The 2023–24 Ukrainian First League is the 33rd football league since its establishment. The league competition consisted of 20 teams. The competition is conducting during the ongoing war with the Russia since late February 2022. It was decided to conduct competitions in two groups.[1]
The competitions were officially approved by the Ukrainian Association of Football Executive Committee only two days before the start of the season.[2] Matches of the First League were the first games of the 2023–24 season.
Format
Due to the Russo-Ukrainian War, the league competitions changed its usual format. The Professional Football League of Ukraine (PFL) Conference adopted changes to the 2022–23 season after some 24 PFL teams were forced to suspend their activities or dissolve. It was decided to keep the number of participants at 20,[3] but split them in two groups of 10.
The competitions are scheduled to consist of two stages. At the first stage two groups of 10 would conduct a usual double round-robin tournament. At the second stage, the top five from each group form the promotion group, while the bottom five from each group – the relegation group. Points earned at the first stage will be kept for the second, while teams would only be playing with participants of the group. So, in total each team is expected to play 28 games. The top two teams of the promotion group receive direct promotion to the Ukrainian Premier League (UPL), while the 3rd and the 4th would play promotion relegation play-off with the 14th and the 13th teams of UPL, respectively.[4] In case if Desna and Mariupol would decide to return, play-off games will be canceled and the UPL will be expanded.
Later it was clarified that for the second stage teams will be keeping all their points, unlike in the previous season when clubs only kept points with their opponents that joined them for the second stage from the first stage.[5]
Teams
This season, Ukrainian First League consisted of 20 teams.
The 31st PFL Conference stripped five clubs of their membership in the Professional Football League due to no reply and non-payment of dues. The conference approved to reserve membership for some other clubs without their actual active participation in competitions this season.[10]
Nyva Buzova changed its owner. On 14 December 2023 it was announced that original owner abandoned the club, and it was passed on to another club FC Kudrivka (Second League) which plans to relocate to Kyiv suburb of Irpin next season.[17] The announcement appeared a day before the second stage draw. Earlier on 1 December 2023 Ihor Zhabchenko has confirmed the club's intent to withdraw from competitions.[18] On 5 January 2024 it was announced that the head coach of the second tier Kudrivka Roman Loktionov became the head coach of Nyva Buzova.[19] Following the merger, Nyva Buzova changed its name to Kudrivka-Nyva.[20]
Location map
The following displays the location of teams. Group A teams marked in red. Group B teams marked in green.
^FC Inhulets Petrove does not have an established team captain and a footballer with such designation changes from one match to another.
^Since the second half of the season FC Metalurh Zaporizhzhia does not have an established team captain and a footballer with such designation changes from one match to another.
Source: PFL.ua Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference in all games; 6) Goals scored in all games (Note: calculation by criteria indicated in rules 2, 3, 4 is conducted with consideration of all teams that have an equal number of tournament points at the moment of calculation and not only among those which after preliminary criteria have appeared more successful).[56] Notes:
Source: Calendar(in Ukrainian) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. Notes:
^Scheduled on 9 September 2023, the match has been moved to 7 October 2023 due to Metalist released its players to play for junior national teams.[57] The match was played on 11 October 2023.
Source: PFL.ua Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference in all games; 6) Goals scored in all games (Note: calculation by criteria indicated in rules 2, 3, 4 is conducted with consideration of all teams that have an equal number of tournament points at the moment of calculation and not only among those which after preliminary criteria have appeared more successful).[56] Notes:
Source: Calendar(in Ukrainian) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. Notes:
^The match Chernihiv–Mariupol was postponed due to the Russian attack with ballistic missile on the Chernihiv city center on August 19, 2023. The match was played on September 13, 2023.
^The round 14 match between Dinaz and Livyi Bereh on October 29 was interrupted at 59 minute of play due to an air alarm with score 0:0. The PFL administration rescheduled the match for the next day October 30.[60]
Source: PFL.ua Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference in all games; 6) Goals scored in all games (Note: calculation by criteria indicated in rules 2, 3, 4 is conducted with consideration of all teams that have an equal number of tournament points at the moment of calculation and not only among those which after preliminary criteria have appeared more successful).[56] (C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted Notes:
Source: PFL.ua Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference in all games; 6) Goals scored in all games (Note: calculation by criteria indicated in rules 2, 3, 4 is conducted with consideration of all teams that have an equal number of tournament points at the moment of calculation and not only among those which after preliminary criteria have appeared more successful).[56] (R) Relegated Notes:
Source: Calendar(in Ukrainian) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. Notes:
^On April 25, 2024 it became known that Metalurh Zaporizhia won't be able to appear for the away game against Khust due to many players either injured or sick. The club has informed the Ukrainian PFL about its situation.[61] On 2 May 2024 the UAF CDC adopted decision to award technical victory 3:0 to Khust and technical loss 0:3 to Metalurh for its no show to the scheduled match.
The relegation–promotion play-off games are scheduled to take place between the 6th and 7th placed teams in the Relegation group of the First League with the second and third placed teams of the Second League.