2019–20 Ukrainian Premier League

Ukrainian Premier League
2019–20
	Ukrainian Premier League; 2019–20
Season information
Dates	28 July 2019 – 19 July 2020; (winter break:; 15 Dec 2019 – 22 Feb 2020); (emergency:; 18 March 2020 – 30 May 2020)
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League
Europa League
Season statistics
← 2018–19	2020–21 →

	League stub This article about 2019–20 Ukrainian Premier League is a stub, an article too short to provide more than rudimentary information about a subject. You can help The Football Database Wiki by expanding it.

The 2019–20 Ukrainian Premier League season was the 29th top-level football club competitions since the fall of the Soviet Union and the 12th since the establishment of the Ukrainian Premier League.

The tournament has been set to start on 28 July 2019. The same day there took place the game for the Ukrainian Super Cup. The UPL General Assembly also adopted a post season play-off mini-tournament for the last fifth berth of Ukraine in the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League competition which will involve the best team(s) of the relegation group. The assembly also agreed to implement the Video assistant referee (VAR) position in 2020. With the ongoing competition, on 7 August 2019 the league adopted new name FavBet Liha after its main sponsor as well as its new logo. For promotional purpose, the Ukrainian Premier League introduced an own copy of virtual fantasy league on the Real Manager game platform.

The defending champion was the 12-times winner Shakhtar Donetsk. On 20 June 2020, Shakhtar won the league again by beating Oleksandriya in the Round 27 home game gaining its 13th title record five rounds before the finish.

Summary[]

For next 2020–21 season, Ukrainian Premier League will expand to 14 teams. The lowest ranked team from Ukrainian Premier League will get relegated to Ukrainian First League. However, the top three teams from Ukrainian First League will gain promotion to Ukrainian Premier League next season.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine and based on resolutions of the Cabinet of Ukraine and the UAF Executive Committee, on 11 March 2020 the UPL adopted a decision to conduct games of the league's championship as well as under-21 and under-19 championships without spectators until 3 April 2020 (the first two rounds of the season's second stage).

On 17 March 2020, the Ukrainian Association of Football adopted its decision to pause all football competitions in the country since 18 March 2020 for unspecified period of time (until adaptation of its next decision to resume all football events) due to the coronavirus pandemic. On 14 May 2020 in the House of Football took place a working conference between leaders of UAF and UPL with representatives of the UPL club where it was decided not to renew competitions among U-21 and U-19 teams. The decision was approved on 27 May 2020 by the UAF Executive Committee. On 26 May 2020 the Ministry of Healthcare granted its permission to conduct games of the Favbet Liha and the Ukrainian Cup without spectators starting 30 May 2020 and the UAF Executive Committee supported the decision to renew the Championship and the Ukrainian Cup from 30 May 2020. Next day the Ministry of Health Care updated some of its restricting recommendations in regards to coordination of competitions among professional clubs.

The term of the UPL president expired on 5 April 2020. Due to pandemic situation worldwide, the election of the League's president was postponed to 27 April 2020. The current president Thomas Grimm stated that he will not run for the post as the members of the league are not interested to work together. On 4 May 2020 the league's executive director Yevhen Dykyi announced that there were registered three candidates for elections of the UPL president. On 18 May 2020 the league announced that elections for the league's president were postponed and their date will be announced later. Until then as the UPL president is acting the league's executive director Yevhen Dykyi.

Teams[]

Promoted teams[]

SC Dnipro-1 – the champion of the 2018–19 Ukrainian First League (debut)
Kolos Kovalivka – 2nd place of the 2018–19 Ukrainian First League, play-off winners (debut)

Other issues[]

Olimpik Donetsk's participation in the season was under question because both of its youth teams (U-21 and U-19) were expelled from the Ukrainian Premier League due to match fixing, and are banned from competitions until the end of 2019–20 season.

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).

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, after quarantine break clubs from Lviv are forced to conduct all their home matches in the other regions.

The following stadiums are regarded as home grounds (clubs in bold indicate that the respective stadium was their main home ground during the season):

