poltava	Vorskla Poltava	24,795
7	Meteor Stadium	Dnipro	Stal Kamianske	24,381	Nominally reserved as the home station for Stal where it played only its first game.
8	Lobanovsky Dynamo Stadium	Kyiv	Olimpik Donetsk	16,873	Used as home ground during the season.
			Dynamo Kyiv		Dynamo used the stadium since April 2018 since NSC Olympiyskiy was getting ready to host the 2018 UEFA Champions League Final.
9	Zirka Stadium	Kropyvnytskyi	Zirka Kropyvnytskyi	13,667
10	Illichivets Stadium	Mariupol	FC Mariupol	12,680
11	Slavutych-Arena	Zaporizhia	Zorya Luhansk	12,000	Used as home ground during the season.
12	CSC Nika Stadium	Oleksandriya	FC Oleksandriya	7,000
13	Obolon Arena	Kyiv	Stal Kamianske	5,100	De facto, the home stadium of Stal.

Personnel and sponsorship

Team	President	Head coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Chornomorets Odesa	Leonid Klimov	Kostyantyn Frolov	Serhiy Lyulka	Legea	Gefest
Dynamo Kyiv	Ihor Surkis	Alyaksandr Khatskevich	Viktor Tsyhankov	adidas	UEFA No to racism
Karpaty Lviv	Petro Dyminskyi	Oleh Boychyshyn	Artem Fedetskyi	Joma	ZIK
Mariupol	Pavlo Rozumnyi	Oleksandr Babych	Rustam Khudzhamov	Nike	Favorit Sport
Oleksandriya	Serhiy Kuzmenko	Volodymyr Sharan	Andriy Zaporozhan	Nike	UkrAhroKom
Olimpik Donetsk	Vladyslav Helzin	Roman Sanzhar	Zauri Makharadze	Joma	Pari-Match
Shakhtar Donetsk	Rinat Akhmetov	Paulo Fonseca	Taras Stepanenko	Nike	SCM
Stal Kamianske	Vardan Israelian	Nikolay Kostov	Maksym Zaderaka	Hummel	—
Veres Rivne	Bohdan Kopytko	Andriy Demchenko (interim)	Serhiy Borzenko	Joma	Global Development
Vorskla Poltava	Roman Cherniak	Vasyl Sachko	Volodymyr Chesnakov	adidas	Ferrexpo
Zirka Kropyvnytskyi	Maksym Berezkin	Roman Monaryov	Maksym Drachenko	Joma	—
Zorya Luhansk	Yevhen Heller	Yuriy Vernydub	Oleksandr Karavayev	Nike	Favorit Sport

Notes:

• Ever since Darijo Srna was tested positive for doping (dehydroepiandrosterone among others), on 22 September 2017 he voluntarily stopped participation in competitions and on 20 November 2017 he has been suspended by UEFA for the continental competitions. The team's captain for Shakhtar has been served either by Taras Stepanenko or Taison. On 22 February 2018, the disqualification was officially applied and retrospectively including the time he was suspended from competitions. The start time of disqualification was identified as 22 March 2017 (date of test taken) and the end time shall be no earlier than 22 August 2018.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment	Table
Dynamo Kyiv	Serhiy Rebrov	End of contract	31 May 2017	Pre-season	Alyaksandr Khatskevich	2 June 2017	Pre-season
NK Veres Rivne	Yuriy Virt (caretaker)	Change of contract	6 June 2017		Yuriy Virt	6 June 2017
Stal Kamianske	Leonid Kuchuk	End of contract	6 June 2017		Yegishe Melikyan	25 June 2017
Karpaty Lviv	Oleg Dulub	Resigned	11 June 2017		Sergio Navarro	16 June 2017
Chornomorets Odesa	Oleksandr Babych	Resigned	21 August 2017	12th	Oleksandr Hranovskyi (caretaker)	21 August 2017	12th
	Oleksandr Hranovskyi (caretaker)	End of interim spell	30 August 2017		Oleksiy Chystyakov (caretaker)	30 August 2017
	Oleksiy Chystyakov (caretaker)	End of interim spell	4 September 2017		Oleg Dulub	4 September 2017
Karpaty Lviv	Sergio Navarro	Sacked	14 September 2017	10th	Serhiy Zaytsev	14 September 2017	10th
FC Mariupol	Oleksandr Sevidov	Mutual consent	22 September 2017	5th	Oleksandr Babych	22 September 2017	5th
Stal Kamianske	Yegishe Melikyan	Resigned	25 September 2017	11th	Kyrylo Nesterenko (caretaker)	25 September 2017	11th
	Kyrylo Nesterenko (caretaker)	End of interim spell	28 September 2017		Nikolay Kostov	28 September 2017
Karpaty Lviv	Serhiy Zaytsev	Sacked	19 November 2017	11th	Dario Drudi (caretaker)	19 November 2017	11th
	Dario Drudi (caretaker)	Will work as assistant	21 November 2017		Oleh Boychyshyn	21 November 2017
Chornomorets Odesa	Oleg Dulub	Mutual consent	22 December 2017	10th	Kostyantyn Frolov	23 December 2017	10th
Veres Rivne	Yuriy Virt	Mutual consent	29 December 2017	5th	Yury Svirkov	30 December 2017	5th
	Yury Svirkov	Resigned	25 April 2018	6th	Andriy Demchenko (caretaker)	26 April 2018	6th

