The 2009-10 League Cup is the first season of Ukraine's football knockout competition designated for the members of the Ukrainian Second League and amateur clubs. The main purpose of this tournament was to supplement the 2009-2010 playing calendar of the Second League clubs whose number declined remarkably triggering some talks of reforming the Ukrainian Second League. Currently amateur clubs are invited at the discretion of their respective regional football associations.
Historical scope
The tournament was organized after few mini-tournaments of the PFL Cup took place in the span of less than couple of years. The PFL Cup competitions involved united teams of different leagues such as two from the second and one from the first and the Student's, players of which earned few gold medals of several international competitions (see Universiada). At first the League Cup was supposed to be an extension of those PFL tournaments later was reorganized as a supplementary competition to the Second League championship of 2009-2010. A chronic problem follows the Second League especially in recent years as several clubs of the league have a difficult time just to finish their season, not even worrying about of winning anything. That, of course, reflects negatively on the performance not only a club, but the whole league. A new working commission was organized in 2010 to offer an alternative for the Second League clubs structure of competitions which supposed to be presented for the 2010-2011 season. Please, note that the League Cup is not such an authentic tournament as a similar competition involving exclusively the Second League clubs have taken place in 1999-2001 known as the Cup of the Second League.
Organization
Start
The Cup begins with a group tournament where teams from Druha Liha and amateur level competitors participate. At this stage all 24 teams are divided into eight groups. The best two teams out of each group advance to the next round of the competition (Second Round) while all the last placed participants are eliminated for the season. In the Second Round teams are paired with each other with the winners of each group play at home. The winner of each pair advances to the next round (Quarter-finals). The Quarter-finals are to take place in the same manner. The Semi-finals will consist of two home-away matches, while the Final will take place at a neutral field.
The winners of this competition will be awarded the Cup and the prize money (150,000 Hryvnia) from Umbro, the general sponsor of the event.
Initially FC Luzhany (town of Luzhany, Chernivtsi Oblast) was set to participate in competition eventually was replaced with FC Volyn-Tsement Zdolbuniv.[1] On March 1, 2010 it was decided to suspend the competition due to lack of funds. Clubs FC Dnister Ovidiopol, PFC Oleksandria, and FC Arsenal Bila Tserkva are represented in the competition with their junior teams (doubles). Several clubs officially quit the competition (FC Khodak Cherkasy, FC Dnister Ovidiopol, PFC Olexandria), while FC Dnipro-75 Dnipropetrovsk was excluded from the Professional Football League due to unpaid debts.[2] The Rivne Oblast clubs (Veres and Volyn) and Teplovyk Yuzhnoukrainsk informed the PFL during the winter break of their unwillingness to continue in the competition.
After winter break
On March 16 it was decided to resume competition. The following clubs were given a time to pay out their debts to referees until March 20: Teplovyk, Olexandria, Arsenal, Volyn-Tsement, Veres, Ros, Olympik, Tytan, and Dnipro-75. Umbro became the official partner of the competition and its title sponsor.
When the Second round pairs were formed few teams that placed last advanced due to numerous withdrawal of other clubs. Three teams (Lviv-2, Ros, and Myr) got a bye round straight to the Quarter-finals.
Competition schedule
First round (Group Stage)
Key to colours in group tables
Group winners and runners-up advance to the Second Round
Arsenal Bila Tserkva was fielding its junior team (double) as its main team does not play in the Second League any longer.
The game Ros - Zenit originally finished 0:1 (Zenit's victory), however due to the fact that Zenit fielded unregistered player Zaza Tsotskhalashvili the Bila Tserkva's club was awarded a technical victory (3:0) by the decision of the Disciplinary Committee of PFL on October 22, 2009.[3]
Game Ros - Arsenal-d 2:2 took place at the training ground of FC Arsenal Bila Tserkva in the town of Shkarivka.[4] Shkarivka is a suburb of Bila Tserkva city, which is located six miles west of it.
Dnipro-75 were excluded from all competition organized by the PFL for their unpaid debts. The place of Dnipro-75 was granted to and excepted by Olympik.
In the game Hirnyk-Sport - Ros Dorohan (Ros) was not able to score a penalty on 61st minute. In the same game Skliarenko (Hirnyk-Sport) was sent off on the 43rd minute for his second caution.
Semifinals
This stage was scheduled to take place in two leg (home-away) match-ups. The first leg is scheduled on April 28, 2010 and the second leg - May 5, 2010.[5]
In the game Myr - Nyva Dotsenko was not able to convert his penalty kick opportunity on the 15th minute, due to an excellent play on the part of the Nyva's goalie Skybenko.
Final
Initially set for May 29, the final will take place on a neutral ground on June 6, 2010. Surprisingly PFL picked the Oleksandia's Nika Stadium which is 71 km (~46 mi) or about an hour drive from the city of Komsomolsk and 387 km (~255 mi) from Vinnytsia. As a justification the main reason can be drawn from the fact that it lies in the heartland of Ukraine, and, thus, such a game can draw more audience.
Petruk scored three goals in the tournament, with one of his scored in the game Ros - Zenit which was later recognized void. That goal is included on the record as the result cancellation is an administrative formality.
Polusmak (Zenit) managed to score two own goals in four games (one was recognized void).
Please, note that Bredis (Bastion Illichivsk) is the veteran of Odessa football. He used to compete for the predecessor of Bastion, FC Portovyk Illichivsk in the Second League as well as various national cup competitions.
^Note that Illichivets-2 vs. Hirnyk-Sport game was served by a female referee.
^Kateryna Monzul is from the town of Babayi in Kharkiv Raion.
^According to the PFC Nyva Vinnytsia fan-site the attendance for the match was 1,000 which is 1.6 times greater than the population of Hornostaivka (its population is 603 people[1])
^[The first who informed about the result was the official website of PFC Olexandria.
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