Rank	Stadium	Place	Club	Capacity	Notes
1	NSC Olimpiyskiy	Kyiv	Dynamo Kyiv	70,050
			Shakhtar Donetsk		used as home ground following COVID-19 quarantine
			Kolos Kovalivka		used as home ground in Round 26
2	OSC Metalist	Kharkiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	40,003	used as home ground before COVID-19 pandemic
3	Arena Lviv	Lviv	FC Lviv	34,915	used as home ground in Rounds 2 and 4
4	Dnipro-Arena	Dnipro	SC Dnipro-1	31,003
4	Dnipro-Arena	Dnipro	FC Lviv	31,003	used as home ground in Round 25
5	Ukraina Stadium	Lviv	Karpaty Lviv	28,051
5	Ukraina Stadium	Lviv	FC Lviv	28,051
6	Vorskla Stadium	Poltava	Vorskla Poltava	24,795
7	Lobanovsky Dynamo Stadium	Kyiv	Olimpik Donetsk	16,873	used as home ground during the season
7	Lobanovsky Dynamo Stadium	Kyiv	Dynamo Kyiv	16,873	used as home ground in Round 19
8	Ternopilsky Misky Stadion	Ternopil	FC Lviv	15,150	used as home ground in Round 29
9	Volodymyr Boiko Stadium	Mariupol	FC Mariupol	12,680
10	Avanhard Stadium	Lutsk	Karpaty Lviv	12,080	used as home ground in Round 28
11	Chernihiv Stadium	Chernihiv	Desna Chernihiv	12,060
12	Slavutych-Arena	Zaporizhia	Zorya Luhansk	12,000	used as home ground during the season
13	CSC Nika Stadium	Oleksandriya	FC Oleksandriya	7,000
14	Obolon Arena	Kyiv	Kolos Kovalivka	5,100	used as home ground during the season

Personnel and sponsorship[]

Team	President	Head coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Desna Chernihiv	Volodymyr Levin	Oleksandr Ryabokon	Denys Favorov	Nike	Parimatch
SC Dnipro-1	Yuriy Bereza	Dmytro Mykhaylenko	Serhiy Kravchenko	Nike	—
Dynamo Kyiv	Ihor Surkis	Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko	Serhiy Sydorchuk	New Balance	—
Karpaty Lviv	Oleh Smaliychuk	Roman Sanzhar	Dmytro Klyots	Joma	Marathonbet
Kolos Kovalivka	Andriy Zasukha	Ruslan Kostyshyn	Vitaliy Havrysh	Nike	Svitanok
FC Lviv	Bohdan Kopytko	Giorgi Tsetsadze	Serhiy Borzenko	Nike	LIMO
FC Mariupol	Tarik Makhmud Chaudri	Oleksandr Babych	Serhiy Yavorskyi	Nike	Favorite Sport
FC Oleksandriya	Serhiy Kuzmenko	Volodymyr Sharan	Yuriy Pankiv	Nike	AgroVista
Olimpik Donetsk	Vladyslav Helzin	Ihor Klymovskyi (interim)	Dmytro Hryshko	Joma	Parimatch
Shakhtar Donetsk	Rinat Akhmetov	Luís Castro	Andriy Pyatov	Nike	Parimatch
Vorskla Poltava	Kostyantyn Zhevago	Yuriy Maksymov	Volodymyr Chesnakov	Nike	Ferrexpo
Zorya Luhansk	Yevhen Heller	Viktor Skrypnyk	Mykyta Kamenyuka	Nike	Favorite Sport

Managerial changes[]

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment	Table
Zorya Luhansk	Yuriy Vernydub	Mutual consent	31 May 2019	Pre-season	Viktor Skrypnyk	3 June 2019	Pre-season
Vorskla Poltava	Vitaliy Kosovskyi (caretaker)	Change of contract	4 June 2019		Vitaliy Kosovskyi	4 June 2019
Shakhtar Donetsk	Paulo Fonseca	Signed with AS Roma	11 June 2019		Luís Castro	12 June 2019
Karpaty Lviv	Oleksandr Chyzhevskyi (caretaker)	Change of contract	18 June 2019		Oleksandr Chyzhevskyi	18 June 2019
Olimpik Donetsk	Ihor Klymovskyi (interim)	End of interim term	1 July 2019		Júlio César Correia	1 July 2019
Dynamo Kyiv	Alyaksandr Khatskevich	Sacked	14 August 2019	3rd	Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko	15 August 2019	3rd
Olimpik Donetsk	Júlio César Correia	Sacked	19 August 2019	12th	Ihor Klymovskyi (interim)	19 August 2019	12th
Olimpik Donetsk	Ihor Klymovskyi (interim)	End of interim	2 September 2019	12th	Vicente Gómez	2 September 2019	12th
Karpaty Lviv	Oleksandr Chyzhevskyi	Sacked	3 September 2019	11th	Roman Sanzhar	3 September 2019	11th
FC Lviv	Bohdan Blavatskyi	Mutual consent	10 September 2019	10th	Volodymyr Mazyar	10 September 2019	10th
FC Lviv	Volodymyr Mazyar	Mutual consent	31 October 2019	12th	Yegishe Melikyan	31 October 2019	12th
Vorskla Poltava	Vitaliy Kosovskyi	Change of contract	14 November 2019	12th	Yuriy Maksymov	15 November 2019	12th
Olimpik Donetsk	Vicente Gómez	Mutual consent	13 March 2020	11th	Ihor Klymovskyi (interim)	13 March 2020	11th
FC Lviv	Yegishe Melikyan	End of contract	21 June 2020	9th	Giorgi Tsetsadze	22 June 2020	9th

First stage[]

