The 2007–08 Vyshcha Liha season was the seventeenth since its establishment. This season of the championship was sponsored by Biola which became the title sponsor replacing Soyuz-Viktan. The competition began on 17 July 2007 and ended on 18 May 2008. 16 teams participated in the competition, 14 of which contested in the 2006–07 season, and two of which (Zakarpattia Uzhhorod and Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka) were promoted from the Ukrainian First League (the league immediately below the Ukrainian Premier League). Dynamo Kyiv was the defending champions. Also, it was the last season of the top tier being part of the Professional Football League of Ukraine before separating into the Ukrainian Premier League and rebranding from Vyshcha Liha (Higher League).

Vyshcha Liha
Season2007–08
ChampionsShakhtar Donetsk
4th title
RelegatedNaftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka,
Zakarpattia Uzhhorod
Champions LeagueShakhtar Donetsk (3rd Qualifying Round)
Dynamo Kyiv (2nd Qualifying Round)
UEFA CupMetalist Kharkiv (1st Round)
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (2nd Qualifying Round)
Intertoto CupTavriya Simferopol (2nd Round)
Matches played240
Goals scored581 (2.42 per match)
Top goalscorerMarko Dević (19) (Metalist Kharkiv)
Biggest home winArsenal - Zakarpattia 7:0
Biggest away winnumerous games 0:3 and 1:4
Highest scoringDynamo - Karpaty 7:3

The winner of the competition became Shakhtar Donetsk with 74 points, followed by Dynamo Kyiv with 71 points. Metalist, which placed right behind Shakhtar and Dynamo, had its awards stripped for match fixing.[a] The top goalscorer of the season was Marko Dević from Metalist Kharkiv with 19 goals, 6 of which were penalties. The spot for the second highest goalscorer with 17 goals was a three-way tie between Oleksandr Hladky from Shakhtar Donetsk, Yevhen Seleznyov from Arsenal Kyiv (on loan from Shakhtar), and Oleksandr Kosyrin from Metalurh Donetsk.

Teams

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Two teams were promoted from the 2006-07 Ukrainian First League.

Naftovyk and Zakarpattia replaced Illichivets Mariupol (after a 10-year topflight spell) and Stal Alchevsk (a couple of seasons), both of which were relegated to the 2007-08 Ukrainian First League.

Location map

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Managers

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Club Coach Replaced coach
Arsenal Kyiv   Oleksandr Zavarov
Chornomorets Odesa   Vitaliy Shevchenko
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk   Oleh Protasov
Dynamo Kyiv   Yuri Semin   Anatoliy Demyanenko
Karpaty Lviv   Valery Yaremchenko   Oleksandr Ischenko
Kharkiv   Volodymyr Bezsonov
Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih   Oleh Taran
Metalist Kharkiv   Myron Markevych
Metalurh Donetsk   Nikolay Kostov   Jos Daerden
Metalurh Zaporizhzhia   Anatoly Chantsev
Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka   Valeriy Horodov   Serhiy Shevchenko
  Viktor Ishchenko
Shakhtar Donetsk   Mircea Lucescu
Tavriya Simferopol   Mykhailo Fomenko
Vorskla Poltava   Mykola Pavlov   Anatoliy Momot
Zakarpattia Uzhhorod   Volodymyr Vasiutyk   Petro Kushlyk
  Volodymyr Sharan
Zorya Luhansk   Anatoliy Volobuev   Oleksandr Kosevych

Managerial changes

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Team Outgoing head coach Manner of departure Date of vacancy Table Incoming head coach Date of appointment Table
Chornomorets   Vitaliy Shevchenko 27 June 2007[1] Pre-season

League table

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 Shakhtar Donetsk (C) 30 24 2 4 75 24 51 74 Qualification to Champions League third qualifying round
2 Dynamo Kyiv 30 22 5 3 65 26 39 71 Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round
3 Metalist Kharkiv[b] 30 19 6 5 51 27 24 63 Qualification to UEFA Cup first round
4 Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 30 18 5 7 40 27 13 59 Qualification to UEFA Cup second qualifying round
5 Tavriya Simferopol 30 13 8 9 38 40 −2 47 Qualification to Intertoto Cup second round
6 Arsenal Kyiv 30 11 9 10 42 36 6 42
7 Chornomorets Odesa 30 11 5 14 27 33 −6 38
8 Vorskla Poltava 30 9 9 12 28 30 −2 36
9 Metalurh Zaporizhzhia 30 9 9 12 24 32 −8 36
10 Karpaty Lviv 30 9 6 15 29 41 −12 33
11 Zorya Luhansk 30 9 4 17 24 43 −19 31
12 Metalurh Donetsk 30 6 13 11 34 39 −5 31
13 Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih 30 7 9 14 29 39 −10 30
14 FC Kharkiv 30 6 9 15 20 32 −12 27
15 Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka (R) 30 6 8 16 18 38 −20 26 Relegation to the Ukrainian First League
16 Zakarpattia Uzhhorod (R) 30 3 9 18 17 54 −37 18
Source: uafootball.net.ua
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:
  1. ^ The court ruling however came later in 2013. No further sanctions were awarded to the club.
  2. ^ Metalist Kharkiv was stripped of their bronze award for this season by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne in August 2013 for fixing of the match Karpaty Lviv – Metalist (of 19 April 2008).[2][3][4]

