1991 Soviet Top League

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Torpedo Moscow
(for Russia)
Top goalscorer(18) Igor Kolyvanov (Dynamo Moscow)
Biggest home winSpartak – Dynamo M. 7–1 (26th)
Biggest away winDynamo M. – Torpedo 1–4 (18th)
Metalurh – Chornomorets 1–4 (16th)
Highest scoringSpartak – Dynamo M. 7–1 (26th)
Dynamo M. – Dnipro 6–2 (28th)
← 1990
→

The 1991

Dynamo Kyiv were the defending 13-times champions and came fifth this season. A total of sixteen teams participated in the league, twelve of them have contested in the 1990 season while the remaining four were promoted from the Soviet First League due to withdrawals. The representatives of the Baltic states as well as Georgia
chose not to take part in the competition.

The season began on 10 March and lasted until 2 November 1991. The season was won by PFC CSKA Moscow that returned to the top league prior to the last season while winning the Soviet Cup competition as well. The season's culmination occurred in its final rounds, when the army team managed to overtake Spartak, while with four rounds left in the season, Spartak was leading the table a point ahead of CSKA and a recent thrashing of Dynamo Moscow 7 to 1.

Due to participants withdrawal in the preceding season four new teams entered the league. Upon the conclusion of the season no clubs were relegated and 12 out of its 16 participants formed a base for either the Russian or the Ukrainian competitions, while other four participants joined their own newly formed national leagues. If the Soviet Union had remained intact,

FC Tiligul Tiraspol
would have been promoted to the Top League for 1992.

The top six clubs of the league later entered European competitions for their respective nations. The Ukrainian clubs chose to qualify through a

separate national competition
.

Participating teams

The league was expanded to 16 after the last season, during which number of clubs left the Soviet competitions (from

Lokomotiv Moscow returned to the Soviet Top League
after only a one-season absence.

Beside the fourth placed Lokomotiv three more teams were promoted and included the champion (

FC Pakhtakor Tashkent and FC Metalurh Zaporizhzhia
).

Locations

Pakhtakor
class=notpageimage|
Location of teams in the 1991 Soviet Top League.

Stadiums

Stadium Team Opened Capacity Notes
Republican Stadium, Kyiv
 Dynamo Kyiv 1923 100,062
Olympic Stadium Luzhniki, Moscow Spartak Moscow 1956 81,000
CSKA
Central Stadium Dynamo, Moscow
 Dynamo Moscow 1928 71,430
Central Stadium Hrazdan, Yerevan Ararat 1970 70,000
BSS Central Stadium, Odesa Chornomorets 1935 55,000
Central Stadium Pakhtakor, Tashkent
Pakhtakor
 1956 55,000
OSC Metalist, Kharkiv
 Metalist 1926 42,000
Dinamo Stadium, Minsk Dinamo Minsk 1934 40,000
Dnipropetrovsk
 Dnipro 1966 40,000
Republican Stadium Spartak, Vladikavkaz Spartak Vladikavkaz 1962 32,464
Central Stadium Shakhtar, Donetsk Shakhtar 1936 31,718
Central Stadium Lokomotiv, Moscow Lokomotiv 1966 30,000
SC Olimpiyskiy, Moscow Dynamo Moscow 1980 22,000 used in round 2nd
Frunze Republican Stadium, Dushanbe
Pamir
 1946 21,400
Torpedo Stadium, Moscow
 Torpedo 1959 16,000
CSKA used in round 29th
Abovyan City Stadium, Abovyan Ararat 1966 5,500 used in rounds 19th, 22nd, 23rd
LFK CSKA, Moscow
 CSKA 1979 4,000 used in rounds 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th
Spartak Moscow used in round 3rd
Dynamo Moscow used in rounds 1st, 5th, 6th
Lokomotiv used in round 4th
Central Stadium Metalurh, Zaporizhzhia Metalurh 1938 ?