First stage table[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Shakhtar Donetsk	22	19	2	1	59	14	+45	59	Qualification for the Championship round
2	Dynamo Kyiv	22	14	3	5	44	17	+27	45
3	Zorya Luhansk	22	13	4	5	39	18	+21	43
4	Desna Chernihiv	22	13	3	6	36	15	+21	42
5	FC Oleksandriya	22	11	4	7	30	23	+7	37
6	Kolos Kovalivka	22	8	2	12	25	39	−14	26
7	SC Dnipro-1	22	7	4	11	26	34	−8	25	Qualification for the Relegation round
8	FC Mariupol	22	6	7	9	21	35	−14	25
9	FC Lviv	22	5	5	12	16	35	−19	20
10	Vorskla Poltava	22	6	2	14	15	38	−23	20
11	Olimpik Donetsk	22	5	3	14	17	37	−20	18
12	Karpaty Lviv	22	2	7	13	17	40	−23	13

Source: Ukrainian Premier League, 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).

Championship round[]

Championship round table[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Shakhtar Donetsk (C)	32	26	4	2	80	26	+54	82	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Dynamo Kyiv	32	18	5	9	65	35	+30	59	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
3	Zorya Luhansk	32	17	7	8	50	29	+21	58	Qualification for the Europa League group stage
4	Desna Chernihiv	32	17	5	10	59	33	+26	56	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round
5	FC Oleksandriya	32	14	7	11	49	47	+2	49	Qualification for the playoff for Europa League second qualifying round
6	Kolos Kovalivka (O)	32	10	2	20	33	59	−26	32

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; (O) Play-off winner

Championship round results[]

Home \ Away	DES	DYN	KOL	OLK	SHA	ZOR
Desna Chernihiv	—	3–2	5–1	1–3	2–4	1–2
Dynamo Kyiv	1–1	—	2–1	5–1	2–3	3–1
Kolos Kovalivka	0–2	2–0	—	2–1	0–1	0–2
FC Oleksandriya	1–5	2–2	4–2	—	2–2	1–0
Shakhtar Donetsk	3–2	3–1	2–0	3–2	—	0–0
Zorya Luhansk	1–1	1–3	1–0	2–2	1–0	—

Source: UPL calendar
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Relegation round[]

Relegation round table[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
7	SC Dnipro-1	32	15	4	13	42	42	0	49	Qualification for the playoff for Europa League second qualifying round
8	FC Mariupol	32	12	9	11	40	46	−6	45
9	Olimpik Donetsk	32	10	6	16	32	47	−15	36
10	Vorskla Poltava	32	9	7	16	23	48	−25	34
11	FC Lviv	32	5	9	18	25	57	−32	24
12	Karpaty Lviv	32	2	9	21	19	48	−29	15	Expelled from the league

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).

Play-offs for qualification to the UEFA Europa League[]

Teams that placed 5th and 6th in the Championship group with the teams placed 7th and 8th in the Relegation group will play the one-leg play-off for one more berth in the Europa League second qualifying round. Winners of the pairs will contest in one-leg game the last berth to the UEFA Europa League. If the winners of the 2019–20 Ukrainian Cup Dynamo Kyiv hadn't already clinched the berth to the European competitions by the league performance, the play-off would have been set among teams placed 4th, 5th and 6th in the Championship group and 7th in the Relegation group in the same way.

First round[]

Team 1	Score	Team 2
FC Oleksandriya	1	8th placed team
Kolos Kovalivka	2	7th placed team

Second round[]

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Higher-ranked pair winner	1	Lower-ranked pair winner

Season statistics[]

Top goalscorers[]

As of 2020 075

Rank	Scorer	Team	Goals (Pen.)
1	Júnior Moraes	Shakhtar Donetsk	19 (1)
2	Oleksandr Filippov	Desna Chernihiv	15 (3)
3	Marlos	Shakhtar Donetsk	13 (1)
4	Viktor Tsyhankov	Dynamo Kyiv	12 (4)
5	Bohdan Lyednyev	Zorya Luhansk	11 (1)
6	Vladyslav Supriaha	SC Dnipro-1	10 (2)
6	Taison	Shakhtar Donetsk	10 (4)
8	Vitaliy Buyalskyi	Dynamo Kyiv	9 (1)
	Carlos de Pena	Dynamo Kyiv	9 (1)
	Benjamin Verbič	Dynamo Kyiv	9 (2)

Top assistants[]

As of 2020 76

Rank	Scorer	Team	Assists
1	Taison	Shakhtar Donetsk	10
2	Júnior Moraes	Shakhtar Donetsk	8
3	Yehor Kartushov	Desna Chernihiv	7
3	Vladyslav Kocherhin	Zorya Luhansk	7
5	Dmytro Myshnyov	FC Mariupol	6
5	Volodymyr Shepelyev	Dynamo Kyiv	6

Clean sheets[]