Regular season

League table

Template:2017–18 Ukrainian Premier League Regular Season table

Positions by round

The following table represents the teams position after each round in the competition played chronologically.

Team \ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Shakhtar Donetsk	1	4	2	2	2	2	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Dynamo Kyiv	3	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Vorskla Poltava	12	5	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	5	5	5	3	3	3	3	3
Zorya Luhansk	10	9	9	11	8	8	7	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	6	6	4	4	4	4
Veres Rivne	7	8	7	5	6	5	5	5	4	4	4	5	5	5	4	4	3	4	5	5	5	5
FC Mariupol	8	7	5	7	5	6	6	6	5	5	6	6	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	6	7	6
Olimpik Donetsk	2	3	6	3	3	4	4	4	6	6	5	4	3	3	3	3	4	5	6	7	6	7
FC Oleksandriya	11	11	10	9	10	11	11	11	9	8	8	9	9	10	10	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
Zirka Kropyvnytskyi	5	6	8	10	11	9	8	8	8	9	9	8	10	9	8	10	10	9	9	9	10	9
Karpaty Lviv	6	10	11	8	9	10	10	10	10	10	11	11	8	8	9	11	11	11	11	10	9	10
Chornomorets Odesa	9	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	10	11	11	11	9	9	10	10	11	11	11
Stal Kamianske	4	2	3	6	7	7	9	9	11	11	10	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12

Last updated: 6 March 2017
Source: BBC

Notes:

• After the second round, places of Zirka Kropyvnytskyi (6th) and FC Mariupol (7th) are defined by undisclosed criterion.
• After the third round, places of Zirka Kropyvnytskyi (8th) and Zorya Luhansk (9th) are defined by undisclosed criterion.

Championship round

Template:2017–18 Ukrainian Premier League Championship Round table

Championship round positions by round

Team/ Round	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32
Shakhtar Donetsk	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Dynamo Kyiv	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Vorskla Poltava	3	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Zorya Luhansk	4	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
FC Mariupol	5	5	6	6	5	5	5	5	5	5
Veres Rivne	6	6	5	5	6	6	6	6	6	6

Relegation round

Template:2017–18 Ukrainian Premier League Relegation Round table

Relegation round positions by round

Team/ Round	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32
FC Oleksandriya	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	7
Karpaty Lviv	11	11	10	9	9	9	9	9	9	8
Olimpik Donetsk	7	7	7	7	7	8	8	8	8	9
Zirka Kropyvnytskyi	9	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
Chornomorets Odesa	10	12	12	12	12	12	11	12	12	11
Stal Kamianske	12	10	11	11	11	11	12	11	11	12

Relegation play-offs

Teams that placed 10th and 11th in the 2017–18 Ukrainian Premier League play two-leg play-off with the second and third teams of the 2017–18 Ukrainian First League. On 11 May 2018, a draw for relegation play-offs took place in the House of Football, Kyiv. The games were played on 23 May and 27 May 2018.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Zirka Kropyvnytskyi	1–5	Desna Chernihiv	1–1	0–4
Chornomorets Odesa	1–3	FC Poltava	1–0	0–3 (a.e.t.)

