The 2020–21 Ukrainian Premier League season was the 30th top-level football club competition since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 13th since the establishment of the Ukrainian Premier League.
The 13-time winner Shakhtar Donetsk were the four-time defending champions. On 25 April 2021, Dynamo Kyiv won the record-extending 16th title with three matches remaining, after the victory over Inhulets Petrove in the Round 23 home game.The UPL collective congratulates Dynamo with the early championship! (Колектив УПЛ вітає «Динамо» з достроковим чемпіонством!). Ukrainian Premier League. 25 April 2021
The season started on 21 August 2020 and was initially set to end on 15 May 2021. On 7 April 2021 it was announced that most of clubs voted to end competitions a week early on 9 May 2021.
Summary This season was the first since the 2015–16, when the league consisted of double round-robin tournament, without the second stage and division to the two groups. This season also had the latest start of the competition in history.Starting late as never before (Стартуємо пізно, як ніколи досі). Ukrainian Premier League. 18 August 2020
A season, that usually starts in July, was postponed for a month due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Ukraine. From 10 SeptemberArtur Malkin. The Ministry of Healthcare amended its documents in relation to possibly conduct games with spectators (МОЗ відкоригувало документи щодо можливості проведення матчів із глядачами). Footboom. 10 September 2020 to 13 October 2020, attendance restrictions were lifted and stadiums were allowed some spectators not to exceed about 25% of stadium capacity.Vsevolod Mazur. In Ukraine prohibited to conduct any sports events with spectators, except for international competitions (В Украине запретили проводить спортивные мероприятия со зрителями, кроме международных соревнований). Sport Arena. 13 October 2020
At least four managers of the UPL openly expressed their opinion not to postpone any games due to the COVID-19 cases.Artur Malkin. Sharan, Markevych, and Klymovskyi are against postponement of the UPL games due to coronavirus (Шаран, Маркевич и Климовский против переноса матчей УПЛ из-за коронавируса). Footboom. 10 September 2020 Nevertheless, two games of the season's fall half were postponed to spring.
For the next 2021–22 season, the league is expected to expand again to 16 teams as part of the league's expansion plan. As a consequence, this season the lowest-ranked team from Ukrainian Premier League got relegated to Ukrainian First League, and at the same time the top three teams from the First League will gain promotion to the Premier League next season.
Teams This season, as it was announced earlier, the Ukrainian Premier League has been expanded to 14 teams, which includes 11 teams from the previous season and the top three teams from the 2019–20 Ukrainian First League.There was approved the first half season calendar of the 2020–21 FavBet Liha (Затверджено календар першого кола Favbet Ліги 2020/21 років). Ukrainian Premier League. 10 August 2020
Promoted teams FC Mynai – the champion of the 2019–20 Ukrainian First League (debut) Rukh Lviv – runner-up of the 2019–20 Ukrainian First League (debut) Inhulets Petrove – third place of the 2019–20 Ukrainian First League (debut)
Location map The following displays the location of teams.
Stadiums
Three of the qualified to the date 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).Locations where completion is conducted (Місця проведення змагань). 2018–19 Ukrainian Premier League regulations.
