2018–19 Ukrainian Premier League

Ukrainian Premier League
2018–19
	Ukrainian Premier League; 2018–19
Season information
Dates	21 July 2018 – 30 May 2019; (winter break 9 December 2018 –; 16 February 2019)
Winners	Shakhtar Donetsk; 12th title
Relegated	Arsenal–Kyiv ; Chornomorets Odesea
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	Shakhtar Donetsk; Dynamo Kyiv
Europa League	FC Oleksandriya; FC Mariupol; Zorya Luhansk
Season statistics
Top goalscorer	19 – Júnior Moraes (Shakhtar)
Biggest home win	5–0 – (Dynamo-Zorya, Shakhtar-; Karpaty, Shakhtar-Lviv)
Biggest away win	0–5 – (Arsenal-Zorya, ; Chornomorets-Karpaty); 1–6 – (Karpaty-Shakhtar)
Highest scoring	2–5 – (Olimpik-Shakhtar); 1–6 – (Karpaty-Shakhtar)
← 2017–18	2019–20 →

The 2018–19 Ukrainian Premier League season is the 28th top level football club competitions since the fall of the Soviet Union and the eleventh since the establishment of the Ukrainian Premier League.

The tournament started on 21 July 2018 with the competition set to end on 25 May 2019. The league took its winter intermission after Round 18 on 8 December 2018 and resumed its competition of the Championship with Round 19 on 16 February 2019. The first stage ended with Round 22 games on 17 March 2019. The draw for the second stage was announced for 5 March 2019.

The defending champion is the 11-times winner Shakhtar Donetsk.

Teams[]

Promoted teams[]

Arsenal Kyiv – the champion of the 2017–18 Ukrainian First League (returning as a phoenix club of previous Arsenal Kyiv after five seasons absence)
Desna Chernihiv – 3rd place of the 2017–18 Ukrainian First League, play-off winners (debut)

Shuffled teams[]

FC Lviv – a team swap after merging with NK Veres Rivne (returning as a phoenix club of previous FC Lviv after nine seasons absence)

On completion of the 2017–18 Ukrainian Premier League season, Veres Rivne, who had moved their operations to Lviv during the season announced the merging with FC Lviv who competed in the 2017–18 Ukrainian Second League and retain their name. This is the first time of such "swap" that has occurred with a team from the Ukrainian Premier League. Its certification the club passed on 5 June 2018. Along with that the FFU certification committee is consulting with the UEFA in regards of the "clubs swap". On 6 June 2018, it was announced that it is too early speculate composition of the league for the next season as the UEFA will make its final decision by allowing or not participation of FC Lviv. It is possible that some of already relegated clubs might be given a second chance if UEFA will insist on impossibility of the Lviv-Veres team swap. On 12 June 2018, Ukrainian Premier League updated its website removing any mentioning of NK Veres Rivne ever competing in the league and its record being awarded to FC Lviv. Few days later the league recovered the Veres' record. More to the story, in interview to "Tribuna" a head of the FFU Attestation Committee Viktor Bezsmernyi explained that it was Veres that received certificate for the 2018–19 Ukrainian Premier League and then the club changed its name. At same time the old-new president of Veres Khakhlyov demonstrated the club's certificate for the 2018–19 Ukrainian Second League.

Withdrawn teams[]

On 21 June 2018, during the club's conference of FC Poltava, the club's leadership announced that it dissolved the club.

On 22 June 2018, the UPL published an official announcement about situation with FC Poltava, and while shocked with the club's decision the league is confirming that the club is withdrawing and that the league will be seeking its replacement. Following withdrawal of FC Poltava, a crisis has seemed to ripen in the league as there is no other team can replace Poltava due to financing or infrastructure issues. Based on the voting conducted among the UPL members, on 26 June 2018, the league picked FC Chornomorets Odesa for the Poltava's replacement and submitted its selection for approval by the FFU Executive Committee. On 3 July 2018, Chornomorets was officially approved by FFU as 2018–19 Ukrainian Premier League participant.

Stadiums[]

Three teams play their matches outside of home towns. The minimum threshold for the stadium's capacity in the UPL is 5,000 (Article 10, paragraph 7.2).

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	Will be used as home ground during the season.
3	Arena Lviv	Lviv	FC Lviv	34,915
4	Ukraina Stadium	Lviv	Karpaty Lviv	28,051
5	Vorskla Stadium	Poltava	Vorskla Poltava	24,795
6	Lobanovsky Dynamo Stadium	Kyiv	Olimpik Donetsk	16,873	Will be used as home ground during the season.
7	Volodymyr Boiko Stadium	Mariupol	FC Mariupol	12,680
8	Chernihiv Stadium	Chernihiv	Desna Chernihiv	12,060
9	Slavutych-Arena	Zaporizhia	Zorya Luhansk	12,000	Will be used as home ground during the season.
10	CSC Nika Stadium	Oleksandriya	FC Oleksandriya	7,000
11	Lokomotyv Stadium	Poltava	FC Poltava	3,700
12	Bannikov Stadium	Kyiv	Arsenal-CSKA Kyiv	1,678

