2015–16 Ukrainian First League

The 2015–16 Ukrainian First League was the 25th since its establishment. The competition commenced on 26 July 2015 with eight matches. The competition had a winter break which began after Round 18 on November 22. The competition resumed on 26 March 2016 and completed on 1 June 2016.

Ukrainian First League

Season	2015–16
Champions	Zirka Kirovohrad
Promoted	Zirka Kirovohrad
Relegated	Nyva (withdrew) Dynamo-2 (withdrew) Hirnyk (withdrew)
Matches played	220
Goals scored	509 (2.31 per match)
Top goalscorer	16 – Artem Favorov (Obolon-Brovar)
Biggest home win	Zirka 6–0 FC Ternopil (Round 5)
Biggest away win	4 – Nyva 0–4 FC Sumy (Round 3)
Highest scoring	7 – Hirnyk-Sport 3–4 FC Poltava (Round 29)
Longest winning run	6 – Zirka (Round 19–25)
Longest unbeaten run	9 – Helios (Rounds 1–9)
Longest winless run	8 –Illichivets (Rounds 3–4, 6, 8–9, ppd. 7, 10, ppd. 5)
Longest losing run	8 – Nyva (Round 6–9, Round 11–14)
Highest attendance	7,500 – Dnipro–Hirnyk (Round 20)
Lowest attendance	100 – Desna–FC Sumy(Round 12)
← 2014–15 2016–17 →

Teams

The number of teams for the competition was confirmed on 19 June 2015.^[1]

Promoted teams

Two teams were promoted from the 2014–15 Ukrainian Second League.^[2]

• Cherkaskyi Dnipro – champion (returning as a successor of FC Dnipro Cherkasy that last participated in the 2007–08 Ukrainian First League, 7 seasons absence)
• Obolon-Brovar Kyiv – 2nd place runner-up (returning as a successor of FC Obolon Kyiv after an absence of three seasons)

Relegated teams

One team was promoted from the 2014–15 Ukrainian Premier League.

• Illichivets Mariupol^[3] – 14th place (returning after an absence of seven seasons)

Reinstated teams

• Avanhard Kramatorsk^[3] – special case (returning after an absence of one season)

Location map

The following displays the location of teams.

Dynamo-2

Obolon-Brovar

Kyiv city home venues of teams in the League

Kyiv

Kyiv teams :
Dynamo-2
Obolon-Brovar

Ternopil

Ternopil teams :
Nyva
Ternopil

Desna

Helios

Hirnyk

Hirnyk-Sport

Mykolaiv

Naftovyk-Ukrnafta

Poltava

Sumy

Zirka

Illichivets

Avanhard

Cherkaskyi Dnipro

Home venues of teams in the 2015–16 Ukrainian First League.

Stadiums

The following stadiums are considered home grounds for the teams in the competition.

Rank	Stadium	Capacity	Club	Notes
1	Metalurh Stadium, Kryvyi Rih	29,783	Hirnyk Kryvyi Rih
2	Yuvileiny Stadium, Sumy	25,800	FC Sumy
3	Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium, Kyiv	16,873	Dynamo-2 Kyiv	Used as home ground in Round 14 and 17
4	Central City Stadium, Mykolaiv	16,700	MFC Mykolaiv
5	Zirka Stadium, Kirovohrad	13,667	Zirka Kirovohrad
6	Labor Reserve, Bila Tserkva	13,500	Desna Chernihiv	Used as home ground[a]
7	City Stadium, Ternopil	12,750	Nyva Ternopil
			FC Ternopil
8	Illichivets Stadium, Mariupol	12,680	Illichivets Mariupol
9	Yuri Gagarin Stadium, Chernihiv	12,060	Desna Chernihiv
10	Central Stadion, Cherkasy	10,321	Cherkaskyi Dnipro
11	Naftovyk Stadium, Okhtyrka	5,256	Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka
12	Obolon Arena, Kyiv	5,100	Obolon-Brovar Kyiv
13	Sonyachny Stadium, Kharkiv	4,924[5]	Helios Kharkiv
14	Avanhard Stadium, Kramatorsk	2,500	Avanhard Kramatorsk
15	Lokomotov Stadium, Poltava	2,500	FC Poltava
16	Yunist Stadium, Komsomolsk	2,500	Hirnyk-Sport Komsomolsk
17	Dynamo Training Center, Kyiv	1,200	Dynamo-2 Kyiv