First leg

23 May 2018 (2018-05-23) 17:00 UTC+3	Zirka Kropyvnytskyi	1–1	Desna Chernihiv	Zirka Stadium, Kropyvnytskyi Attendance: 2,981 Referee: Serhiy Boyko (Kyiv Oblast)
	D. Favorov  77' (o.g.)	Report	Volkov  32'

---

23 May 2018 (2018-05-23) 19:00 UTC+3	Chornomorets Odesa	1–0	FC Poltava	Chornomorets Stadium, Odesa Attendance: 4,124 Referee: Yevhen Aranovskyi (Kyiv)
	Kovalets  36'	Report

Second leg

27 May 2018 (2018-05-27) 17:00 UTC+3	FC Poltava	3–0 (a.e.t.)	Chornomorets Odesa	Lokomotyv Stadium, Poltava Attendance: 3,700 Referee: Yuriy Mozharovskyi (Lviv)
	Dehtyarev  67', 105' Zubeiko  113' (o.g.)	Report	Romanyuk  64', 110'

FC Poltava won 3–1 on aggregate and was promoted to the 2018–19 Ukrainian Premier League. Chornomorets Odesa was relegated to the 2018–19 Ukrainian First League.

---

27 May 2018 (2018-05-27) 18:00 UTC+3	Desna Chernihiv	4–0	Zirka Kropyvnytskyi	Chernihiv Stadium, Chernihiv Attendance: 10,799 Referee: Kostiantyn Trukhanov (Kharkiv)
	A.Favorov 24' D.Favorov  38' Arveladze  52', 87' Volkov  63'	Report

Desna Chernihiv won 5–1 on aggregate and was promoted to the 2018–19 Ukrainian Premier League. Zirka Kropyvnytskyi was relegated to the 2018–19 Ukrainian First League.

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Rank	Scorer	Team	Goals (Pen.)
1	Facundo Ferreyra	Shakhtar Donetsk	21 (1)
2	Marlos	Shakhtar Donetsk	18 (5)
3	Viktor Tsyhankov	Dynamo Kyiv	13 (2)
4	Iury	Zorya Luhansk	11 (1)
5	Yuriy Kolomoyets	Vorskla Poltava	9
	Dieumerci Mbokani	Dynamo Kyiv	9
	Mykhaylo Serhiychuk	Veres / Vorskla	9 (3)
8	Oleksiy Khoblenko	Chornomorets Odesa	8 (1)
	Orest Kuzyk	Stal Kamianske	8 (1)
10	Artem Hromov	Zorya Luhansk	7
	Serhiy Starenkyi	FC Oleksandriya	7
	Marian Shved	Karpaty Lviv	7

Hat-tricks (pokers)

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Viktor Tsyhankov	Dynamo Kyiv	Karpaty Lviv	5–0	29 July 2017
Serhiy Starenkyi	Oleksandriya	Stal Kamanske	4–1	16 September 2017
Oleksandr Andriyevskyi	Zorya Luhansk	Mariupol	5–2	22 October 2017
Andriy Boryachuk	Mariupol	Zirka Kropyvnytskyi	3–0	18 February 2018

^(number) Player scored (number) goals if more than 3

  Away win

  Home win

  Draw

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Player of the Month
	Player	Club
July 2017	Marlos	Shakhtar Donetsk
August 2017	Maksym Pryadun	Zirka Kropyvnytskyi
September 2017	Alyaksandr Hutar	Chornomorets Odesa
October 2017	Oleksandr Andriyevskyi	Zorya Luhansk
November 2017	Artem Polyarus	FC Oleksandriya
March 2018	Viktor Tsyhankov	Dynamo Kyiv
April 2018	Jorge Carrascal	Karpaty Lviv

