The 2024–25 Ukrainian First League is the 34th football league since its establishment. The league competition consisted of 18 teams. The competition is conducting during the ongoing war with the Russia since late February 2022.
Format
The PFL has decided to keep the split group format of double round-robin tournaments with 9 teams in group, total 18 teams. The number of teams has been reduced to 18 compared to the 20 last season. Similar to the last season the top teams will qualify for the promotion tournament, four from each, while less fortunate teams, five from each, will qualify for the relegation tournament.[1] Due to odd number of teams in both groups of the first stage, the second stage groups, promotion and relegation, will not have even number of teams. In total the first stage will have 18 rounds with 72 matches in each group, 16 for each team.[1]
The second stage will have another two groups one for promotion to the top tier, another for relegation to the tier below. The promotion group tournament will consist of 8 teams, top 4 teams from each group (A and B) of the first stage.[1] The teams' record from the previous stage will be grandfathered in full.[1] Each team in the promotion group will play 8 matches with the best four teams of the other group of the first stage (home and away).[1] In total there will be 32 matches.[1] The top two teams of the promotion group will get promotion rights to the Ukrainian Premier League, while the next two teams (3rd and 4th places) would receive a chance to get promotion rights through play-off match-up with the top tier teams.[1]
The teams that would place 5th through 9th in each group (A and B) in the first stage will form the relegation group.[1] The teams' record from the previous stage will be grandfathered in full as well.[1] Each 10 teams of the relegation group will play 10 matches with the 5 teams of the other group of the first stage (home and away).[1] In total there will be 50 matches.[1] The bottom three teams (places 8-10) will gain direct relegation to the tier below (Druha Liha/Ukrainian Second League), while teams that would place 6th and 7th will meet with runners-up of the Druha Liha in play-off match-ups to contest their place in the league.[1]
Teams
This season, Ukrainian First League consisted of 18 teams.
FC Kudrivka which has its teams in both Chernihiv and Kyiv regions (representing Irpin) merged and took over Nyva Buzova (Irpin city area). The club withdrew its original team from the lower tier for this season.
Due to withdrawal of the Ukrainian Second League (tier 3) champion Druzhba Myrivka, FC Khust, which was defeated in play-off match-up against PFC Zviahel, was allowed to remain in the Persha Liha (tier 2) competitions.
On 21 June 2024, it was announced that Podoliany Ternopil (2023–24 AAFU debutants) are planned to merge with FC Khust as FC Khust-Podoliany.[2][3] The merging was not done.[4]
Withdrawn
PFC Zviahel – promoted as a playoff winner to debut, but withdrawn before the season started
Kudrivka-Nyva – partially merged during the last season's winter break, the club completed merger
Druzhba Myrivka – winner of the 2023–24 Ukrainian Second League withdrawn from competitions
FC Khust – after playing only three matches, the club announced that it withdraws from the league. On the moment of its announcement, it lost all its 3 matches and was placing the last 9th position.[5]
The following stadiums were used as home grounds for the teams in the competition. The minimum capacity for stadiums of the First League clubs is set at 1,500 spectators.[6]
^Since the second half of the season FC Metalurh Zaporizhzhia does not have an established team captain and a footballer with such designation changes from one match to another.
Updated to match(es) played on 16 September 2024. 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 an equal number of tournament points at the moment of calculation and not only among those which after preliminary criteria have appeared more successful).[6] Notes:
Updated to match(es) played on 16 September 2024. 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 an equal number of tournament points at the moment of calculation and not only among those which after preliminary criteria have appeared more successful).[6] Notes:
Updated to match(es) played on 16 September 2024. Source: Calendar(in Ukrainian) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. Notes:
^The game scheduled to be played on 7 August 2024 was postponed to later due to air raid siren.[22] The game was rescheduled to take place on 24 September 2024.[23]
^The game scheduled to be played on 26 August 2024 was postponed to later due to air raid siren.[24]
The relegation–promotion play-off games are scheduled to take place between the 6th and 7th placed teams in the Relegation group of the First League with the second and third placed teams of the Second League.