Ukraine Vyscha Liga

Before 1992, Ukrainian domestic football league competitions were conducted among Ukrainian teams that competed in one of groups within the Soviet third tier consisting of around 20 teams. Beside that championship another over 20 teams competed in two upper tiers where they played along with other teams across the Soviet Union. Also, at the same time there were conducted competitions among KFK (amateur teams) at lower level. With the Soviet Union tumbling down (as one classic once called it, "the biggest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century"), in late 1991 there arose discussion about creation of separate competition which would include all better Ukrainian clubs. Following the failed 1991 August putsch, the Ukrainian parliament declared a state independence and appointed a date of referendum to confirm the decision.

Despite the failed putsch and declaration of independence by number of Soviet union republics, the Football Federation of the Soviet Union continued with planning of the 1992 football season. In September 1991 in Soviet magazine "Futbol" appeared some comments from head coaches of Ukrainian clubs playing in the Soviet First League (Tavriya and Bukovyna). The Tavriya head coach Anatoliy Zayaev said that the club is strongly against participation in Ukrainian championship and intend to continue to play in Soviet championship. The Bukovyna head coach Yukhym Shkolnykov said that the club does not have any wishes to return to the Ukrainian group as planned by the republican federation and no one should let politics transverse football. On May 1, 2024, Ukrainian journalist Ihor Tsyhanyk released a video-interview where he claimed that one of motivations to conduct the championship in the spring of 1992 was a financial situation of FC Dynamo Kyiv. He pointed to the fact that Dynamo won the 1990 Soviet Top League and qualified for the 1991–92 European Cup where it received prize money by participating in the testing season of the UEFA Champions League. Tsyhanyk also mentioned that Dynamo was losing money due to a poor business management of players transfer but did not mention that in the Soviet period when transferred of players was finally allowed, it was carried through a special department of the Football Federation of the Soviet Union and a Soviet club was receiving only portion of the transfer money for its player. According to Tsyhanyk the administration of Dynamo along with the Football Federation of Ukraine, members of which were former players of the club saw an opportunity to gain financial support by fielding Ukrainian club which had a high ranking in the UEFA Champions League.

In October 1991 some Moscow press took a big interview from FC Dnipro head coach Yevhen Kucherevsky titled "How to live on?" His direct speech had started with a phrase "Dnipro is definitely for the Soviet championship". Next Yevhen Mefodiyich told about possible isolation of Ukrainian football, because if Ukraine would not be recognized by the World, there is nothing to think about membership in FIFA or UEFA. After that recalling some kind of World Basket League, Kucherevsky discussed the topic that "people are uniting, but we..." When questioned "what is the mood among coaches of other Ukrainian teams", he firmly answered "Almost all are for the united championship and against separate Ukrainian".

In particular, Kucherevsky mentioned his talks with head coach of Shakhtar Valeriy Yaremchenko. According to Kucherevsky, the majority of Dnipro's fans, judging by their letters and telephone calls also consider that conducting of Ukrainian championship not in time. Ended his interview Kucherevsky with a phrase that "he wants to hope that the situation when they have to play in a separate championship will never come". The coach even allowed the thought that Ukraine could be recognized as an independent state, but proposes an idea of the "Soviet open championship", referring to... the case with NHL.

In general, Kucherevsky was speaking of true situation. Among all Ukrainian teams of the Soviet Top League, only Dynamo was clearly and firmly for its own independent championship. Other clubs took position from "strongly against" to "possibly for, but". For example, Metalurh Zaporizhya that was playing its first season at such level was for the Soviet championship. Yet, Metalist that was struggling to stay in, took a tricky position: "If we are would relegate to the First Union League, we will be for Ukrainian championship, if we would stay at the top, we will be for Soviet championship".

