Ukrainian football championship among amateurs
| Country | Ukraine (AAFU) |
|---|---|
| Confederation | UEFA |
| Founded | 1964 |
| Divisions | 1 |
| Level on pyramid | 4 |
| Promotion to | Druha Liha (PFL) |
| Relegation to | Regional competitions (Regional football federations of Ukraine) |
| International cup(s) | none (in 1999-2015 – UEFA Regions' Cup) |
| Most championships |
Fakel Varva, KZEZO Kakhovka, Avanhard Rovenky, Enerhiya Nova Kakhovka, Metalist Sevastopol (2 titles) |
| Website | Official site |
 2016–17 Ukrainian Football Amateur League | |
Ukrainian football championship among amateurs (Ukrainian: Чемпіонат України з футболу серед аматорів) is an annual association football competition in Ukraine among amateur teams. The championship replaced the Soviet competitions among collectives of physical culture.
History
The competitions take place since 1964 and since 1998 administered by the Association of Amateur Football of Ukraine.
A participation is restricted to the regional (Oblast) champions and/or the most regarded team by the respective regional association. Teams that place first and second place are granted the rights to apply for a professional status. Recently that restriction was extended and the professional license may be granted on the volunteering basis, under certain circumstances.
The predecessors of this organization were the Soviet-type competitions which were headed directly by the Republican Federation (Football Federation of Ukrainian SSR) during the Soviet times, under the name of competitions of KFK and later were referred simply as the Ukrainian Amateur League (since 1992). The best clubs of that competition were replacing less fortunate clubs of the Soviet Second League and the Ukrainian lower leagues.
Format
The format of the tournaments was changing over the time. If the cup competition keeps being unchanged, the league competition did go through some variations. Until 1997 the league competitions stayed by the previous Soviet format consisting of six groups, while participants of each competed independently of the other five groups with the winners of the groups being qualified for the professional football. The only change that took place is a shift to the fall/spring calendar. In 1997 was introduced a final to identified the national winner of the amateur competition, which introduced two stages to the format with a final tournament chosen in the preselected city.
In 2000 the league competitions changed again introducing another stage to avoid sudden withdrawals and eliminate financially suffering teams. Also the competition changed back to more common all-summer event rather the "european" fall/spring calendar. In 2005 it was decided to eliminate the final game while still continue with the final tournament. In 2008 another change followed, which reduced the format back to two stages, however that did not solve the problem to increase the number of teams in the competition.
In 2010 there was an idea to incorporate the Amateur Association into the PFL as the Third League, eliminating the national amateur competition. The 2010 season also saw a record low number of participants in the competition, a pattern that might eliminate the association naturally in any case, due to poor management.
Please, note that first couple of seasons were played in the format fall-spring and then, in 1999, changed to spring-fall competition. The format has changed not only in reference to time, but also the structure of the tournament. That happened, in 1996, prior to establishment of the Ukrainian Football Amateur Association as the independent sport organization. The tournament changed from having simply six different zones with six the best clubs to extending it until the best club of this competition will be established.
List of winners and top scorers
KFK competition of Ukraine
KFK competition of Ukrainian SSR
All winners
Statistic as of 2016
- Note
- KZEZO stands for Kakhovkan Plant of Electro-Welding Equipment (Kakhovsky Zavod Elektro-Zvariuvalnoho Obladnannia).
- The first team of Yednist-2 also participated in the competition and once placed the third. That team currently competes on the professional level. On the club level at this level of competition Yednist have titles of a winner, a runner, and two of the third place.
External links
- 2001 season
- Statistics of Shakhtar Sverdlovsk
- Ukr-football.org compilations for Soviet KFK Ukraine and Amateur competitions.
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