Round awards

Round	Player			Coach
	Player	Club	Reference	Coach	Club
Round 1	Marlos	Shakhtar Donetsk	Yegishe Melikyan	Stal Kamianske
Round 2	Dieumerci Mbokani	Dynamo Kyiv	Alyaksandr Khatskevich	Dynamo Kyiv
Round 3	Viktor Tsyhankov	Dynamo Kyiv	Oleksandr Sevidov	FC Mariupol
Round 4	Oleksandr Tkachenko	Vorskla Poltava	Yuriy Virt	Veres Rivne
Round 5	Vyacheslav Churko	FC Mariupol	Roman Sanzhar	Olimpik Donetsk
Round 6	Oleksandr Chyzhov	Vorskla Poltava	Roman Monaryov	Zirka Kropyvnytskyi
Round 7	Maksym Pryadun	Zirka Kropyvnytskyi	Yuriy Vernydub	Zorya Luhansk
Round 8	Viktor Tsyhankov	Dynamo Kyiv	Yuriy Virt	Veres Rivne
Round 9	Alyaksandr Hutar	Chornomorets Odesa	Alyaksandr Khatskevich	Dynamo Kyiv
Round 10	Oleksandr Bandura	Veres Rivne	Yuriy Virt	Veres Rivne
Round 11	Ihor Kharatin	Zorya Luhansk	Vasyl Sachko	Vorskla Poltava
Round 12	Yuriy Kolomoyets	Vorskla Poltava	Oleg Dulub	Chornomorets Odesa
Round 13	Oleksandr Andriyevskyi	Zorya Luhansk	Yuriy Vernydub	Zorya Luhansk
Round 14	Serhiy Myakushko	Karpaty Lviv	Nikolay Kostov	Stal Kamianske
Round 15	Vitaliy Buyalskyi	Dynamo Kyiv	Alyaksandr Khatskevich	Dynamo Kyiv
Round 16	Artem Polyarus	FC Oleksandriya	Volodymyr Sharan	FC Oleksandriya
Round 17	Marlos	Shakhtar Donetsk	Volodymyr Sharan	FC Oleksandriya
Round 18	Viktor Tsyhankov	Dynamo Kyiv	Not awarded
Round 19	Yuriy Pankiv	FC Oleksandriya	Vasyl Sachko	Vorskla Poltava
winter break
Round 20	Andriy Boryachuk	FC Mariupol	Nikolay Kostov	Stal Kamianske
Round 21	Marlos	Shakhtar Donetsk	Yuriy Vernydub	Zorya Luhansk
Round 22	Viktor Tsyhankov	Dynamo Kyiv	Oleksandr Babych	FC Mariupol
Round 23	Facundo Ferreyra	Shakhtar Donetsk		Paulo Fonseca	Shakhtar Donetsk
Round 24	Viktor Tsyhankov	Dynamo Kyiv		Yuriy Vernydub	Zorya Luhansk
Round 25	Mykola Shaparenko	Dynamo Kyiv		Paulo Fonseca	Shakhtar Donetsk
Round 26	Viktor Tsyhankov	Dynamo Kyiv		Alyaksandr Khatskevich	Dynamo Kyiv
Round 27	Volodymyr Shepelyev	Dynamo Kyiv		Alyaksandr Khatskevich	Dynamo Kyiv
Round 28	Artem Besyedin	Dynamo Kyiv		Paulo Fonseca	Shakhtar Donetsk
Round 29	Iury	Zorya Luhansk		Kostiantyn Frolov	Chornomorets Odesa
Round 30	Taison	Shakhtar Donetsk		Oleksandr Babych	FC Mariupol
Round 31	Oleksandr Bandura	Veres Rivne		Alyaksandr Khatskevich	Dynamo Kyiv
Round 32	Vladyslav Kulach	Vorskla Poltava		Vasyl Sachko	Vorskla Poltava

The 2017 Coach of the Year award

The best coaches were identified by the All-Ukrainian Football Coaches Association.

