2023–24 Ukrainian Second League

The 2023–24 Ukrainian Second League is the 33rd since its establishment.

Teams

Promoted teams

One team of the 2021–22 Ukrainian Second League returned:

Trostianets – (returning after a season)

Three teams have been promoted from the 2022–23 Ukrainian Football Amateur League:

Lokomotyv Kyiv – (debut, last time at professional level back in 1940)
Druzhba Myrivka – (debut)
Skala 1911 Stryi – (debut, a phoenix club of Morshyn that competed in 2017–18 and Hazovyk-Skala Stryi in 2003–04)

Two teams have been promoted as participants of the 2021–22 Ukrainian Football Amateur League:

Kudrivka – (debut)
UCSA Tarasivka – (debut)

Two second teams have been added:

Karpaty-2 Lviv – (returning, last competed 13 seasons ago in 2009–10)
Rukh-2 Lviv – (debut)

Relegated teams

No teams were relegated from the 2022–23 Ukrainian First League.

Merged and renamed teams

Vast Mykolaiv → Mykolaiv 1920, on 28 June 2023 the Vast's Instagram page appeared to announce that club changes its name to Mykolaiv 1920.^[2] The internet news website "Ukrainskyi futbol" asked for commentary from the Chairman of the Board of MFC Mykolaiv Serhiy Kantor who stated that everything must be done by the law and Vast Mykolaiv at the PFL Annual Conference was certified as Vast Mykolaiv.^[3]
FC Kudrivka, the club merged with Nyva Buzova which is playing in the First League.

Expelled and withdrawn teams

On 26 October 2023 Vast Mykolaiv was expelled from the 2023–24 Ukrainian Second League (Druha Liha) teams' competitions by the UAF CDC for failing to appear for a scheduled match for second time.^[4]^[5] The club played 10 matches with a record of 1 win, 1 tie, 8 losses and goal difference 8 scored, 40 allowed.

On 5 January 2024 Metalurh Zaporizhzhia announced that it already started process of liquidation of its second team due to change of financing of the club.^[6] Upon withdrawal the Metalurh's second team was placing 10th playing 16 matches with a record of 5 wins, 1 tie, 10 losses and goal difference 17 scored 44 allowed.

Location map and stadiums

Lviv

Lviv teams :
Karpaty-2
Rukh-2

Nyva

UCSA

Vast

Zviahel

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Home venues of teams in the 2023–24 Ukrainian Second League

^ Minimum capacity of stadium for the Second League is 500 spectators.^[7]

Managers

Managerial changes

League table

Source: PFL.ua
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference in all games; 6) Goals scored in all games (Note: calculation by criteria indicated in rules 2, 3, 4 is conducted with consideration of all teams that have equal number of tournament points at the moment of calculation and not only among those which after preliminary criteria have appeared more successful).
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted
Notes:

^ a b Head-to-head results: Druzhba – UCSA 2:1, UCSA – Druzhba 0:1

Results

Source: pfl.ua (in Ukrainian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

^ The three of the Second League Round 17 matches on 11 November 2023 were postponed due to mass ballistic missile attack across Ukraine by the Russian Forces. The match was played the next day.
^ The Round 14 match (October 21) did not take place. Vast Mykolaiv announced that it withdraws from competitions.^[42] On 26 October 2023 the UAF CDC adopted decision to award technical victory (3:0) to Metalurh and technical loss (0:3) to Vast after Vast failed to appear for the schedule match.^[4]
^ The three of the Second League Round 17 matches on 11 November 2023 were postponed due to mass ballistic missile attack across Ukraine by the Russian Forces. The match was played the next day.
^ The match was postponed from August 20 (Round 3) to September 27 (after Round 9).
^ The three of the Second League Round 17 matches on 11 November 2023 were postponed due to mass ballistic missile attack across Ukraine by the Russian Forces. The match has been scheduled to be played on 27 November 2023.^[43]
^ The match did not take place at scheduled time on 27 August 2023 and reason was not disclosed.^[44] Later it became known that the game was postponed on the initiative of visiting team due to shortage of available players.^[45] No later than 6 October 2023, the PFL updated its calendar showing the match result as 3–0 (before Round 11).^[46]
^ Zviahel requested to have the Round 13 match Zviahel – Rukh-2 to be postponed as many players of Zviahel are out due to injuries and illnesses (URTI).^[47] On 18 October 2023 the PFL announced that the match will take place on 15 November 2023 (after Round 17).^[48]

Additional notes:

The Round 4 match (Vast–Karpaty-2) did not take place on scheduled date 3 September 2023 as Vast was not able to provide playing grounds being a home team.^[49]
The Round 12 match (UCSA–Vast) did not take place on scheduled date 11 October 2023 due to financial struggle of Vast.^[50] The match was rescheduled for 1 November 2023 (after Round 15).^[46] Later Vast director explained that the club has no issues with financing, but rather with shortage of players and working to resolve this problem.^[46]
The Round 14 match (October 27, Zviahel–Vast) did not take place since the UAF CDC has officially announced on October 26 that Vast was removed from Ukrainian professional football competitions.

Results by week

Note: due to postponement of matches, results per round in table are indicated as "per week" and not in order of the "PFL calendar".

Source: pfl.ua
W = Win; D = Draw; L = Loss

Notes:

Metalurh Zaporizhia withdrew its second team from competitions, all matches of its team starting from the Round 17 are forfeited. The rest of the Metalurh's matches were awarded technical losses (marked '-'), to its opponents' technical victory ('+').
Kremin-2 Kremenchuk by winning over Trostianets on 4 May 2024 in the Round 27 set a new anti-record of 38 matches without win, a streak which was ongoing since 17 September 2022. The previous record of 35 matches existed since 2006.^[51]

Top goalscorers

As of 26 May 2024^[update]^[52]