Competitions in Soviet Ukraine (competitions among KFK teams) In 1964, two different championships were established: one among teams of masters (Soviet analog for professional teams) and another among collectives of physical culture (Soviet acronym KFK as representatives of "mass sports", fizkulturniks). The very first championship among KFK included 26 participants and originally consisted of 5 to 6 groups based on geographic principle. Each group consisted of 8 to 10 teams and later grew to around 16. All teams within their own groups played each other home and away games as per the
round robin principle. Each group's winners advanced to the finals, which were conducted at a predesignated location with a single round robin tournament. The original (first) members represented each region in Ukraine (
oblast): •
Enerhiya Nova Kakhovka • Strila Zaporizhzhia • Kolhospnyk Ukrayina •
Torpedo Mykolaiv •
Shakhtar Krasnyi Luch • Suputnyk Poltava •
Start Chuhuyiv •
Elektron Romny • Avanhard Ordzhonikidze •
Mashynobudivnyk Druzhkivka • Shakhtar Vatutine • Dnipro KremHES (
Svitlovodsk) • Burevisnyk Vinnytsia • Podillia Kamianets-Podilskyi •
Torpedo Odesa • Kolhospnyk Kitsman • Avanhard Pryluky •
Prohres Berdychiv • Spartak Bila Tserkva • Voskhod Kyiv • Tekstylnyk Rivne •
LVVPU SA I VMF • Budivelnyk Khust •
Khimik Kalush •
Druzhba Chortkiv • Lokomotyv Kovel Since 1970 the number of participants in each group was about 4–5 teams. Since then it grew to a full-pledged league-like pool of participants.
Competitions in independent Ukraine The Soviet format stayed until 1997, when there was created the Association of Amateur Football of Ukraine (AAFU). Following the
dissolution of the Soviet Union, amateur competitions were shifted to the fall/spring calendar. The group winners, however instead of continuing to the final pool as before, were actually promoted to intermediate level, so called "Transitional League" which existed for just several years as a semi-professional tournament. In 1996 and 1997 there took place a reorganization of all competitions under auspices of the
Football Federation of Ukraine. Clubs that were competing at professional level, in 1996 organized the
Professional Football League of Ukraine. The national amateur competitions were reorganized as AAFU. In 1997 the competition format also changed and there was reintroduced the final pool to identified the national winner of the amateur competition. The new format basically consisted of two stages with a final tournament chosen in the preselected city as previously in the Soviet competition. The size of groups was reduced as the number of teams decreased. In 1999, the competition calendar changed back to spring-fall competition so called all-summer event from the "european" fall/spring calendar. In 2000 the league competitions changed again introducing extra stage (third) to avoid sudden withdrawals and eliminate financially suffering teams. 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. In 2016 it was decided to change back to fall-spring calendar with intention to reincorporate the amateur tier back to the Ukrainian football league structure. The competition in 2016 was shortened and later that year there started new season 2016–17. Number of groups has been reduced and number of teams in each group was increased, thus turning competitions into a true league competitions. Also the PFL announced that all clubs will be required to participate in the amateur tier before being admitted to professional level. Yet the declaration was left to be as empty and some teams were allowed to skip the amateur tier on various dubious excuses. Another declaration of the PFL stating that the league will expunge the last placed teams has been consistent, yet more than often teams relegated from professional level were simply liquidated by owners.
Notable clubs There are former amateur and KFK teams that eventually made it to the
Ukrainian Premier League.
FC Mariupol (former Lokomotyv Zhdanov),
Stal Kamianske (former Metalurh Dniprodzerzhynsk),
Nyva Ternopil (former Nyva Berezhany),
Torpedo Zaporizhzhia,
Naftovyk Okhtyrka,
Vorskla Poltava,
Kremin Kremenchuk,
Stal Alchevsk (former Stal Komunarsk),
Kolos Kovalivka,
FC Mynai,
Inhulets–Pyatykhatska Petrove,
Rukh Lviv–Vynnyky There are several clubs that competed at competitions for physical culture teams and later the AAFU amateur league for over 15 seasons.
Shakhtar Sverdlovsk (23 seasons),
Lokomotyv Znamyanka (22),
Metalurh Kupyansk (22),
Avanhard Lozova (18),
ODEK Orzhiv (18),
Shakhtar Oleksandriya (18),
Bilshovyk Kyiv (17),
Khimik Kalush (17),
Naftovyk Dolyna (16),
Sokil Lviv (16),
Tytan Armyansk (16), Refryzherator Fastiv (15),
Sokil Berezhany/Pidhaitsi (15).
The season's final match stadiums Starting from 2001, the season of the AAFU league competition ends with the season's final. Sometime after the 2015 season Bannikov Stadium became more traditional stadium of choice for the match. The first stadium where the first final match was played in 2001 is
Avanhard Stadium in
Luhansk. •
Bannikov Stadium, 2011, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 • Umanfermash Sports Complex (Illichivets Stadium), 2009, 2016 •
Avanhard Stadium (
Luhansk), 2001 • Olimpiyskiy Stadium (
Kakhovka), 2002 • Enerhetyk Stadium (
Severodonetsk), 2003 • Khimik Stadium (
Slovyansk), 2004 • Ivan Stadium, 2005 • Lubny Tsentralnyi Stadion, 2006 • Mizhshkilnyi Stadium, 2007 • Kitsman Miskyi Stadion, 2008 • Zatys Stadium, 2010 • Yunist Stadium (
Kolomyia), 2012 • Dinaz Stadium, 2013 •
Vinnytsia Tsentralnyi Stadion, 2014 •
Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex, 2017 ==Winners==