Managers

Club Head coach
PFC CSKA Moscow Pavel Sadyrin
FC Spartak Moscow Oleg Romantsev
FC Torpedo Moscow
Valentin Ivanov (until September)
Yevgeni Skomorokhov
(from September)
FC Chornomorets Odesa Viktor Prokopenko
FC Dynamo Kyiv Anatoliy Puzach
FC Dynamo Moscow Semen Altman (until March)
Valery Gazzaev (from April)
FC Dinamo Minsk Eduard Malofeyev (until April)
Mikhail Vergeyenko (from April)
FC Ararat Yerevan Armen Sarkisyan
FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
 Yevhen Kucherevskyi
FC Pamir Dushanbe
 Sharif Nazarov
FC Spartak Vladikavkaz Valery Gazzaev (until March)
Nikolai Khudiyev (April to July)
Ruslan Khadartsev (from July)
FC Shakhtar Donetsk Valeriy Yaremchenko
FC Metalurh Zaporizhzhia Ihor Nadein
FC Pakhtakor Tashkent
Alexander Tarkhanov
(from November)
FC Metalist Kharkiv Leonid Tkachenko
FC Lokomotiv Moscow Valeri Filatov

Final standings

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic CSKA Moscow (C) 30 17 9 4 57 32 +25 43 Qualification for Champions League first round
2 Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Spartak Moscow 30 17 7 6 57 30 +27 41 Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup first round
3 Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Torpedo Moscow 30 13 10 7 36 20 +16 36 Qualification for UEFA Cup first round
4 Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Chornomorets 30 10 16 4 39 24 +15 36 Withdrew from the league
5 Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Dynamo Kyiv 30 13 9 8 43 34 +9 35
6 Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Dynamo Moscow 30 12 7 11 43 42 +1 31 Qualification for UEFA Cup first round
7
Ararat
 30 11 7 12 29 36 −7 29 Withdrew from the league
8 Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic Dinamo Minsk 30 9 11 10 29 31 −2 29
9
Dnipro
 30 9 10 11 31 36 −5 28 Withdrew from the league
10
Pamir Dushanbe
 30 7 13 10 28 32 −4 27
11
Spartak Vladikavkaz
 30 9 8 13 33 41 −8 26
12 Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Shakhtar Donetsk 30 6 14 10 33 41 −8 26 Withdrew from the league
13 Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Metalurh Zaporizhzhia 30 9 7 14 27 38 −11 25[a]
14
Pakhtakor Tashkent
 30 9 7 14 37 45 −8 25[a]
15 Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Metalist Kharkiv[b] 30 8 9 13 32 43 −11 25 Withdrew from the league
16 Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Lokomotiv Moscow 30 5 8 17 18 47 −29 18 Avoided relegation
Source: footbook.ru footballfacts.ru
Rules for classification: 1) Total points (If two or more teams have equal points for the first place, the winner is determined by additional single round-robin play-off on condition and place determined by the Federation); 2) Total wins; 3) Head-to-head results (3.1. points 3.2. goal difference 3.3. goal scored); 4) Total goal difference; 5) Total games scored; 6) Draw lots[1]
(C) Champions
Notes:
  1. ^ a b Metallurg received more head-to-head points against Pakhtakor.
  2. ^ Metallist placed last in total wins tie-breaker to Metallurg and Pakhtakor.
  • Immediately following this season, initially only Ukrainian-based teams officially informed the Football Federation of the Soviet Union about their withdrawal and participation in own national competitions. Just before organization of the next season, the Football Federation of the Soviet Union discovered that Armenian Ararat has no intentions to continue its participation either.