1st place		2nd place		3rd place
Coach	Team	Coach	Team	Coach	Team
Roman Sanzhar	Olimpik Donetsk	Paulo Fonseca	Shakhtar Donetsk	Yuriy Vernydub	Zorya Luhansk

Season's incidents

Desna vs Veres promotion

On 1 June 2017, it was announced that second-placed club FC Desna Chernihiv was denied a license to play in the top division. The argument was that the club was not able to provide guarantees for an adequate financing of infrastructure. The license was received by NK Veres Rivne, the third-placed team during the last season in the second-tier division.

Both clubs FC Desna Chernihiv and NK Veres Rivne did not play at their home stadiums in the 2016–17 Ukrainian First League. The first one played in Kyiv at the Obolon Arena, while the other one played in Varash, at the Izotop Stadium of the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant. The administration of Desna released a letter of protest before a meeting of FFU representatives. In protest, the Desna administration announced that the club would not play its final game of the season against FC Illichivets Mariupol, but later relented. Nonetheless, during the game, players of both teams expressed their protest on the field in a special way: when the whistle was blown the players, instead of starting play, were demonstratively standing around yet kicking a ball.

On 2 June 2017, upon conclusion of its conference the UPL administration announced about the final composition of the league and calendar for the upcoming season. The conference confirmed the admission of Veres to the league and the only club that voted against was FC Dynamo Kyiv, while six votes were for decision and three (including FC Zorya Luhansk) abstained. On 2 June 2017, the Desna fans were picketing the House of Football in Kyiv after they arrived on four buses from Chernihiv.

On 7 June 2017, sports media UA-Football requested from Football Federation of Ukraine and FC Desna Chernihiv to publish related documents to have better understanding over the situation and come to some kind of closure on the subject.

Number of football experts negatively commented on the situation, while the PFC Sumy head coach Anatoliy Bezsmertnyi stated that tomorrow these sports functionaries in such way will make Veres the national champions. The former PFL president Svyatoslav Syrota said that the FFU vice-president is lying about Desna problems. President of FC Inhulets Petrove, Oleksandr Porovoznyuk, called on other clubs to withdraw their teams from the league in support for FC Desna Chernihiv. President of FC Hirnyk-Sport Horishni Plavni Petro Kaplun stated that it makes him laugh when the president of Veres Oleksiy Khakhlev asks to follow the regulations. He points out that last season Veres was admitted to the Second League with complete disregard to the season's regulations. Kaplun also called on the FFU authorities to pay attention to what owners of professional clubs have to say as they have a right to express their vote of confindance for the FFU leadership.

Mariupol vs Dynamo (security issues)

Another issue relating to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine became serious when FC Dynamo Kyiv failed to arrive to Mariupol for the away game against FC Mariupol on 27 August 2017.

The issue was ongoing ever since the end of previous season when on 2 June 2017 FC Mariupol's promotion to the Ukrainian Premier League became official. On 3 June 2017 the vice president of Dynamo Serhiy Mokhnyk officially announced that the club will not travel for a game in Mariupol city as it is difficult to present guarantees in security due the fact that the city is located near a frontline (about 23–25 km (14–16 mi), see War in Donbass). The vice president also offered to conduct the game on a neutral field such as Dnipro Arena. Few days later in more details the same announcement was repeated by Ihor Surkis who also added that if he will receive documented security guarantees, he will send his team to Mariupol.

The leadership of the Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU) in a face of Andriy Pavelko right away expressed its opposition for the Dynamo's statement. The president of FFU made an emphasis that the game in Mariupol is an important component of uniting policy on national scale. He also underlined that there is no danger in conducting the game in Mariupol.

