Persha Liga (Ukraine) 2026/27

Persha Liga operates as the second tier of professional football in Ukraine. It sits directly below the Ukrainian Premier League and above the Druha Liga. The competition was established in 1992 by the Football Federation of Ukraine, with its first season concluding in July of that year. In 1996, the Professional Football League of Ukraine assumed responsibility for its organization.

The structure of the league changes periodically. For the current 2025–2026 season, the competition employs a single-table format featuring sixteen teams. This differs from the previous 2024–2025 campaign, which used a two-stage system with eighteen teams split into geographical groups. The primary objective for clubs is promotion. The top two teams in the final standings earn immediate promotion to the Premier League. The team finishing third enters a two-legged playoff against the thirteenth-placed Premier League side to secure the final promotion spot.

Relegation follows a similar hybrid model. The bottom two teams drop directly to the Druha Liga. Teams placed thirteenth and fourteenth play relegation playoffs against sides from the Second League to avoid demotion. Historically, three clubs have won the title three times each: Zirka Kropyvnytskyi, Hoverla Uzhhorod, and Dynamo Kyiv-2. Dynamo-2's victories are officially recognized, although reserve teams cannot be promoted if their parent club already occupies a top-flight position. FC Inhulets Petrove won the most recent edition in 2023–2024.

The league distinguishes itself from the Druha Liga by hosting independent professional clubs rather than third-tier reserve sides. While the Druha Liga traditionally features reserve teams such as Shakhtar-3, the Persha Liga has maintained competitive integrity among independent entities. However, rules are evolving. Reserve teams including Kolos-2 and Polissya-2 are scheduled to join the Persha Liga in the 2026–2027 season, marking a significant structural shift in the landscape of Ukrainian football.