1. Due to reconstruction of their home ground Yuri Gagarin Stadium, Desna Chernihiv played their Round 12 home game in Bila Tserkva^[4]

Managers

Club	Coach	Replaced coach
Avanhard Kramatorsk	Yakiv Kripak
Cherkaskyi Dnipro	Ihor Stolovytskyi
Desna Chernihiv	Oleksandr Ryabokon
Dynamo-2 Kyiv	Vadym Yevtushenko
Helios Kharkiv	Serhiy Syzykhin
Hirnyk Kryvyi Rih	Hennadiy Prykhodko
Hirnyk-Sport Komsomolsk	Ihor Zhabchenko
Illichivets Mariupol	Valeriy Kriventsov
MFC Mykolaiv	Ruslan Zabranskyi
Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka	Volodymyr Knysh
Nyva Ternopil	Petr Badlo (interim)	Roman Tolochko
Obolon-Brovar Kyiv	Sergei Soldatov
FC Poltava	Anatoliy Bezsmertnyi (interim)	Oleh Fedorchuk
FC Sumy	Yuriy Yaroshenko
FC Ternopil	Vasyl Ivehesh
Zirka Kirovohrad	Serhiy Lavrynenko

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing head coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Table	Incoming head coach	Date of appointment
Helios Kharkiv	Serhiy Syzykhin (interim)	Change of contract	1 July 2015[6]	Pre-season	Serhiy Syzykhin	1 July 2015
Nyva Ternopil	Roman Tolochko	Resigns	9 September 2015[7]	15th	Petr Badlo (interim)	9 September 2015
FC Ternopil	Vasyl Ivehesh	Hospitalized	13 May 2016[8]	15th	Ivan Maruschak (interim)	14 May 2016

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Zirka Kirovohrad (C, P)	30	20	5	5	49	22	+27	65	Promoted to Ukrainian Premier League[9]
2	Cherkaskyi Dnipro	30	16	7	7	45	27	+18	55
3	Obolon-Brovar Kyiv	30	16	6	8	45	35	+10	54
4	Illichivets Mariupol	30	14	11	5	34	23	+11	53
5	Helios Kharkiv	30	13	12	5	33	24	+9	51
6	Hirnyk Kryvyi Rih (D)	30	13	10	7	39	27	+12	49	Withdrew after the season[a]
7	MFC Mykolaiv[b]	30	13	8	9	34	27	+7	44
8	Desna Chernihiv	30	11	7	12	30	29	+1	40
9	Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka	30	11	7	12	31	33	−2	40
10	FC Poltava	30	10	8	12	29	32	−3	38
11	Dynamo-2 Kyiv (D)	30	9	9	12	27	34	−7	36	Withdrew after the season[c]
12	Hirnyk-Sport Komsomolsk	30	8	9	13	30	35	−5	33
13	Avanhard Kramatorsk	30	8	8	14	28	42	−14	32
14	FC Sumy	30	8	6	16	35	54	−19	30	Avoided relegation playoff[d]
15	FC Ternopil[b]	30	6	7	17	18	47	−29	22	Avoided relegation[e]
16	Nyva Ternopil[b] (D)	30	2	4	24	10	26	−16	7	Withdrew during the season[f]

Source: (in Ukrainian) Professional Football League of Ukraine^[18]
Rules for classification: ^[19] 1) points 2) goal difference 3) goals scored
4) head-to-head points 5) head-to-head goal difference 6) head-to-head goals scored
7) head-to-head fair play (all games) 8) draw or playoff
(C) Champions; (D) Disqualified; (P) Promoted
Notes:

1. Several weeks after the season completed the administration of Hirnyk Kryvyi Rih announced that the club would withdraw from the PFL.^[10] (23 June 2016)
2. The Control Disciplinary Committee of the Football Federation of Ukraine deducted three points and fined the clubs Nyva Ternopil, FC Ternopil and MFC Mykolaiv for match fixing during the 2014–15 season.^[11] (2 September 2015)
3. The management of the senior club FC Dynamo Kyiv prior to the last game of the season announced that the reserve club, Dynamo-2 Kyiv would be terminating after the completion of the season.^[12]
4. Originally the fourteenth placed was to have played in a promotion-relegation playoff series against the third team in the Second League competition. However, two days before the end of the season, on 30 May 2016 the PFL ruled that due to sporting principles to keep 16 teams in the First League the promotion-relegation playoff match between the third placed team in the Second League against the 14th placed team in the First League was cancelled and that the third placed team in the Second League would be automatically promoted to the First League.^[13]
5. Originally, as per competition regulations, the fifteenth placed team, FC Ternopil was to be relegated to the Ukrainian Second League. However, after the season at the Conference of the PFL in preparation for the 2016–17 Ukrainian First League season the committee decided to expand the competition to eighteen teams and include FC Ternopil.^[14]
6. Nyva Ternopil announced that it will not play the first games of the spring half of the competition.^[15] The club indicated that it would compete in the Ternopil Oblast competition.^[16] The Football Federation of Ukraine formally expelled the club from the competition on 1 April 2016.^[17] Later In April 2016, the club joined the 2016 Ukrainian Football Amateur League.

