2021–22 Ukrainian Premier League
31st season of top-tier football league in Vyshcha Liha / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2021–22 Ukrainian Premier League season, referred to as the VBet Liha for sponsorship reasons, was the 31st top-level football club competition since the fall of the Soviet Union and the 14th since the establishment of the Ukrainian Premier League. On 1 July 2021, UPL announced that the new title sponsor for the next three years will be another bookmaking company, VBet.[3]
Season | 2021–22 |
---|---|
Dates | 24 July 2021 – 26 April 2022 |
Champions | Title not awarded |
Relegated | Desna Chernihiv Mariupol |
Champions League | Shakhtar Donetsk Dynamo Kyiv |
Europa League | Dnipro–1 |
Europa Conference League | Zorya Luhansk Vorskla Poltava |
Matches played | 143 |
Goals scored | 381 (2.66 per match) |
Top goalscorer | Artem Dovbyk (14 goals) |
Biggest home win | 7 goals Dynamo 7–0 Kolos (28 August 2021) |
Biggest away win | 5 goals Mariupol 0–5 Shakhtar (18 September 2021) Metalist 1925 1–6 Zorya (31 October 2021) Chornomorets 1–6 Dynamo (19 November 2021) |
Highest scoring | 7 goals 7 games |
Longest winning run | 8 matches Shakhtar Donetsk |
Longest unbeaten run | 15 matches Shakhtar Donetsk |
Longest winless run | 17 matches Mynai |
Longest losing run | 6 matches Mariupol Metalist 1925 |
Highest attendance | 28,073 Dynamo v Shakhtar (3 October 2021) |
Lowest attendance | 230 Inhulets v Kolos (18 September 2021)[lower-alpha 1] |
Total attendance | 480451[2] |
Average attendance | 3533 |
← 2020–21 2022–23 →
All statistics correct as of 12 December 2021. |
The defending champions were the 16-time winners Dynamo Kyiv.
The competition was terminated at the UPL extraordinary general meeting on 26 April 2022 due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[4] The league decided that it will not award a champion's title since the season was terminated early, yet the club's league standing would be used to determine qualification to clubs' continental competitions. The meeting was also attended by a number of the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) officials, among which was the first vice-president Oleh Protasov. The UPL general meeting decision was submitted to UAF Executive Committee for approval. On 2 May 2022, the UAF Executive Committee confirmed early termination of season in the league. A further EGM was held on May 27 to decide promotion and relegation. This confirmed that Desna Chernihiv and Mariupol had both withdrawn from the league for the following campaign due to damage and destruction in their respective cities and facilities because of the war. Metalist Kharkiv and Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih, who were the top two teams in the First League at the time of abandonment, were selected to be promoted by UAF.