In September 1991 there took place a session of the Football Federation of the Ukrainian SSR Executive Committee (ispolkom), which started with raising of blue-and-yellow flag that was given by a member of parliament Vyacheslav Chornovil. On proposition of Viktor Bannikov who at time was heading the football federation, the struggle for independent championship had to take place under national colors. The executive committee decided that blue-and-yellow flags had to flown over all stadiums where were playing Ukrainian teams. Some members of the executive committee have spoken about the independent Ukrainian championship, but did not rush with a decision. For that it was decided to wait until the Federation's plenum on 13–14 December 1991.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the inaugural independent championship took place hastily at the start of spring 1992 after the creation of the Ukrainian Higher League (Ukrainian: Вища Ліга, Vyshcha Liha). The League was created out of the six teams that took part in the Soviet Top League, two teams from the Soviet First League, and nine out of the eleven Ukrainian teams from the Soviet Second League. The other two of that eleven were placed in the Ukrainian First League as they were to be relegated anyway. The two best teams of the Soviet Second League B of the Ukrainian Zone were also placed in the Higher League along with the winner of the 1991 Ukrainian Cup which finished ninth in the same group (Soviet Second League B).

The 20 participants were split into two groups with the winners playing for the championship title and the runners-up playing for third place. Three teams from each group were to be relegated. As expected, the five favorites, Dynamo Kyiv, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Shakhtar Donetsk, Chornomorets Odesa, and Metalist Kharkiv finished at the top of each group. In the championship play-off game in Lviv, a sensation took place as Tavriya Simferopol beat Dynamo Kyiv 1–0. The Crimeans earned the first Ukrainian title (thus far their only one), losing only once to Temp Shepetivka.

After being stunned in the first championship by the tragedy in Lviv, Dynamo Kyiv were anxious to earn their first title at the second opportunity. In the second Ukrainian championship, which had a regular League format of 16 teams, the main rivals of the Kyivians were Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, who were top after the first half of the season. By the end of the season both teams were neck and neck and at the end they finished with the same number of points. The championship title was awarded to Dynamo Kyiv as they had a better goal difference. Neither the Golden match, nor the fact that Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk had a better head-to-head record was considered.

The next seven years were known as the total domination of Dynamo Kyiv. During this period 'the main Soviet protagonists' had changed as some of the best teams were facing a crisis. After the 1993–94 season Metalist Kharkiv were surprisingly relegated to the First League. In the 1995–96 season Shakhtar Donetsk had the worst year in the club's history, coming tenth. Chornomorets Odesa were relegated twice during that first decade after which manager Leonid Buryak was sacked. A few newly created teams have since emerged such as Arsenal Kyiv and Metalurh Donetsk, as well as Vorskla Poltava, who surprisingly came third in the club's first season at the Top Level in the 1997.

The next decade was marked by fierce competition between Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk. Since 2000, Shakhtar Donetsk has proved to be the real challengers to Kyiv's dominance. In 2000 Shakhtar earned their first qualification to the Champions League earning a place in the Group stage. Nonetheless, Dynamo Kyiv is still considered to be the benchmark of excellence in the country and the primary feeder to the Ukraine national football team. 2002 became the real cornerstone in the miners history when they earned their first national title under the management of the newly appointed Italian specialist, Nevio Scala, who managed to secure the Ukrainian Cup title as well. Since that time the issue of foreign players has become particularly acute and brought a series of court cases. The FFU and PFL worked together to solve that issue, coming up with a plan to force the transitional limitation of foreign players over time.

The clubs such as Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and Chornomorets Odesa, who were recent contenders for the title, had to put up a fierce fight against the newly established contenders Metalurh Donetsk and Metalist Kharkiv to qualify for the European competitions. Metalist Kharkiv shone brightly in the late 2000s (decade) by consistently finishing right behind Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk in third place. Their most remarkable feat was their participation in the 2009 European season when they had to face Dynamo Kyiv to earn a place in the quarter-finals of the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, but lost on the away goals rule. That same 2008–09 UEFA Cup competition was won for the first time by Shakhtar Donetsk, the first club of independent Ukraine to win the title. It was also the last UEFA cup title before it changed its name to the Europa league. In the 2008–09 season the league earned the highest UEFA league coefficient in Europe for that season.