Results

As of 1 June 2016

Home \ Away	AVK	CHD	DES	DK2	HEL	HIR	HIS	ILL	MYK	NAF	NVT	OBK	POL	SUM	TNP	ZIR
Avanhard Kramatorsk		1–1	1–1	1–0	0–0	0–1	2–1	0–2	0–2	2–3	+:-	1–2	0–0	3–0	2–0	0–2
Cherkaskyi Dnipro	2–0		2–0	3–1	1–1	2–1	3–0	3–2	0–2	1–0	3–1	4–0	2–1	2–0	2–0	2–2
Desna Chernihiv	3–1	3–1		1–2	0–1	1–1	0–2	0–1	0–1	1–2	+:-	0–2	2–1	4–1	1–1	1–0
Dynamo-2 Kyiv	2–1	2–2	3–1		0–0	0–0	1–1	1–0	0–0	0–0	1–0	1–3	2–1	4–1	2–1	0–1
Helios Kharkiv	2–0	1–1	0–1	1–1		2–1	1–1	0–0[a]	2–2	0–2	3–0[b]	1–2	1–0	3–2	3–0	1–1
Hirnyk Kryvyi Rih	1–1	2–1	0–0	2–0	1–1		3–1	1–2	3–0	0–3	+:-[b]	2–1	0–0	2–0	1–1	0–0
Hirnyk-Sport Komsomolsk	0–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–0[c]		1–1	3–1	2–0	1–3	1–2	3–4	3–0	1–3	1–1
Illichivets Mariupol	1–1	1–1	0–1[d]	4–2	3–1	2–1	0–0		0–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–1	1–1[e]	0–0	3–0
MFC Mykolaiv	2–1	1–0	3–1	0–0	0–2	0–3	2–0	4–0		0–1	3–0	2–2	1–1	3–1	3–0	0–2
Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka	4–2	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–1	2–3	0–2	1–0	0–0		+:-	1–1	1–1	0–0	2–0	2–3
Nyva Ternopil[f]	0–1	1–1	2–0	-:+	-:+	0–1	0–0	-:+	-:+	0–1		-:+	0–1	0–4	-:+	0–1
Obolon-Brovar Kyiv	1–1	1–0	0–0	2–0	1–2	2–3	1–0	0–2	0–0	3–0	2–2		3–1	4–2	3–2	1–2
FC Poltava	0–1	0–2	0–1	2–0	0–0		1–0	1–2	1–0	3–1	+:-	1–2		2–2	1–0	1–0
PFC Sumy	3–2	0–1	0–4	2–1	0–0	2–2	0–1	0–1	2–1	2–0	1–1	2–0	1–3		4–1	0–1
FC Ternopil	1–1	1–0	0–2	1–0	0–1	0–3	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–2	1–1	0–1		1–2
Zirka Kirovohrad	5–1	2–0	1–0	2–1	4–0	2–1	1–3	0–0	2–1	1–0	+:-	1–2	2–0	2–0	6–0

Updated to match(es) played on 1 June 2016. Source: (in Ukrainian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

1. Illichivets Mariupol postpones their Round 12 away match against Helios Kharkiv since several players were called for international duty.^[20] Match was played after Round 16.
2. Nyva Ternopil informed the PFL that they would not arrive for their Round 10 match against Helios Kharkiv due to their difficult financial situation.^[21] Control Disciplinary Committee of the Football Federation of Ukraine awarded a 3–0 technical victory to Helios. (12 November 2015)^[22]
3. Round 4 match at Yunist Stadium between Hirnyk-Sport and Hirnyk was abandoned due to the waterlogged condition of the pitch due to torrential rain prior to the start of the match.^[23][24] The match was rescheduled and played after Round 12 on 14 October.^[25]
4. Illichivets Mariupol postpones their Round 7 home match against Desna Chernihiv since several players were called for international duty.^[26] Match played after Round 9.^[27]
5. Illichivets Mariupol postpones their Round 5 home match against FC Sumy since several players were called for international duty.^[28] Match played after Round 10.^[27]
6. Nyva Ternopil informed the PFL that the club will not be able to take part in the first game of the spring half of the season.^[15] (23 March 2016) Later the FFU formally expelled the club and awarded technical victories to their opponents.^[17] (1 April 2016)

