The 1971 Football Championship of Ukrainian SSR was the 41st season of association football competition of the Ukrainian SSR, which was part of the Soviet Second League in Zone 1. It was the first season in the newly established Soviet Second League, after both Class A and Class B competitions were discontinued.
The division became a part of big football reform that took place in the Soviet Union and stretched over two years 1970–1971. Most of the club previously competed in the 1970 Class A Second Group (Zone 1) and were grandfathered into the newly established Second League (Zone 1). Clubs from other union republics (Belorussian SSR) were weeded out into other Zone. The lower tier Class B competition were completely disbanded with only eight teams allowed to advance to the Second League, thus replacing those club of other union republics.
Source: [citation needed] (C) Champions; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated Notes:
^Kryvbas qualified for the play off with the third team that placed third in final tournament. After winning the play off, Kryvbas was promoted.
^ abcAccording to the season's regulations two bottom teams had to be relegated including Torpedo Lutsk and Horyn Rovno, but the Football Federation of Ukrainian SSR, considering the loss of professional team in two adjacent oblasts in western Ukraine, adopted a decision to leave teams of both cities in the Second League. However, in 1972 on a basis of the Lutsk city team, there was formed professional team of the Carpathian Military District and created SC Lutsk.[1] At the same time, the original professional team of the Carpathian Military District SKA Lviv was merged with the newly formed SC Lutsk. Moreover, other two army sports clubs of Ukrainian competitions, SKA Kiev and SKA Odessa, moved next year to another cities.
Note: in 1970, Football Championship of Ukrainian SSR included competitions in both Soviet Class A Second Group (upper level) and Soviet Class B (lower level). Next year 1971, Class B was disbanded, while Class A Second Group was changed to the Soviet Second League.