Results

Home \ Away ARA CHO CSK
DNE
 DYK DMN DMO LOK MKH MZA
PAK
PAM
 SHA SPA
SPV
 TOR
Ararat Yerevan 0–0 0–1 1–0 1–1 1–0 1–1 1–0 2–1 2–0 2–1 2–1 2–1 2–1 2–0 0–0
Chornomorets Odesa 5–0 1–1 0–0 0–1 1–1 3–0 1–0 0–0 3–0 2–0 1–0 1–1 1–1 1–3 2–1
CSKA Moscow 2–1 4–3 1–0 0–0 3–1 1–0 5–1 4–0 4–0 3–1 2–1 3–4 0–1 2–1 3–1
Dnipro
 1–0 1–1 2–2 1–1 1–1 1–0 2–0 3–0 1–0 1–3 1–2 3–1 0–2 1–1 0–0
Dynamo Kyiv 4–3 0–1 2–2 2–0 3–1 2–1 2–0 1–1 1–0 3–3 2–0 0–0 2–3 2–1 1–3
Dinamo Minsk 0–0 0–0 0–1 4–1 2–2 1–0 1–0 0–0 2–0 2–1 2–2 3–0 1–0 0–1 0–0
Dynamo Moscow 1–0 1–1 1–2 6–2 1–0 1–1 6–1 2–1 1–1 3–1 0–0 1–1 1–1 3–1 1–4
Lokomotiv Moscow 0–0 0–0 1–3 0–2 1–2 2–0 1–0 0–0 2–0 2–1 2–0 0–0 0–2 1–2 0–2
Metalist Kharkiv 0–1 3–1 3–2 1–1 0–2 0–0 0–1 3–1 3–1 3–1 0–0 2–2 1–3 2–0 0–2
Metalurh Zaporizhzhia 1–1 1–4 0–0 3–2 2–1 2–1 2–0 3–0 0–1 3–0 2–0 0–0 2–1 2–0 0–0
Pakhtakor Tashkent
 3–1 0–0 0–0 1–2 2–0 1–1 1–2 1–0 4–2 0–0 2–2 4–1 1–0 2–0 1–1
Pamir Dushanbe
 2–1 1–1 2–2 0–0 2–1 2–1 2–1 0–0 2–2 3–0 0–1 0–0 2–2 2–0 0–0
Shakhtar Donetsk 2–0 2–2 1–1 0–1 1–2 2–0 2–3 0–0 2–3 1–0 2–1 0–0 1–1 2–0 2–2
Spartak Moscow 3–2 1–1 2–0 1–0 0–2 4–0 7–1 1–1 2–0 2–1 4–0 1–0 3–1 2–1 1–2
Spartak Vladikavkaz
 2–0 1–2 1–1 1–1 1–1 0–2 1–2 2–2 1–0 2–1 2–0 2–0 1–1 3–3 1–0
Torpedo Moscow 2–0 0–0 1–2 1–0 1–0 0–1 0–2 5–0 2–0 0–0 1–0 1–0 2–0 1–2 1–1
Source: [citation needed]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Number of teams by union republic

Rank
Union republic
 Number of teams Club(s)
1  RSFSR 6
Spartak Vladikavkaz, Torpedo Moscow
 Ukrainian SSR Chornomorets Odesa, Dynamo Kyiv, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Metalist Kharkiv, Metalurh Zaporizhzhia, Shakhtar Donetsk
3  Armenian SSR 1 Ararat Yerevan
 Belarusian SSR Dinamo Minsk
 Tajik SSR
Pamir Dushanbe
 Uzbek SSR
Pakhtakor Tashkent

Top scorers

18 goals
14 goals
13 goals
12 goals
  • Dmitri Kuznetsov
    (CSKA Moscow)
10 goals
9 goals

Clean sheets

[1]

14 matches
11 matches
  • Yuri Kurbyko
    (Dinamo Minsk)
10 matches
9 matches
8 matches

