The tournament has been set to start on 28 July 2019.[3][4] The same day there took place the game for the
Ukrainian Super Cup.[3] The UPL General Assembly also adopted a post season play-off mini-tournament for the last fifth berth of Ukraine in the
2020β21 UEFA Europa League competition which would involve the best team(s) of the relegation group.[5] The assembly also agreed to implement the
Video assistant referee (VAR) position in 2020.[6] 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.[7] For promotional purpose, the Ukrainian Premier League introduced an own copy of virtual fantasy league on the Real Manager game platform.[8][9]
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.[10]
Competition prolongation caused by the emergency break introduced due to the
COVID-19 pandemic made the season the longest in history, lasting 1 year and 1 day in total.[11] The season also has set a record as a highest-scoring season in the history of the competition, with an average of 2.78 goals scored per game.[12]
Summary
For next 2020β21 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).[13]
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.[14] 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.[15] The decision was approved on 27 May 2020 by the UAF Executive Committee.[16] 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.[17] Next day the Ministry of Health Care updated some of its restricting recommendations in regards to coordination of competitions among professional clubs.[18]
On 22 July 2020
Ministry of Healthcare granted the permission to allow spectators on the
Europa League play-off matches in a test mode, with up to 25% of stadium capacity open for attending.[19]
The term of the UPL president expired on 5 April 2020.[20] 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.[21][22] On 4 May 2020 the league's executive director Yevhen Dykyi announced that there were registered three candidates for elections of the UPL president.[23] On 18 May 2020 the league announced that elections for the league's president were postponed and their date will be announced later.[24][25] Until then as the UPL president is acting the league's executive director Yevhen Dykyi.[26]
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 2019β20 season.
Home venues of teams in the 2019β20 Ukrainian Premier League. Teams in italics are from a conflict zone of the
War in Donbass and are playing their home games in different cities.
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).[27]
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, after quarantine break clubs from Lviv were forced to conduct all their home matches in the other regions until the Round 30.[28][29]
The following stadiums are regarded as home grounds (clubs in bold indicate that the respective stadium was their main home ground during the season):
The Round 19 game between Dynamo and Vorskla was played on February 22, 2020, at the Dynamo Stadium imeni Lobanovskoho becoming a historical mark when there first was implemented the system of
video assistant referee (VAR).[32][33]
Due to critical situation in the city of Lviv with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Lviv city club's do not play at home from Round 24 till Round 30.
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).[58] Notes:
^Teams play each other twice (22 matches), before the league split into two groups (the top six and the bottom six) for the last 10 matches.
^
abDnipro-1 is ahead of Mariupol on head-to-head goal difference: Dnipro-1 3, Mariupol 1
^
abLviv is ahead of Vorskla on head-to-head goal difference: Lviv 4, Vorskla 3
First stage results
Teams play each other twice on a home and away basis, before the league split into two groups β the top six and the bottom six.
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).[58] (C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners
Source:
UPL calendar(in Ukrainian) 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.
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).[58] Notes:
^Karpaty Lviv was expelled from the league for failing to appear to two games.[59]
Source:
UPL calendar(in Ukrainian) 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.
Notes:
^
abcdefghThe UPL administration decided not to conduct the game Karpaty β Mariupol on 31 May 2020 as in the Lviv's team camp were found positive test results on COVID-19.[60] FC Mariupol that was already on the way to the game was forced to turn around.[61] On 2 June 2020
FC Karpaty Lviv released its official statement announcing that the club goes on 2 weeks self-isolation due to mass spread of the illness among players.[62] The upcoming games with
SC Dnipro-1 and
Vorskla Poltava will not take place as previously scheduled.[63] On 26 June 2020 were announced new rescheduled dates for the Karpaty's games against Mariupol and Dnipro-1.[64] On 30 June 2020 the Ukrainian Premier League filed a document to the UAF Control and Disciplinary Committee informing that
FC Karpaty Lviv were not able to show up for the game in Mariupol on 1 July 2020.[65] The MariupolβKarpaty game scheduled on 4 July will not take place.[66] As it was the second failure to appear to the match for
FC Karpaty Lviv, according to regulations the club was expelled from the championship by the UAF Control-Disciplinary Committee on 9 July 2020.[67] The club was counted two technical defeats for two matches against
FC Mariupol as 3:0 and 0:3. For all other remaining games that were due to play the club was counted -:+.
[68]
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 played the one-leg play-off for one more berth in the
Europa League second qualifying round.[69] Winners of the semi-final pairs contested in one-leg final game the last berth to the UEFA Europa League.[70] If the winners of the
2019β20 Ukrainian CupDynamo 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.
Kolos Kovalivka won the play-off on 29 July 2020 after defeating
FC Mariupol 1β0 after the extra time in the final.
Source:
UA-Football,
Footboom Notes: 1: Team plays its matches outside of home city. 2: Team plays its matches outside of home city due to stadium reconstruction. 3: Team played last season in the
First League. 4:
Dynamo Kyiv played 1 additional match behind closed doors. 5: All matches starting from the round 23 to the end of second stage were played behind closed doors due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. 6: The figures do not take into account three games of the Europa League play-offs, which were held with attendance restrictions due to health measures related to the
COVID-19 pandemic.