On 15 November 2007 clubs' presidents of the Vyshcha Liha adopted a decision to create the Premier League (Premier Liha). At the same meeting session there was created a supervisory board that consisted of Ravil Safiullin (Professional Football League), Vitaliy Danilov (FC Kharkiv), Petro Dyminskyi (FC Karpaty), and Vadym Rabinovych (FC Arsenal). During the next three months that body curated a process on creation of the Premier League's regulation and statute as well as a procedure of launching the championship starting from the 2008–09 season. On 15 April 2008 at one of the meetings among the presidents of clubs there was signed a protocol about establishing the Association of Professional Football Clubs of Ukraine "Premier-Liha" as an autonomous entity, parting away from the PFL.

The Premier League has been split since the moment it was created in regards to its president. The dispute went as far as even canceling the 13th round of 2009–10 season and moving it to the spring half, while having the 14th round still playing in the fall. The representatives of five clubs: Arsenal Kyiv, Dynamo Kyiv, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih, and Metalist Kharkiv have been boycotting most of the League meetings, not complying with its financial obligations and giving the broadcasting rights to TV-channels other than the League official supplier. They justified their actions due to what they deem to be the illegal election of the Premier League president. The representatives of the above-mentioned clubs did not recognize the election in 2008 of Vitaliy Danilov as the president and believed that the elections should have been won by Vadim Rabinovich.

To resolve this conflict Vitaliy Danilov instigated the re-election of the Premier League president in September 2009, and on 1 December 2009 won the election again with 11 clubs voting for his candidature, 3 were against, 1 abstained, and 1 was absent. This time most club presidents of the Premier League of Ukraine acknowledged Vitaliy Danilov legality. In the subsequent elections on 9 December 2011 Vitaliy Danilov was challenged by Andriy Kurhanskyi (through the proposal of Karpaty Lviv). The other available candidates, Miletiy Balchos (president of the Professional Football League of Ukraine) and Yuriy Kindzerskyi, were not picked by any members of the Premier League. Vitaliy Danilov managed to retain his seat with nine votes for him.

Starting from 2010 and to 2014 season, FC Shakhtar led by Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu obtained five national league titles in a row, making Lucescu the most successful manager in the history of the league with 9 titles. At the same time, in the beginning of the 2010s the so-called "Big Four" of clubs eventually formed, consisting from Shakhtar, Dynamo, Metalist and Dnipro. These four clubs consecutively took all the top 4 places for five seasons from 2009–10 to 2013–14 and displayed the biggest financial abilities in the league.

In 2012–13, Metalist Kharkiv finished second and qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time, the achievement which was repeated by Dnipro in the next season. In the same 2013–14 season Dynamo Kyiv for the first time since Ukrainian independence placed as low as fourth in league's season ranking, which led to dismissal of former national team coach and the legend of Soviet football Oleh Blokhin as the club's manager. In European football, new club achievements were set in these years for Shakhtar in 2010–11 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals and for Metalist in 2011–12 UEFA Europa League quarter-finals.

On account of the Russo-Ukrainian War and subsequent cleaning of the league from the clubs that became financially unreliable (Metalist, Hoverla, Metalurh Donetsk, Dnipro), the number of teams participating in the league was cut from 16 in the 2013–14 season to 14 in the following two seasons. Both of the seasons were won by Dynamo Kyiv with Serhii Rebrov as manager. With the continuation of the military conflict in the eastern oblasts of Ukraine since 2014 and its economic impact, the league was forced to change its format again and started to be contested by 12 teams after being cut from 14 after the 2015–16 season, introducing the two stages of the competition: after the standard two rounds of games the league would split into two 6-team groups according to their positions.

Under the new format, Shakhtar Donetsk under the manager Paulo Fonseca managed to win three league titles in a row from 2016–17 to 2018–19, runner-up in all the three seasons being Dynamo Kyiv. In 2019–20 season, Shakhtar set the record of the earliest title win in the history, win 5 rounds remaining. In 2019, the decision was adopted to expand the league to 14 teams from the 2020–21 and to 16 teams from the 2021–22 season. In April 2022, it was announced that the current UPL season has been terminated due to the extension of martial law in Ukraine. The football clubs of the UPL also expressed their support for the termination, since it is not possible to end the championship due to the country's current state. Thus, it was concluded that the standings as of February 24, 2022 will be the final standings of the 2021/22 season, and there will be no winners to be awarded.