The following stadiums are regarded as home grounds:
RankStadiumPlaceClubCapacityNotes1NSC OlimpiyskiyKyivDynamo Kyiv 70,050Shakhtar Donetskused as home ground during the seasonShakhtar and Dynamo will be sharing Olimpiyskiy NSC the next season (Шахтер и Динамо будут делить НСК Олимпийский в следующем сезоне). Sport Arena. 11 August 2020FC Mynaiused as home ground in round 42OSC MetalistKharkivFC Lviv 40,003used as home ground in round 19FC Mariupolused as home ground in rounds 20, 22, 233Arena LvivLvivRukh Lviv 34,915Viktoriya Kuranova. Shakhtar in Kyiv, Mariupol – away: where the UPL clubs will play home matches in 2020/21 season (Шахтар у Києві, Маріуполь – на виїзді: де клуби УПЛ гратимуть домашні матчі у сезоні 2020/21). TSN. 18 August 2020FC Lviv4Dnipro-ArenaDniproSC Dnipro-1 31,003Inhulets Petroveused as home ground in round 15Ukraina StadiumLvivFC Lviv 28,051used as home ground in rounds 1-46Butovsky Vorskla StadiumPoltavaVorskla Poltava 24,795Inhulets Petroveused as home ground in round 157Lobanovsky Dynamo StadiumKyivOlimpik Donetsk 16,873used as home ground during the seasonFC Mariupolused as home ground in round 12Dynamo Kyivused as home ground in rounds 13, 14Kolos Kovalivkaused as home ground in round 14The blizzard is to blame. How the Kolos stadium was seen before the canceled game with Shakhtar (photo, video) (Виновата метель. Как выглядел стадион Колоса перед отмененным матчем с Шахтером (фото, видео)). Sport Arena. 13 February 2021Desna Chernihivused as home ground in round 15, 16Desna will play in Kyiv its home game against Inhulets of the UPL Round 16 (Десна проведет в Киеве домашний матч 16-го тура УПЛ против Ингульца). UA-Football. 14 February 2021... The cause of it became whether conditions. The Desna leadership does not want to risk to receive a technical loss in case of poor preparation of the Gagarin Stadium in Chernihiv, therefore decided to reassure for two games at once. The Kyivan club leveled with the "Severians" ... (... Причиной стали погодные условия. Руководство "Десны" не хочет рисковать получить технические поражения в случае плохой подготовки стадиона имени Гагарина в Чернигове, поэтому решило перестраховаться сразу на две игры. Киевский клуб пошел навстречу "северянам" ...)8Zirka StadiumKropyvnytskyiInhulets Petrove 14,628used as home ground during the seasonMatch Inhulets – Dnipro-1 will take place at Dnipro-Arena (Матч "Інгулець" - "Дніпро-1" відбудеться на "Дніпро-Арені"). FC Inhulets Petrove. 18 August 2020Artur Malkin. There took place a session of the UAF Committee in certification of clubs to play in the 2020–21 seasons of the Premier or First leagues (Відбулося засідання Комітету з атестування УАФ щодо участі клубів у Прем’єр-лізі та першій лізі сезону-2020/2021 ). Footboom. 13 August 20209Volodymyr Boiko StadiumMariupolFC Mariupol 12,680Mariupol returned to home stadium in round 19 due to renovations during the first halfVsevolod Mazur. Mariupol all its games of the first half of the 2020–21 FavBet Liha will play away (Мариуполь все матчи первого круга Favbet Лиги 2020/21 проведет на выезде). Sport Arena. 10 August 202010Avanhard StadiumLutskFC Lviv 12,080used as home ground in round 111Avanhard StadiumUzhhorodFC Mynai 12,000used as home ground during the season12Slavutych-ArenaZaporizhzhiaZorya Luhansk 12,000used as home ground during the seasonFC Mariupolused as home ground in rounds 14, 1513CSC Nika StadiumOleksandriyaFC Oleksandriya 7,00014Chernihiv StadiumChernihivDesna Chernihiv 5,500Olimpik Donetskused as home ground in round 10, 2415Obolon ArenaKyivDesna Chernihiv 5,100used as home ground in round 916Kolos StadiumKovalivkaKolos Kovalivka 5,000Stadium reconstruction continues! (Реконструкція стадіону триває!) . FC Kolos Kovalivka. Opened before Round 2The Kolos Stadium was opened! (Стадіон «Колос» відкрито!). Ukrainian Premier League. 2 September 2020Kolos will play of their own stadium in the next UPL season (Колос будет выступать на своем стадионе в следующем сезоне УПЛ). Football.ua. 27 January 2020."Kolos" will play its games of the Europe League at its stadium («Колос» будет играть матчи Лиги Европы на своем стадионе) . Xsport. 1 August 202017Skif StadiumLvivRukh Lviv 3,742used as home ground in round 17