During preparation for the next season the issue was moved to background. However, when the season started on 16 July 2017, the issue surfaced again. About a week later, on 24 July 2017, Dynamo received recommendation letter from the Ministry of Interior and the Security Service of Ukraine where it was urged not to travel to Mariupol for a game. The same day Dynamo published its own letter addressed to the Football Federation of Ukraine and Ukrainian Premier League petitioning to transfer the Round 7 game against Mariupol scheduled on 27 August 2017 to another city. Two days later, on 26 July 2017, almost at the same time both the Minister of Interior (Arsen Avakov) and the President of UPL (Volodymyr Heninson) made public announcements assuring in safety of conducting football games in the littoral city of the Sea of Azov.

Throughout the rest of month of July two games took place in Mariupol. Until August FC Karpaty Lviv supported the position of Dynamo. Eventually to this "stand off" became involved the general manager of FC Shakhtar Donetsk Serhiy Palkin, while the television channel "Football" launched a wide informational campaign in support to conduct the game. For example, during one of the channel's broadcasting the president of Football Federation of Mariupol city called Hryhoriy Surkis the "main football separatist" and offered him to resolve the issue through Viktor Medvedchuk and the president of the aggressor state (Vladimir Putin). On 11 August 2017, the Deputy director of National Police in Donetsk Oblast wrote an official letter to the Football Federation of Ukraine with security guarantees for all games in Mariupol. Finally the game between FC Mariupol and FC Karpaty took place on August 13 in Mariupol.

On 18 August 2017, FFU issued a press release where it denied the petition of Dynamo in transferring the game. The session of the FFU Executive Committee that had took place on 22 August 2017 should have solved the problem.

Following no show of Dynamo to the game with FC Mariupol on 27 August 2017, FC Mariupol issued a press release where it accused its opponents in attempt to discredit the football club from Mariupol. On 14 November 2017, The Appeal Committee of the Football Federation of Ukraine did not satisfy the Dynamo appeal and counted the team's technical defeat.

On 19 February 2018, the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne declined all claims of Dynamo to the Football Federation of Ukraine in relations to the "Mariupol case".

On 28 February 2018, the Ukrainian Premier League has officially updated its standings in correspondence to the earlier decision of the FFU CDC of 11 September 2017.

Relocation of teams

Due to the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine some football clubs were forced to be dissolved, other moved away to other cities in Ukraine. Among the UPL teams, teams from Donetsk, Olimpik and Shakhtar, moved to Kiev, Zorya Luhansk moved to Zaporizhia, teams from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Tavriya and Sevastopol, were dissolved. The relocated teams did not hurry with their change of place of registry in hope to be able to return home in near future.

In 2018 Shakhtar has officially changed its place of registry from Donetsk to Mariupol.

During the season several clubs (Shakhtar, Stal, and Veres) changed their city registration for various reasons and informed the Football Federation of Ukraine that since the next season will represent other cities.

2018 UPL presidential elections

The 2018 presidential elections of the Ukrainian Premier League took place on 6 April 2018. The current president Volodymyr Heninson that serves as the president since February 2016 announced that he will not run for president in 2018. Among possible candidates specialists note a Swiss lawyer Thomas Grimm or Joe Palmer from AFC Wimbledon. As of 26 March 2018, a day before deadline for submitting candidacy for election, there is only Thomas Grimm whose candidacy was submitted by FC Oleksandriya on 22 March 2018. On 6 April 2018, Thomas Grimm was elected as a new president with 10 votes for and 2 abstained.

Prospective disciplinary sanctions

According to FootballHub, in March the FFU Disciplinary Committee prosecuted the Olimpik's junior teams U-19 and U-21 for game fixing. Earlier the CDC chairman, Francesco Baranca, underlined that Olimpik won't participate in European competitions if its junior teams will be disqualified.

FC Vorskla Poltava could have problems with the league's attestation for next season for debts to its former players. Another UPL player submitted his claim to the FFU CDC against its former club FC Stal Kamianske.

See also

• 2017–18 Ukrainian First League
• 2017–18 Ukrainian Second League
• 2017–18 Ukrainian Cup
• List of Ukrainian football transfers summer 2017
• List of Ukrainian football transfers winter 2017–18

External links

• Official website of the Ukrainian Premier League
• News, stats, updates. campeones.ua.

Template:2017–18 in Ukrainian football