The 33rd Ukrainian Premier League championship is gaining momentum. Among its 16 participants are three debutants: Polesie (Zhytomyr), LNZ (Cherkasy) and Obolon (Kyiv).
In the first part of the championship, which should end on 9 December, will be played matches of 17 rounds. The continuation of our main tournament is scheduled for 24 February. The final, 30th round will be played on 25 May.
The draw for the Ukrainian Cup has resumed. Many unexpected results have already been recorded in this popular tournament. The winner of the trophy is to be determined next May. Let me remind you that Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar won the Cup 13 times each.
Let's talk about coaches. In summer, the oldest coach of our championship Mircea Lucescu started his 17th season in the UPL at Dynamo. The Romanian specialist is on the third place in the register of long-time coaches of the top Ukrainian division. He won gold medals eight times while leading Shakhtar, once while working at Dynamo. At the same time, Lucescu is the most senior coach in European football.
For Minaya coach Volodymyr Sharan, this is his tenth season in coaching, and Kryvbas coach Yuriy Vernidub has the same number of seasons. So far, their teams have not won the Ukrainian championship. Let me remind you the names of the coaches who received congratulations on winning gold medals of the Ukrainian championship: Lucescu - 9 times, Lobanovskiy - 5, Fonseca - 3, Mikhailichenko - 2, Sabo - 2, Rebrov - 2.
The teams headed by Anatoliy Zayayev (Tavriya), Mykhailo Fomenko (Dynamo), Mykola Pavlov (Dynamo), Nevio Scala (Shakhtar), Anatoliy Demyanenko (Dynamo), Yuriy Semin (Dynamo), Luis Castro (Shakhtar), Igor Jovicevic (Shakhtar) became champions once each.
Among the debutants of the coaching corps of the 33rd Ukrainian championship are Oleksandr Kovpak (LNZ), Valeriy Ivashchenko (Obolon), Nenad Lalatovic (Zorya). By the way, Serbian Lalatovic (already fired from Luhansk club, as well as Kovpak from Cherkasy) became the 61st legionary coach in the history of national championships, starting from the first one in 1992. There are already 32 championships of our country behind us, and 288 specialists have been head coaches of the teams during this time.
The regulations have not changed
If everything will be in order in the Ukrainian football "seedbed", and we want to believe it, in May 2024 the 33rd UPL championship will be finished, the owner of the Cup of the country will be determined, the participants of the European Cup tournaments of the next season will be determined.
The regulations of our main tournament have not changed. The clubs that took 15 and 16 places in the standings, will leave the Premier League directly, giving up their places in the top division to the two best teams of the First League. The 13th and 14th teams at the end of the 33rd championship will play head-to-head matches with the 3rd and 4th teams of the First League for the right to stay in the elite next season.
Last season's winners
At the end of the 33rd UPL championship will traditionally determine the best in different categories. I will remind you who became the winners of the last season of the national championship.
The best player of UPL 2022/2023 was named Dnipro-1 forward Artem Dovbik, who scored 24 goals in the season. Now he will continue to upset goalkeepers, playing for Spanish "Girona" together with another Ukrainian Viktor Tsygankov.
Best goalkeeper - Anatoliy Trubin (Shakhtar).
Best young player - Georgiy Sudakov (Shakhtar).
Best coach - Patrick van Leeuwen from the Netherlands (Zorya).
Best referee - Ekaterina Monzul (Kharkiv). This is already the third success of the football lady.
Friends, love football, play football - and football will reciprocate you. And don't let your favourite teams upset you.
Alexander LIPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua
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