Ukrainian football clubs in European competitions

Did You Know?

• The Soviet teams did not enter the European Cup competitions until 1966.
• The Soviet teams did not play in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.
• In 1992 the European Cup's name changed to UEFA Champions League.

History

Dynamo Kyiv entered continental competition in 1965–66 as holders of the 1964 Soviet Cup and have missed only five seasons since. Until 1993, Ukrainian clubs competed under the Soviet Union; after its dissolution, all their coefficient points were transferred to the Russian federation, forcing Ukrainian clubs to start from scratch. As part of the Soviet Union, Dynamo Kyiv participated in 24 competitions, playing over a hundred games and winning three trophies. Oleg Blokhin, a Dynamo star, became widely recognized for Soviet football. Besides Dynamo, six other Ukrainian clubs represented the Soviet Union, including Shakhtar Donetsk (five European seasons) and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (six seasons). Since independence, many new clubs have represented Ukraine, some of which had played in Soviet competition while others had not. The list of Ukrainian participants includes Dynamo Kyiv (1965), Karpaty Lviv (1970), Zorya Luhansk (1973), Chornomorets Odesa (1975), Shakhtar Donetsk (1977), FC Dnipro (1984), Metalist Kharkiv (1988), Tavriya Simferopol (1992), Nyva Vinnytsia (1996), Vorskla Poltava (1997), CSKA Kyiv (1998), Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih (1999), Metalurh Donetsk (2002), Metalurh Zaporizhya (2002), Illichivets Mariupol (2004), FC Oleksandriya (2016), Olimpik Donetsk (2017), Desna Chernihiv (2020), Kolos Kovalivka (2020), SC Dnipro-1 (2022), Polissya Zhytomyr (2024), and LNZ Cherkasy (2026). Ukraine was the only Soviet republic besides Russia to have representation in Europe almost every season from the start of Soviet participation.