1996–97 Vyshcha Liha

The 1996–97 Vyshcha Liha season was the 6th since its establishment and the inaugural season as part of the Professional Football League (PFL). FC Dynamo Kyiv were the defending champions.

Vyshcha Liha

Season	1996–97
Champions	Dynamo Kyiv 5th title
Relegated	Nyva Vinnytsia, Kremin Kremenchuk
Champions League	Dynamo Kyiv
Cup Winners' Cup	Shakhtar Donetsk
UEFA Cup	Vorskla Poltava, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
Top goalscorer	(21) Oleh Matveyev (Shakhtar)
← 1995–96 1997–98 →

Teams

Due to reorganization by becoming a member of the newly established Professional Football League of Ukraine, the Vyshcha Liha was reduced from 18 to 16 teams.

Promotions

• Vorskla Poltava, the champion of the 1995–96 Ukrainian First League – (debut)

Relegated teams

• Zorya Luhansk – relegated after five seasons in the top flight.
• Volyn Lutsk – relegated after five seasons in the top flight.
• SC Mykolaiv – relegated after two seasons in the top flight.

Reorganized clubs

Before the start of the season, CSKA-Borysfen Kyiv was replaced with CSKA Kyiv (1995–96 Ukrainian Second League Group A winner).^[1] Just before the start of the new 1996–97 season, a scandal took place related to ownership.^[1] Dmytro Zlobenko was removed from the club, which, with the help of the Army, was passed to some businessman by the name of Mikhail Grinshpon, the president of "Kyiv–Donbas".^[2] Concurrently, Mikhail Grinshpon was an adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksandr Kuzmuk.^[2]

Location

Prykarpattia

Nyva V.

Chornomorets

Zirka-NIBAS

Dnipro

Dynamo
CSKA

Kryvbas

Karpaty

Kremin

Vorskla

Metalurh
Torpedo

Nyva T.

Tavriya

Shakhtar

Locations of teams home grounds in Ukrainian Premier League 1996-97

Managers

Club	Coach	Replaced Coach	Home stadium
FC Dynamo Kyiv	Valery Lobanovsky	Yozhef Sabo 17 games(first half)	Dynamo Stadium
FC Shakhtar Donetsk	Valery Yaremchenko		Shakhtar Stadium
FC Vorskla Poltava	Viktor Pozhechevskyi		Vorskla Stadium
FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Vyacheslav Hrozny		Meteor Stadium
FC Karpaty Lviv	Myron Markevych		Ukraina Stadium
SC Tavriya Simferopol	Mykola Pavlov	Serhiy Shevchenko 10 games Ivan Balan 5 games Valeriy Shvediuk 7 games	Lokomotyv Stadium
FC Chornomorets Odesa	Leonid Buriak		Black Sea Shipping Stadium
FC Metalurh Zaporizhzhia	Oleksandr Tomakh		Metalurh Stadium
FC Nyva Ternopil	Ihor Yavorskyi		City Stadium
FC Zirka Kirovohrad	Oleksandr Dovbiy	Oleksandr Ischenko 22 games Mykhailo Kalyta 1 game	Zirka Stadium
FC CSKA Kyiv	Volodymyr Lozynskyi		CSK ZSU Stadium
FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih	Oleksandr Lysenko	Oleksiy Cherednyk 12 games	Metalurh Stadium
FC Prykarpattia Ivano-Frankivsk	Viktor Kolotov	Boris Streltsov 5 games	Elektron Stadium
FC Torpedo Zaporizhzhia	Viktor Matvienko	Ihor Nadein 27 games	AvtoZAZ Stadium
FC Kremin Kremenchuk	Mykhailo Byelykh		Dnipro Stadium
FC Nyva Vinnytsia	Oleksandr Ischenko	Pasha Kasanov 23 games Volodymyr Reva 2 games	Central City Stadium

Notes: Games between Dynamo Kyiv and CSKA Kyiv were played at the Republican Stadium.

Changes

Team	Outgoing head coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Table	Incoming head coach	Date of appointment
FC Shakhtar Donetsk	Valeriy Rudakov			pre-season	Valery Yaremchenko
SC Tavriya Simferopol	Anatoliy Zayayev				Serhiy Shevchenko
FC CSKA-Borysfen Kyiv	Viktor Chanov				Bernd Stange
FC CSKA Kyiv	Bernd Stange				Volodymyr Lozynsky
FC Karpaty Lviv	Volodymyr Zhuravchak				Myron Markevych
FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Bernd Stange				Viacheslav Hrozny
FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih	Myron Markevych				Oleksiy Cherednyk
FC Prykarpattia Ivano-Frankivsk	Ihor Yurchenko				Boris Streltsov
FC Kremin Kremenchuk	Valery Yaremchenko				Mykhailo Bilykh
FC Nyva Vinnytsia	Serhiy Morozov				Pasha Kasanov