Notes
Personnel and sponsorship TeamPresidentHead coachCaptainKit manufacturerShirt sponsor Desna Chernihiv Volodymyr Levin Oleksandr Ryabokon Vladyslav Ohirya Nike Parimatch SC Dnipro-1 Yuriy Bereza Igor Jovićević Serhiy Lohinov Nike — Dynamo Kyiv Ihor Surkis Mircea Lucescu Serhiy Sydorchuk New Balance A-Bank Inhulets Petrove Oleksandr Povoroznyuk Serhiy Lavrynenko Mladen Bartulović Joma etg.ua Kolos Kovalivka Andriy Zasukha Ruslan Kostyshyn Vitaliy Havrysh Nike Svitanok FC Lviv Bohdan KopytkoSukhkenko, M. How Kopytko took over Veres and transformed it into Lviv (Як Копитко захопив Верес и перетворив його на Львів). Sport Arena. 23 May 2018 Anatoliy Bezsmertnyi Rafael Sabino Jako Parimatch FC Mariupol Tariq Mehmood Chaudhry Ostap Markevych Dmytro Myshnyov Nike Favorite Sport FC Mynai Valeriy Peresolyak Mykola Tsymbal Andrey Popovich Nike FavBet FC Oleksandriya Serhiy Kuzmenko Volodymyr Sharan Yuriy Pankiv Nike AhroVista Olimpik Donetsk Vladyslav Helzin Roman Sanzhar Serhiy Politylo Joma Parimatch Rukh Lviv Hryhoriy Kozlovskyi Ivan Fedyk Yaroslav Martynyuk Puma Grand Hotel 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 Shevchenko Nike Favorite Sport
Managerial changes TeamOutgoing managerManner of departureDate of vacancyTableIncoming managerDate of appointmentTableDynamo Kyiv Oleksiy MykhaylychenkoMutual agreement20 July 2020Pre-season Mircea Lucescu23 July 2020Pre-seasonOlimpik Donetsk Ihor Klymovskyi Made permanent20 July 2020 Ihor Klymovskyi20 July 2020FC Mariupol Oleksandr Babych End of contract30 July 2020 Ostap Markevych 3 August 2020SC Dnipro-1 Dmytro MykhaylenkoResigned18 September 202011th Igor Jovićević22 September 202011thFC Lviv Giorgi TsetsadzeResigned24 October 202014th Vitaliy Shumskyi 28 October 202014thOlimpik Donetsk Ihor KlymovskyiMutual consent25 February 20218th Yuriy Kalitvintsev25 February 20218thFC Lviv Vitaliy Shumskyi Mutual consent1 March 202114th Anatoliy Bezsmertnyi2 March 202114thFC Mynai Vasyl Kobin Resigned24 March 202113th Mykola Tsymbal 26 March 202113thOlimpik Donetsk Yuriy KalitvintsevMutual consent3 May 202113th Roman Sanzhar4 May 202113th
League table Standings
Results Teams play each other twice on a home and away basis.
Season statistics
Top goalscorers Top scorers. Ukrainian Premier League. RankScorerTeamGoals()1 Vladyslav KulachVorskla Poltava15 (5)2 Viktor TsyhankovDynamo Kyiv12 (4)3 Shahab ZahediOlimpik / Zorya10 (2) Anatoliy NuriyevFC Mynai10 (6)5 Oleksandr HladkyyZorya Luhansk9 Manor SolomonShakhtar Donetsk9 Andriy TotovytskyiDesna Chernihiv9 (2)8 Artem BondarenkoFC Mariupol8 (3)9 Ruslan StepanyukVorskla Poltava7 Mario ĆužeSC Dnipro-17 (1) Pylyp BudkivskyiDesna Chernihiv7 (2) Mladen BartulovićInhulets Petrove7 (5)
Assists Алан Патрік — найкращий асистент Favbet Ліги!. Ukrainian Premier League. 9 May 2021 RankScorerTeamAssists1 Alan PatrickShakhtar Donetsk82 Oleksiy HutsuliakDesna Chernihiv73 Andriy BohdanovKolos Kovalivka6 Frane ČirjakFC Lviv6 DodôShakhtar Donetsk6 Vladyslav KabayevZorya Luhansk6 Vladyslav KalitvintsevDesna Chernihiv6 Kyrylo KovaletsFC Oleksandriya6 Oleksandr PikhalyonokSC Dnipro-16
Hat-tricks Player For Against Result Date Artem BondarenkoFC MariupolInhulets Petrove 4–33 April 2021Mariupol–Inhulets game report at Official UPL Site Vladyslav KulachVorksla PoltavaZorya Luhansk 4–217 April 2021Vorskla–Zorya game report at Official UPL Site Vitaliy BuyalskyiDynamo KyivVorskla Poltava 5–11 May 2021Vorskla–Dynamo game report at Official UPL Site
Awards Monthly awards