Ukrainian Premier League Reserves and Under 19

First steps

Soon after establishing the Professional Football League of Ukraine (PFL) in 1996, a discussion arose about developing younger generation of football players. In 1998 in Ukraine started competition of academies of football clubs which participate in competitions of PFL (Higher, First and Second leagues). In 2001 there was established a separate organization, Ukrainian Youth Football League (Ukrainian: Дитячо-юнацька футбольна ліга України), that took over administration of youth competitions. Originally, competitions were conducted in four age groups between 14 and 17. In 2002 in coordination with the PFL there was introduced competition among youth under 19 years of age.^[1]

Reserves competitions

In 2004 the PFL introduced competition among the Vyshcha Liha (Higher League) clubs' double teams (reserve teams). The reason for introduction of the Vyshcha Liha competitions among doubles was partly connected with necessity to free the PFL lower league competitions from the Higher League clubs' second teams. With introduction of the double competitions in 2004, professional clubs started to remove their second teams from the 2004-05 Ukrainian Second League and even more in the following season. The age restriction for the Vyshcha Liha double teams at first was conditional. In 2006 the PFL discontinued joint youth competition among under-19 teams conducted along with the Youth Football League.

Conversion of reserve competitions and addition of other UPL junior competitions

In 2008 there was established the Ukrainian Premier League which took the administration over the Higher League clubs' competitions including the competitions among doubles. Those competitions were renamed as the UPL championship and the UPL youth championship. The UPL youth competition became age restrictive and involved players of under-21 years of age.

In 2012 now as part of the Ukrainian Premier League, there was reestablished competitions among under-19 teams. To avoid ambiguity, the UPL youth championship was renamed as the UPL U-21 championship, while the other competition received the name of UPL U-19 championship.

Plans of establishing separate professional junior league competitions

In 2016 the competitions among youth teams with age category under 19 years of age were reintroduced in the Professional Football League now for teams of the Persha Liha and Druha Liha (First and Second leagues), as well as amateur level youth football-oriented institutions, i.e. youth football clubs, sports schools. The competitions received the name of Persha Liha U-19 competitions. In 2017 discussions were taking place to expand the UPL to include competitions of the Persha Liha (First League) as well as the Persha Liha U-19 competitions and allowing exchange between Premier League and First League among the youth teams.

The UPL youth competitions are considered as a development league and therefore its participants' performance does not result in the team's relegation from it. The relegation occurs only based on their final league position of their respective senior teams in the Ukrainian Premier League. If the senior team is relegated from the Ukrainian Premier League, then its reserve team is relegated from the Premier Reserve League and replaced by a reserve team of another newly promoted club from the Ukrainian First League.

Professional Football League junior championship (Unofficial competitions)

Top League reserve's championship

Season	Champion	Runner-up	Third place	Top goalscorer
2004–05	Dynamo Kyiv	Metalist Kharkiv	Illichivets Mariupol	Roberto Nanni (Dynamo Kyiv, 9 goals) Syarhey Karnilenka (Dynamo Kyiv, 9 goals)
2005–06	Dynamo Kyiv	Metalist Kharkiv	Illichivets Mariupol	Serhiy Davydov (Metalist Kharkiv, 21 goals)
2006–07	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Chornomorets Odesa	Oleksandr Aliyev (Dynamo Kyiv, 21 goals)
2007–08	Dynamo Kyiv	Metalurh Zaporizhya	Metalist Kharkiv	Oleksandr Aliyev (Dynamo Kyiv, 18 goals)

Premier League youth's (U-21) championship

Season	Champion	Runner-up	Third place	Top goalscorer
2008–09	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dynamo Kyiv	Chornomorets Odesa	Roman Zozulya (Dynamo Kyiv, 19 goals)
2009–10	Karpaty Lviv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dynamo Kyiv	Yuriy Furta (Karpaty Lviv, 15 goals) Artem Hromov (Vorskla Poltava, 15 goals)
2010–11	Shakhtar Donetsk	Metalist Kharkiv	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Yevhen Budnik (Metalist Kharkiv, 13 goals) Oleh Barannik (Vorskla Poltava, 13 goals)
2011–12	Shakhtar Donetsk	Zorya Luhansk	Obolon Kyiv	Vladyslav Kulach (Shakhtar Donetsk, 14 goals)
2012–13	Zorya Luhansk	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Yevhen Troyanovskyi (Metalurh Donetsk, 16 goals)
2013–14	Illichivets Mariupol	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Oleh Barannik (Vorskla Poltava, 18 goals)
2014–15	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Dynamo Kyiv	Vorskla Poltava	Artur Zahorulko (Shakhtar Donetsk, 17 goals)
2015–16	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Andriy Boryachuk (Shakhtar Donetsk, 20 goals)
2016–17	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Karpaty Lviv	Stanislav Bilenkyi (Olimpik Donetsk, 16 goals)
2017–18	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dynamo Kyiv	FC Oleksandriya	Bohdan Lyednyev (Dynamo Kyiv, 16 goals)

Top three

Premier League junior (U-19) championship

Season	Champion	Runner-up	Third place	Top goalscorer
2012–13	Dynamo Kyiv	Illichivets Mariupol	Shakhtar Donetsk	Roman Yaremchuk (Dynamo Kyiv, 14 goals)
2013–14	Metalist Kharkiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Karpaty Lviv	Artur Miranyan (Shakhtar Donetsk, 12 goals)
2014–15	Shakhtar Donetsk	Dynamo Kyiv	Karpaty Lviv	Ihor Karpenko (Karpaty Lviv, 16 goals)
2015–16	Dynamo Kyiv	Olimpik Donetsk	Shakhtar Donetsk	Vladyslav Khomutov (Olimpik Donetsk, 15 goals)
2016–17	Dynamo Kyiv	Oleksandriya	Shakhtar Donetsk	Mykhailo Plokhotnyuk (Chornomorets Odesa, 19 goals)
2017–18	Dynamo Kyiv	Shakhtar Donetsk	Karpaty Lviv	Yevhen Isayenko (Dynamo Kyiv, 17 goals)

Top three