Personnel and sponsorship[]

Team	President	Head coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Arsenal-CSKA Kyiv	Ivica Pirić	Serhiy Litovchenko	Artem Starhorodskyi	Zeus
Desna Chernihiv	Volodymyr Levin	Oleksandr Ryabokon	Vadym Melnyk	Nike
Dynamo Kyiv	Ihor Surkis	Alyaksandr Khatskevich	Viktor Tsyhankov	New Balance	UEFA No to racism
Karpaty Lviv	Petro Dyminskyi	Oleh Boychyshyn	Artem Fedetskyi	Joma	ZIK
FC Lviv	Bohdan Kopytko	Vacant
FC Mariupol	Pavlo Rozumnyi	Oleksandr Babych	Rustam Khudzhamov	Nike	Favorit Sport
FC Oleksandriya	Serhiy Kuzmenko	Volodymyr Sharan	Andriy Zaporozhan	Nike	UkrAhroKom
Olimpik Donetsk	Vladyslav Helzin	Roman Sanzhar	Vacant	Joma	Pari-Match
FC Poltava	Leonid Sobolev	Anatoliy Bezsmertnyi	Vladyslav Nasibulin	Joma	Suchasnyi Dim
Shakhtar Donetsk	Rinat Akhmetov	Paulo Fonseca	Taras Stepanenko	Nike	SCM
Vorskla Poltava	Roman Cherniak	Vasyl Sachko	Volodymyr Chesnakov	adidas	Ferrexpo
Zorya Luhansk	Yevhen Heller	Yuriy Vernydub	Oleksandr Karavayev	Nike	Favorit Sport

Managerial changes[]

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment	Table
FC Lviv	Reorganized (in place of NK Veres Rivne)			Pre-season	Andriy Demchenko (interim)	8 June 2018	Pre-season
Chornomorets Odesa	Kostyantyn Frolov	Dismissed (w/o details)	13 June 2018		Angel Chervenkov	13 June 2018
Arsenal Kyiv	Serhiy Litovchenko	"Laid off"	22 June 2018		Fabrizio Ravanelli	22 June 2018
FC Lviv	Andriy Demchenko	End of interim	29 June 2018		Gilmar	3 July 2018
FC Lviv	Gilmar	Resigned	14 August 2018	7th	Yuriy Bakalov	16 August 2018	7th
Karpaty Lviv	Oleh Boychyshyn	Sacked	16 August 2018	8th	José Morais	16 August 2018	8th
Arsenal Kyiv	Fabrizio Ravanelli	Resigned	22 September 2018	12th	Vladyslav Humenyuk	22 September 2018	12th
Arsenal Kyiv	Vladyslav Humenyuk	End of interim	1 October 2018	12th	Vyacheslav Hroznyi	1 October 2018	12th
Olimpik Donetsk	Roman Sanzhar	Mutual consent	3 October 2018	7th	Vyacheslav Shevchuk	3 October 2018	7th
Karpaty Lviv	José Morais	Contract terminated	28 November 2018	10th	Oleh Boychyshyn (interim)	28 November 2018	10th
Arsenal Kyiv	Vyacheslav Hroznyi	Mutual agreement	9 January 2019	12th	Ihor Leonov	16 January 2019	12th
Karpaty Lviv	Oleh Boychyshyn	End of interim	13 January 2019	10th	Fabri	13 January 2019	10th
Vorskla Poltava	Vasyl Sachko	Contract terminated	27 March 2019	7th	Vitaliy Kosovskyi (interim)	28 March 2019	7th
FC Lviv	Yuriy Bakalov	Mutual consent	8 April 2019	6th	Taras Hrebenyuk (interim)	8 April 2019	6th
FC Lviv	Taras Hrebenyuk	End of interim	16 April 2019	5th	Bohdan Blavatskyi	16 April 2019	5th
Olimpik Donetsk	Vyacheslav Shevchuk	Mutual consent	17 April 2019	10th	Ihor Klymovskyi (interim)	17 April 2019	10th
Karpaty Lviv	Fabri	Resigned (heath concerns)	27 May 2019	10th	Oleksandr Chyzhevskyi (interim)	27 May 2019	10th
For changes that took place after 30 May 2019 (last round game day), see 2019–20 Ukrainian Premier League

Regular season[]

League table[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
1	Template:Fb team Shakhtar Donetsk	22	18	3	1	52	9	+43	57	Qualification to Championship round
2	Template:Fb team Dynamo Kyiv	22	16	2	4	40	11	+29	50
3	Template:Fb team FC Oleksandriya	22	12	5	5	31	19	+12	41
4	Template:Fb team Zorya Luhansk	22	8	8	6	28	20	+8	32
5	Template:Fb team FC Lviv	22	7	9	6	19	20	−1	30
6	Template:Fb team FC Mariupol	22	8	6	8	24	33	−9	30
7	Template:Fb team Vorskla Poltava	22	9	2	11	18	28	−10	29	Qualification to Relegation round
8	Template:Fb team Desna Chernihiv	22	8	4	10	23	24	−1	28
9	Template:Fb team Karpaty Lviv	22	5	6	11	26	37	−11	21
10	Template:Fb team Olimpik Donetsk	22	4	8	10	25	33	−8	20
11	Template:Fb team Chornomorets Odesa	22	4	4	14	12	34	−22	16
12	Template:Fb team Arsenal Kyiv	22	3	3	16	12	42	−30	12

