About Persha Liga
Persha Liga History, Format, Organization, Media Coverage
The Persha Liha (Ukrainian First League) is the second level of professional football in Ukraine. Founded in 1991, it is organized by the Football Federation of Ukraine and officially began play in March 1992.
Like many other leagues around the world, the Persha Liha operates on a relegation-promotion system. Each season, a set number of top performing teams are promoted from the Persha Liha to the Ukrainian Premier League, while a set number of worst performing teams are demoted to the Druha Liha (Ukrainian Second League). The league also features a double round-robin format in which each team plays one another twice (both home and away). Teams competing in the Persha Liha have the opportunity to compete in the Ukrainian Cup every season.
Several clubs, including Dynamo-2 Kyiv (the second-tier squad of Dynamo Kiev), Hoverla-Zakarpattia Uzhhorod, and FC Oleksandriya have won the league title multiple times since the competition's inception in 1991.
Media coverage for the Persha Liha in Ukraine has varied over the past decades. Initially, the TV broadcast rights to the Persha Liha were owned by UT-2, the country’s public broadcasting channel. However, in the latter part of the 2000s, a series of paid-TV providers secured TV broadcast rights, including Football 1/2 and Setanta Sports.
In the early part of the 2020s, Setanta Sports renewed their TV broadcast and live-streaming rights in a multi-year deal. The broadcaster also shares media rights with public provider Suspilne Sport, which broadcasts specific Persha Liha matches on its free-to-air TV channels.
