The Lviv Association of Football (LAF) (formerly Lviv Oblast Football Federation (LOFF)) is a football governing body in the region of Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. The federation is a member of the Regional Council of FFU and the collective member of the FFU itself.
The Ukrainian sports movement arose in West Ukraine / East Galicia just before the World War I on initiative of professor Ivan Bobersky around 1906.[1] After the war in the recovered Poland, those competitions were conducted under auspices of the Ukrainian Sports Union (Ukrajinskyj Sojuz Sportowyj). However those competitions were not popular and many leading Ukrainian football clubs such as Ukraina Lwow eventually joined the official Polish competitions.
The well organized and publicized Ukrainian football competitions in the region started during World War II as Soviet football competitions in 1940 when the West Ukraine was occupied by the Soviet Red Army (RKKA). All of the original football clubs were dissolved and in their place were created generic Soviet clubs ("proletarian" background) such as Dynamo, Spartak, DO (Dom Ofitserov), and others. During the Nazi occupation in 1941-1944, there was conducted the championship of Halychyna among Ukrainian squads in 1942-44.
After the war, the Soviet football championship of Lviv Oblast within the Soviet Ukraine was reinstated. With fall of the Soviet Union in 1989-91, the competitions phased over as part of independent Ukraine.
In 1993–99 the championship was organized by fall-spring calendar. In 1999 the main competition was shifted back to the summer calendar. Therefore, there are two champions in 1999.
In 1992 Tsementnyk became a champion including performance records of first and youth reserve teams, so called "combined record".
In 1993–1998 there existed playoffs for "absolute champion" between champions of oblast and city. In the table the "absolute" champion is placed second after the oblast champion.
In 1945–1958 there was conducted separate football championship in Drohobych Oblast which later was merged with Lviv Oblast.
Football championship of Halychyna
The competitions were conducted during the occupation by the Nazi Germany within the General Government in 1942-1944 under auspices of the Ukrainian Central Committee from Kraków. The competitions were officially known as the Professor Volodymyr Kubiyovych Cup.[3]
The first meeting between two Lviv city teams of Lviv Association of Football took place in 1949 between Spartak and ODO (SKA). During the Soviet period those teams met only twice and all in one season. Later however more lasting derby existed between SKA and Karpaty that also played at tier 2.
The Soviet Lviv derby started in 1949 when as part of the Soviet Vtoraya Gruppa (second tier) in its Ukrainian Zone met Spartak Lviv and DO Lviv both games were won by Spartak 2:1 and 3:1 (home and away respectfully).
It was the first face off of two Lviv teams after the earlier Polish Lwow derby between Pogon and Czarni that existed since establishment of Ekstraklasa in 1927–1933 (seven seasons). Until the establishment of Karpaty in 1960s, it was the only meeting between Soviet teams of masters from Lviv. In 1950 due to reorganization of the Soviet football competitions Spartak Lviv was merged with the local Dynamo Lviv, while SKA (or DO) competed at republican level.
In 1960s the Lviv derby was revived as part of the Soviet Class A Vtoraya Gruppa (second tier) between now SKA Lviv and Karpaty Lviv (sponsored by Lviv Electronic Factory "Elektron"). The derby lasted only for four seasons SKA – Karpaty 1:0 0:1 (1966), 1:2 0:0 (1967), 1:5 1:4 (1968), 1:1 1:2 (1969). That was it for the Soviet period of Lviv city football derbies.
In 1981 both teams were merged as SKA-Karpaty which existed until 1989 and was dissolved. After that in Lviv were reinstated FC Karpaty, while players the Army team which was abandoned were transferred to Drohobych where there was reviving Naftovyk Drohobych, but instead was established FC Halychyna Drohobych.