Source: Ukrainian Premier League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

Championship round[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Shakhtar Donetsk (C)	32	26	5	1	73	11	+62	83	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Dynamo Kyiv	32	22	6	4	54	18	+36	72	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
3	FC Oleksandriya	32	14	7	11	39	34	+5	49	Qualification for the Europa League group stage
4	FC Mariupol	32	12	7	13	36	47	−11	43	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round
5	Zorya Luhansk	32	11	10	11	39	34	+5	43	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round
6	FC Lviv	32	8	10	14	25	40	−15	34

Source: Ukrainian Premier League, UEFA, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head higher number of goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Higher number of goals scored; 7) Draw or "golden match" if tied for title (Article 22, paragraph 3).
(C) Champion

Relegation round[]

Relegation round table[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
7	Vorskla Poltava	32	12	6	14	31	43	−12	42
8	Desna Chernihiv	32	12	5	15	35	41	−6	41
9	Olimpik Donetsk	32	7	13	12	41	48	−7	34
10	Karpaty Lviv (O)	32	8	9	15	44	53	−9	33	Qualification for the Relegation play-offs
11	Chornomorets Odesa (R)	32	8	7	17	31	49	−18	31	Qualification for the Relegation play-offs
12	Arsenal Kyiv (R, X)	32	7	5	20	26	56	−30	26	Relegated and later withdrawn

Source: Ukrainian Premier League, UEFA, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head higher number of goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Higher number of goals scored; 7) Draw or "golden match" if tied for title (Article 22, paragraph 3).
(O) Play-off winner; (R) Relegated; (X) Withdrew

Relegation play-offs[]

Teams that placed 10th and 11th in the 2018–19 Ukrainian Premier League play two-leg play-off with the second and third teams of the 2018–19 Ukrainian First League. The draw for play-offs took place on 24 May 2019 and the games will be played on 4 and 8 June 2019.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Chornomorets Odesa	0 – 2	Kolos Kovalivka	0 – 0	0 – 2
Karpaty Lviv	3 – 1	Volyn Lutsk	0 – 0	3 – 1

First leg[]

4 June 2019 19:00 UTC+3	Chornomorets Odesa	0 – 0	Kolos Kovalivka	Chornomorets Stadium, Odessa Attendance: 5,435 Referee: Anatoliy Abdula (Kharkiv)
		Report

4 June 2019 19:00 UTC+3	Karpaty Lviv	0 – 0	Volyn Lutsk	Ukraina Stadium, Lviv Attendance: 10,104 Referee: Denys Shurman (Vyshneve)
		Report

Second leg[]

8 June 2019 17:00 UTC+3	Kolos Kovalivka	2 – 0	Chornomorets Odesa	Kolos Stadium, Kovalivka Attendance: 2,500 Referee: Vitaliy Romanov
	Havrysh 57', 63' (pen.)	Report

Kolos Kovalivka won 2–0 on aggregate and were promoted to the 2019–20 Ukrainian Premier League. Chornomorets Odesa were relegated to the 2019–20 Ukrainian First League

8 June 2019 19:00 UTC+3	Volyn Lutsk	0 – 3 ~~1 – 3~~	Karpaty Lviv	Avanhard Stadium, Lutsk Attendance: 5,200 Referee: Maksym Kozyryatskyi
	Kozhanov 42'	Report	Klyots 37' Ponde 82' (pen.) Miroshnichenko 90+5'

Karpaty Lviv won 3–0 on aggregate and retained their spot in the 2019–20 Ukrainian Premier League. Volyn Lutsk remained in the 2019–20 Ukrainian First League

Due to fan violence at the game and attack on referee, the original score 1–3 was scratched and replaced with technical score 0–3 loss to Volyn and win for Karpaty. Additionally, the Lutsk department of police started criminal proceedings on the fact of intentional damage to property during the game by the Karpaty fans.

Season statistics[]

Top goalscorers[]

As of 30 May 2019 (2019-05-30)

Rank	Scorer	Team	Goals (Pen.)
1	Júnior Moraes	Shakhtar Donetsk	19 (1)
2	Viktor Tsyhankov	Dynamo Kyiv	18 (7)
3	Maryan Shved	Karpaty Lviv	14 (3)
4	Yevhen Banada	FC Oleksandriya	9
	Bruno	FC Lviv	9
	Marlos	Shakhtar Donetsk	9 (1)
	Serhiy Vakulenko	Arsenal Kyiv	9 (5)
8	Maksym Dehtyarov	Olimpik Donetsk	8
	Oleksandr Zubkov	FC Mariupol	8 (1)
	Oleksandr Karavayev	Zorya Luhansk	8 (2)
	Serhiy Myakushko	Karpaty Lviv	8 (3)

Notes:

Top assistants[]