Position by round

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Zirka Kirovohrad	13	14	7	4	1	3	2	2	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Cherkaskyi Dnipro	9	3	8	5	8	4	3	4	2	5	3	4	3	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	3	3	3	2	2	4	3	2	2
Obolon-Brovar Kyiv	1	7	12	8	6	8	6	3	5	6	4	2	2	2	2	2	2	5	4	4	2	4	4	4	4	4	2	2	3	3
Illichivets Mariupol	2	1	2	3	7	9	9	9	10	14	11	13	10	11	10	7	8	8	7	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	4	4	4
Helios Kharkiv	10	11	6	2	4	2	4	5	3	4	6	6	7	9	8	8	5	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	6	6	5
Hirnyk Kryvyi Rih	14	5	4	7	5	5	7	8	6	3	2	3	4	3	4	4	4	2	2	2	3	2	2	2	3	3	3	5	5	6
MFC Mykolaiv	3	6	10	10	10	7	8	7	8	8	8	7	9	6	5	5	6	6	10	10	9	11	11	11	11	10	9	7	7	7
Desna Chernihiv	7	12	9	11	12	10	10	10	11	10	13	10	8	8	9	11	11	11	9	7	7	10	10	10	10	9	8	8	8	8
Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka	8	4	1	1	2	6	5	6	7	7	7	12	13	13	14	13	13	12	12	12	10	8	9	8	7	7	7	9	10	9
FC Poltava	6	8	13	14	9	12	12	11	9	9	9	11	12	10	12	9	9	10	8	8	8	7	7	7	8	8	10	10	9	10
Dynamo-2 Kyiv	4	2	3	6	3	1	1	1	4	1	5	5	5	5	6	6	7	7	6	9	11	9	8	9	9	11	13	12	12	11
Hirnyk-Sport Komsomolsk	12	10	11	13	15	15	16	14	15	13	12	9	6	7	7	10	10	9	11	11	13	13	12	12	12	13	11	11	11	12
Avanhard Kramatorsk	16	16	16	16	16	16	13	12	13	12	10	8	11	12	11	12	12	13	13	13	12	12	13	13	13	12	12	13	13	13
PFC Sumy	5	9	5	9	11	11	11	13	14	15	15	15	14	14	13	15	15	14	14	14	15	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14
FC Ternopil	15	13	14	12	14	13	14	15	12	11	14	14	15	15	15	14	14	15	15	15	14	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15
Nyva Ternopil	11	15	15	15	13	14	15	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16

Updated to match(es) played on 1 June 2016. Source: pfl.ua

Top goalscorers

As of 1 June 2016^[29]

Rank	Scorer	Goals (Pen.)	Team
1	Artem Favorov	16 (3)	Obolon-Brovar Kyiv
2	Yevhen Chepurnenko	11 (1)	Desna Chernihiv
3	Artem Sitalo	10 (4)	Hirnyk Kryvyi Rih
	Serhiy Vakulenko	10 (6)	Illichivets Mariupol
5	Volodymyr Bayenko	8	Hirnyk Kryvyi Rih
	Denys Skepskyi	8 (2)	Cherkaskyi Dnipro
7	Borys Baranets	7	Zirka Kirovohrad
	Oleksandr Batalskyi	7	Cherkaskyi Dnipro

Rank	Scorer	Goals (Pen.)	Team
7	Oleksiy Chychykov	7	Zirka Kirovohrad
	Ruslan Ivashko	7	Hirnyk-Sport Komsomolsk
	Roman Loktionov	7	Zirka Kirovohrad
	Vasyl Prodan	7	Obolon-Brovar Kyiv
	Artur Zahorulko	7	Illichivets Mariupol
	Denys Favorov[a]	7 (1)	FC Poltava/Desna Chernihiv
	Ihor Sikorskyi	7 (4)	MFC Mykolaiv

1. Denys Favorov signed with Desna Chernihiv during the winter break.^[30]

See also

• 2015–16 Ukrainian Premier League
• 2015–16 Ukrainian Second League
• 2015–16 Ukrainian Cup