1992 Vyshcha Liha (Ukrainian: Чемпіонат серед команд вищої ліги) was the first football championship organized in Ukraine after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and officially recognized by the UEFA. The last Soviet season finished in fall of 1991.
The Football Federation of Ukraine when organizing the competition decided to shift its calendar to synchronize it with one common in Europe "fall-spring" and organized a short championship.
The first two games of the Round 1 took place on 6 March 1992 in Odesa where local Chornomorets was hosting Karpaty, and Mykolaiv where local Evis was playing against the visiting Temp.
The league and its calendar were adopted at the FFU Executive Committee session on 10 September 1991[1] with the ongoing 1991 season of the All-Soviet football competitions. It was established that the new league will consist of 20 teams divided in two groups.[1] Six clubs (last three from each group) were set to be relegated and replaced with two best from the First League, thus reducing the league for the next season to 16. Winners of both groups were to play against one another for the national title. The league's final was originally planned to consist of two games (home and away), but later due to scheduling of the Ukraine national football team's games it was changed to one on a neutral field.[1]
To the league were included all Ukrainian clubs of the 1991 Soviet Top and First leagues (8 clubs), nine of eleven Ukrainian clubs out the 1991 Soviet Second League (all of them competed in the west zone), the two best teams of the 1991 Soviet Second (lower) League and the winner of the Ukrainian Cup.[1] The FFU president Viktor Bannikov was against to include the Ukrainian Cup winner into the top league.[1]
There were opponents of organization of the championship among the most notable was FC Metalurh Zaporizhya.[1] The FC Metalist Kharkiv was against with the condition if they would be relegated from the 1991 Soviet Top League.[1] Also against the championship was Yevhen Kucherevskyi[1] (FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, one of few Ukrainian coaches who managed to win the Soviet Top League).
There were plenty of alternative proposition on the composition and the season's calendar among which from the president of Prykarpattia Anatoliy Revutskyi and the head coach of Temp Ishtvan Sekech.[1]
The championship started on March 6, about a month later after the qualification rounds of another national tournament, the first edition of Ukrainian Cup. The first half of the season was scheduled to finish on April 19 with the second one to resume on April 25 (6 days intermission). The last round was to be played on June 17.
Considering such a schedule and the fact that the Ukrainian Cup competition was on the way simultaneously, the Ukrainian clubs had to forfeit their scheduled games in the Soviet Cup competition. In addition to that Dynamo Kyiv also participated in the Champions League competition which ended for Dynamo only on April 15. Each team this season had at least two games scheduled every week on average.
Considering other official games (outside of the league), FC Torpedo Zaporizhzhia and FC Dynamo Kyiv has played the record of 26 games from February 18 through June 21 and the most among the other clubs in the League.
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Managerial changes approximated
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Tavriya Simferopol qualified for 1992–93 European Cup Preliminary round and Dynamo Kyiv qualified for 1992–93 UEFA Cup First round.
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(league appearances and goals listed in brackets)
Note: Players in italic are whose playing position is uncertain.
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