League One: Next Season Format and Latest Staffing News

02.07.2018 12:55

After the defeat in the sparring against Dynamo Kiev Kolos players took a stand over another elite team - Marseille Donetsk. Photo by www.koloskovalivka.com

The June conference of the PFL has indicated that the format of the first league championship is largely unchanged, but there are some nuances caused by the possible expansion of the elite division to 16 teams in the 2019/2020 season and the final decision of several clubs in their new performance championship.

The start of the 2018/2019 season is scheduled for July 21, and the end - at the end of May, as the playoffs are scheduled for the beginning of June.

Note that there are two main options for the format of the next season. According to the first, the winner enters the elite directly, and the teams that take second and third place meet in the transitional fights with the vis-a-vis, finishing in 11th and 10th positions in the strongest class. As for the second option, in the case of expanding the Premier League to 16 teams, the first quartet will immediately secure passes to the elite, and the team that finishes fifth will face playoff matches with the outsider PL. The last word is for the members of the FFU Executive Committee, who must approve the format and composition of participants in future competitions.

- I think that the best option is 16 teams in the elite and 18 in the first division, - says the head coach of Ivano-Frankivsk "Prykarpattia" Volodymyr Kovalyuk. - Of course, in order to perform in the strongest class, it is necessary not only to have a modern sports base, but also to take care of combat-ready youth and junior teams. But if we want Ukrainian football to progress, we can't do without it…

Meanwhile, as we noted in our previous review, "Stal" from Kamyansky changed not only the location (to Bucha in Kyiv region), but also the name (to "Phoenix"). It all comes down to the fact that the veteran of the first league, "Helios", will change its name to FC "Cobra", because, according to reliable information, the club has a new owner.

So far, the main news provider is Volyn, where not only has the coaching staff changed completely, but several recruits have already been signed: Denis Kozhanov from Veres, Dmytro Kozban from Polish Motor, Yevhen Neplyakh from Mariupol and Ivan Tsyup from "Stars". Lutsk is seriously set to return to the elite in the near future and therefore took care of strong financial backs. Therefore, the new head coach, Andriy Tlumak, should have no problems with inviting qualified players.

Dnipro-1 will also try not to sit in the first league. Team leader Dmytro Mykhaylenko managed not only to keep all the main performers (in particular, the contract with captain Serhiy Kravchenko was extended), but also to strengthen the team with experienced striker Stanislav Kulish from Veres and general Serhiy Panasenko from Girnyk-Sport.

Kolos also remains true to itself, which during the preparatory period does not avoid sparring with more famous rivals. First, Ruslan Kostyshyn's wards lost to Dynamo Kyiv - 1: 2, and then with the same score they won over Donetsk "Olympic". Potential newcomers from the Kovalivka team were also spotted in the training camp - Anton Kicha from Helios, Denis Kostyshyn from Dnipro (by the way, the son of the Kolos manager), Artem Terekhov from Obolon-Brovar and Energia striker Roman Bochak. However, the preparation of the teams participating in the first league tournament is still in full swing, and the mentors have plenty of time for additional training and experiments…