Results

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Home \ Away ARK CHO DNI DYN KAR KHA KRY MET MDO MZA NAF SHA TAV VOR ZAK ZOR
Arsenal Kyiv 1–2 2–1 0–1 2–0 0–0 0–0 1–1 1–3 2–1 3–0 2–4 0–1 3–2 7–0 1–1
Chornomorets Odesa 0–1 1–2 0–0 4–0 0–1 1–1 0–1 1–0 1–1 0–1 1–2 2–0 1–0 3–1 1–0
Dnipro 1–3 1–0 0–4 0–0 1–0 2–0 3–0 4–1 1–0 2–0 1–3 2–1 1–0 0–0 1–0
Dynamo Kyiv 2–2 5–2 1–3 7–3 2–0 3–0 0–1 3–3 2–1 0–1 2–1 3–0 2–1 1–0 3–0
Karpaty Lviv 0–0 2–0 0–1 1–2 1–0 3–0 0–2 0–0 1–3 1–1 2–4 4–0 1–2 2–0 3–0
FC Kharkiv 2–0 1–1 1–2 0–1 1–0 0–0 0–2 1–1 0–1 1–0 0–3 1–1 0–3 0–2 0–1
Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih 0–0 3–0 1–2 0–1 0–1 1–1 0–3 1–1 0–1 0–1 1–0 1–1 3–0 1–1 1–2
Metalist Kharkiv 2–4 2–0 1–0 2–2 4–0 2–0 3–2 1–1 2–1 2–0 1–3 3–0 3–0 1–0 2–1
Metalurh Donetsk 1–2 0–0 0–3 1–2 1–0 0–0 0–1 1–1 3–0 2–1 0–1 1–2 0–0 5–0 1–0
Metalurh Zaporizhzhia 0–1 0–2 0–0 0–1 1–0 0–0 1–1 0–2 1–0 1–0 1–3 0–0 1–1 0–0 3–0
Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka 1–0 0–1 1–1 0–3 0–0 1–4 1–2 0–2 2–2 0–1 0–3 0–1 2–0 3–0 0–0
Shakhtar Donetsk 4–1 0–1 4–1 1–1 3–0 2–1 1–0 4–1 4–1 4–0 1–1 2–0 2–1 5–0 3–0
Tavriya Simferopol 1–1 3–0 0–1 1–4 2–1 1–0 4–3 0–0 3–3 2–2 1–0 3–2 1–0 4–1 2–0
Vorskla Poltava 2–1 2–0 2–1 0–1 0–0 1–1 2–1 1–1 2–0 2–1 1–1 0–1 0–0 2–0 1–1
Zakarpattia Uzhhorod 0–0 2–0 1–1 1–1 1–2 0–2 2–3 0–1 1–1 1–1 0–0 0–1 1–0 0–0 0–2
Zorya Luhansk 3–1 0–2 0–1 1–2 0–1 2–1 1–2 3–2 1–1 0–1 1–0 1–4 2–3 :- 1–0
Source: uafootball.net.ua
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

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Marko Dević
Scorer Goals Team
  Marko Dević
19
Metalist Kharkiv
  Oleksandr Hladky
17
Shakhtar Donetsk
  Oleksandr Kosyrin
17
Metalurh Donetsk
  Yevhen Seleznyov
17
Arsenal Kyiv
  Ismaël Bangoura
15
Dynamo Kyiv
  Volodymyr Homenyuk
14
Tavriya Simferopol
  Brandão
12
Shakhtar Donetsk
  Fernandinho
11
Shakhtar Donetsk
  Maksim Shatskikh
10
Dynamo Kyiv
  Serhiy Nazarenko
9
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk

Stadia

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The following stadiums were used as home grounds during the season:

Rank Stadium Capacity[5] Club Notes
1 NSC Olimpiysky 83,450 Arsenal Kyiv Played last 6 games
2 Chornomorets Stadium 34,362 Chornomorets Odesa Annual venue for the Ukrainian Super Cup
3 Shakhtar Stadium 31,718 Metalurh Donetsk
4 Metalurh Stadium 29,783 Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih
5 Ukraina Stadium 28,051 Karpaty Lviv Renovations are taking place
6 RSK Olimpiyskiy 25,831 Shakhtar Donetsk
7 Vorskla Stadium 25,000 Vorskla Poltava FC Kharkiv played against Dynamo and Zorya
8 Stadium Meteor 24,381 Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
9 Metalist Stadium 22,757 Metalist Kharkiv
FC Kharkiv
Temporarily in emergency conditions
10 Avanhard Stadium 22,320 Zorya Luhansk
11 Lokomotiv Stadium 19,978 Tavriya Simferopol
12 Lobanovsky Dynamo Stadium 16,873 Dynamo Kyiv
Arsenal Kyiv
FC Arsenal Kyiv its first 9 games here
13 Avanhard Stadium 12,000 Zakarpattia Uzhhorod
14 Slavutych-Arena 11,983 Metalurh Zaporizhzhia
15 Dynamo Stadium 6,000 Metalist Kharkiv
FC Kharkiv
Metalist played three games here including one against Kharkiv, Kharkiv played here its home game against Vorskla
16 Naftovyk Stadium 5,256 Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Виталий Шевченко - главный тренер". FC Choronomorets (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  2. ^ Lausanne announced a verdict on the game Karpaty - Metalist (Лозанна озвучила вердикт по матчу "Карпаты" - "Металлист"). ua-football.com. 2 August 2013.
  3. ^ Football - Match Fixing Archived 15 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Court of Arbitration of Sport. Lausanne 2 August 2013.
  4. ^ Lausanne court upholds UEFA decision to disqualify FC Metalist from European competitions, says club’s vice president, Interfax-Ukraine (28 August 2013)
    UEFA happy with CAS decision on Metalist complaint, Interfax-Ukraine (28 August 2013)
  5. ^ "Attendance figures for the 17th season of Ukrainian Premier League". UA Football. Archived from the original on 22 August 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
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