Awards

Prize Founder Laureate
Footballer of the Year Football weekly Igor Kolyvanov
Goalkeeper of the Year Ogoniok magazine Valeri Sarychev
Top Scorer newspaper Labor Igor Kolyvanov
Knight of Attack Soviet Warrior magazine Igor Kolyvanov
Top Rookie Sport Games magazine Valeriy Velichko
With Two Squads Football Federation Spartak Moscow
Grigory Fedotov Memorial CSKA Moscow Spartak Moscow
Fair Play Person and Law magazine
Chornomorets Odesa
Large Score Football weekly
Chornomorets Odesa
Will to Win newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya
Pamir Dushanbe
Best Difference of Aggregates Start magazine Spartak Moscow
Aggressive Visitor newspaper Komsomol's Banner CSKA Moscow
Danger of the Best Sport Moscow weekly
Chornomorets Odesa
Progress Cup newspaper Labor Newspaper Chornomrets Odesa
First Height newspaper Socialist Industry CSKA Moscow

Medal squads

(league appearances and goals listed in brackets)

1. PFC CSKA Moscow[2]

Goalkeepers:

Mikhail Yeremin (15 / -14), Dmitri Kharine (11 / -8), Aleksandr Guteyev
(6 / -10).
Defenders:
Dmitri Bystrov (21), Oleg Malyukov (19), Vasili Ivanov (15), Valeri Minko (8), Viktor Yanushevsky (8), Mikhail Sinyov
(1).
Midfielders:
Mikhail Kolesnikov (28 / 2), Vladimir Tatarchuk (24 / 5), Aleksandr Grishin (5), Dmitri Karsakov (1), Lev Matveyev
(1).
Forwards:
Ilshat Faizulin
(3).

Manager: Pavel Sadyrin.

Transferred in during the season:

Sergey Dmitriev (from Spain Xerez CD), Viktor Yanushevsky (from Germany Tennis Borussia
).

Transferred out during the season:

Stahl Linz
).

2. FC Spartak Moscow

Goalkeepers: Stanislav Cherchesov (30 / -30).
Defenders: Dmitri Popov (30 / 5), Vasili Kulkov (22 / 1), Andrei Mokh (20 / 1), Dmitri Khlestov (14), Boris Pozdnyakov (10), Yevgeni Bushmanov (8 / 1), Dmitri Ananko (7), Dmitri Gradilenko (6), Sergei Bazulev (4), Sergei Chudin (1).
Midfielders:

Andrei Ivanov (23), Igor Shalimov (22 / 5), Fyodor Cherenkov (22 / 3), Oleg Ivanov (14), Valeri Popovitch (6), Igor Kozlov (2), Oleg Imrekov (1), Aleksandr Karatayev (1), Serhiy Perepadenko
(1).
Forwards: Dmitri Radchenko (29 / 13), Valeri Shmarov (19 / 6).

One own goal scored by Viktor Vasilyev (FC Spartak Vladikavkaz).

Manager: Oleg Romantsev.

Transferred in during the season:

Red Star
).

Transferred out during the season:

FC Stahl Linz), Sergei Bazulev (to Finland OLS), Andrei Mokh (to Spain Espanyol), Hennadiy Perepadenko (to Israel Hapoel Tzafririm
).

3. FC Torpedo Moscow

Goalkeepers: Valeri Sarychev (17 / -12), Aleksandr Podshivalov (14 / -8).
Defenders:

Mikhail Solovyov (17), Maksim Cheltsov
(5).
Midfielders:
Sergei Zhukov (9), Oleg Shirinbekov (8 / 1), Sergey Borisov (7), Vladimir Yeryomin (3), Aleksei Arefyev
(1).
Forwards:
Andrei Talalayev (5), Aleksandr Gitselov
(3).

Manager:

Valentin Ivanov (until September), Yevgeni Skomorokhov
(from September).

Transferred in during the season:

Chornomorets Odesa
).

Transferred out during the season:

Lokomotiv Moscow
).

See also

References

  1. ^ "ФУТБОЛ - 1991. О ПРОВЕДЕНИЕ СОРЕВНОВАНИЙ. (Football – 1991. On conducting the competitions". Центральный стадион им. В.И.Ленина (Tsentralny Stadion imeni V.I.Lenina). Archived from the original on 13 March 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  2. ^ ЦСКА-1991. Последнее золото СССР. Как это было. www.championat.com. 27 October 2016

External links