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Dynamo Kyiv (C)	30	23	4	3	69	20	+49	73	Qualification to Champions League first qualifying round
2	Shakhtar Donetsk[a]	30	19	5	6	72	28	+44	62	Qualification to Cup Winners' Cup qualifying round
3	Vorskla Poltava	30	17	7	6	50	26	+24	58	Qualification to UEFA Cup first qualifying round
4	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk[a]	30	14	13	3	48	19	+29	55
5	Karpaty Lviv	30	15	7	8	36	23	+13	52
6	Tavriya Simferopol	30	13	5	12	36	46	−10	44
7	Chornomorets Odesa	30	12	6	12	36	31	+5	42
8	Metalurh Zaporizhzhia	30	12	5	13	48	44	+4	41
9	Nyva Ternopil	30	11	6	13	34	37	−3	39
10	Zirka-NIBAS Kirovohrad	30	11	3	16	31	55	−24	36
11	CSKA Kyiv	30	9	8	13	33	35	−2	35
12	Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih	30	9	6	15	24	48	−24	33
13	Prykarpattya Ivano-Frankivsk	30	8	7	15	33	49	−16	31
14	Torpedo Zaporizhzhia	30	8	5	17	25	56	−31	29
15	Kremin Kremenchuk (R)	30	7	3	20	28	57	−29	24	Relegated to Ukrainian First League
16	Nyva Vinnytsia (R)	30	4	6	20	19	48	−29	18

Source: uafootball.net.ua
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd goal scored
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Participant of the 1997 Ukrainian Cup Final

Results

Home \ Away	CHO	CSK	DNI	DYN	KAR	KRE	KRY	MZA	NVT	NYV	PRY	SHA	TAV	TZA	VOR	ZIR
Chornomorets Odesa	—	0–0	3–0	1–3	0–0	1–0	0–0	2–1	2–0	0–0	0–0	1–1	5–1	2–0	0–3	5–1
CSKA Kyiv	1–2	—	0–0	0–1	0–1	3–1	1–2	2–1	1–0	1–0	2–1	1–1	2–1	5–1	0–0	1–2
Dnipro	3–2	2–1	—	0–1	0–0	3–0	2–1	4–0	1–0	4–0	4–0	2–0	1–0	4–0	1–1	4–0
Dynamo Kyiv	2–0	2–2	2–2	—	2–0	5–0	5–0	1–2	1–0	2–0	2–1	3–1	3–0	2–1	2–1	6–1
Karpaty Lviv	1–0	1–2	0–0	0–2	—	4–0	5–1	1–0	3–1	1–2	3–1	1–0	1–1	2–0	2–0	2–0
Kremin Kremenchuk	1–0	0–2	1–1	1–4	0–1	—	2–1	4–1	3–2	3–0	2–1	0–1	2–3	1–1	0–4	1–0
Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih	1–0	2–1	0–0	0–2	1–2	1–0	—	1–0	2–0	3–0	1–1	1–3	1–0	2–1	1–1	0–2
Metalurh Zaporizhzhia	1–0	4–2	1–1	0–0	2–0	3–2	1–1	—	4–2	2–0	3–2	1–1	8–1	2–0	2–0	0–1
Nyva Ternopil	2–0	0–0	2–2	1–0	1–1	1–0	2–0	2–1	—	3–0	3–0	1–4	1–0	2–1	1–0	5–1
Nyva Vinnytsia	0–1	2–2	0–2	0–1	0–1	2–1	2–0	0–0	0–0	—	1–2	1–2	0–0	0–0	2–4	3–1
Prykarpattya Ivano-Frankivsk	2–4	0–0	2–2	0–2	1–2	2–0	2–0	3–2	0–0	2–1	—	2–1	1–2	2–1	0–2	0–0
Shakhtar Donetsk	3–0	3–0	1–0	1–3	0–0	4–2	6–0	4–2	5–0	1–0	2–0	—	4–0	9–1	4–0	3–1
Tavriya Simferopol	1–0	2–1	0–0	1–3	3–1	1–1	1–0	3–0	2–1	3–2	2–0	0–2	—	2–1	1–1	1–0
Torpedo Zaporizhzhia	1–2	+:-	1–3	0–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–4	0–0	1–0	1–1	2–1	1–3	—	2–3	3–1
Vorskla Poltava	2–1	1–0	0–0	4–3	0–0	2–0	4–0	3–0	2–1	3–0	2–0	1–1	1–0	2–0	—	3–0
Zirka-NIBAS Kirovohrad	0–2	2–0	0–0	0–4	2–0	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–1	2–4	2–3	2–1	1–2	2–0	—

Source: uafootball.net.ua
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals (Pen.)
1	Oleh Matviiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	21 (6)
2	Serhii Rebrov	Dynamo Kyiv	20 (6)
3	Serhiy Chuychenko	Vorskla Poltava	14 (2)
4	Oleksandr Haidash	Tavriya Simferopol	13
	Andriy Fedkov	Torpedo Zaporizhzhia	13 (3)
6	Serhiy Mizin	CSKA / Chornomorets	12 (3)
7	Serhiy Atelkin	Shakhtar Donetsk	11
	Valentyn Poltavets	Metalurh Zaporizhzhia	11
	Yakiv Kripak	Metalurh Zaporizhzhia	11 (3)
10	Hennadiy Moroz	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	10

See also

• 1996–97 Ukrainian First League
• 1996–97 Ukrainian Second League
• 1996–97 Ukrainian Cup