1991 Soviet Top League
| Season | 1991 |
|---|---|
| Champions | CSKA Moscow |
| Champions League | CSKA Moscow (for Russia) |
| Cup Winners' Cup | Spartak Moscow (for Russia) |
| UEFA Cup | Dynamo Moscow Torpedo Moscow (for Russia) |
| Top goalscorer | (18) Igor Kolyvanov (Dynamo Moscow) |
| Biggest home win | Spartak – Dynamo M. 7–1 (26th) |
| Biggest away win | Dynamo M. – Torpedo 1–4 (18th) Metalurh – Chornomorets 1–4 (16th) |
| Highest scoring | Spartak – Dynamo M. 7–1 (26th) Dynamo M. – Dnipro 6–2 (28th) |
← 1990 | |
The 1991 Soviet Top League season was the 54th since its establishment and the last one. Dynamo Kyiv were the defending 13-times champions. 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. 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, Metallist Kharkov and Lokomotiv Moscow would have been relegated to the Soviet First League for the next season, while FC Rotor Volgograd and FC Tiligul Tiraspol would have been promoted to the Top League for 1992.
Top six clubs of the league later entered European competitions for their respective nations. The Ukrainian clubs qualified 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 competions (from Georgia and Baltic states). The last-placed FC Rotor Volgograd of the 1990 Soviet Top League lost promotion/relegation playoff to Lokomotiv Moscow and was relegated to the 1991 Soviet First League. Rotor Volograd returned to the Soviet First League after two seasons absence, while at the same time 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 Spartak Vladikavkaz) and the runners-up of the 1990 Soviet First League (FC Pakhtakor Tashkent and FC Metallurg Zaporozhye).
Final standings
Note: Names of clubs from outside of the Russian SFSR are given in the table based on the Russian orthography.
| No | Club | GP | W | D | L | GF–GA | Pts | Rpblc | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CSKA Moscow | 30 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 57–32 | 43 |  Russian SFSR
|
Champions League |
| 2 | Spartak Moscow | 30 | 17 | 7 | 6 | 57–30 | 41 | Russian SFSR
|
Cup Winners' Cup |
| 3 | Torpedo Moscow | 30 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 36–20 | 36 | Russian SFSR
|
UEFA Cup |
| 4 | Chernomorets | 30 | 10 | 16 | 4 | 39–24 | 36 |  Ukrainian SSR
|
withdrew |
| 5 | Dinamo Kiev | 30 | 13 | 9 | 8 | 43–34 | 35 | Ukrainian SSR
|
withdrew |
| 6 | Dinamo Moscow | 30 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 43–42 | 31 | Russian SFSR
|
UEFA Cup |
| 7 | Ararat | 30 | 11 | 7 | 12 | 29–36 | 29 |  Armenian SSR
|
withdrew |
| 8 | Dinamo Minsk | 30 | 9 | 11 | 10 | 29–31 | 29 |  Byelorussian SSR
|
withdrew |
| 9 | Dnepr | 30 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 31–36 | 28 | Ukrainian SSR
|
withdrew |
| 10 | Pamir Dushanbe | 30 | 7 | 13 | 10 | 28–32 | 27 |  Tajik SSR
|
withdrew |
| 11 | Spartak Vladikavkaz | 30 | 9 | 8 | 13 | 33–41 | 26 | Russian SFSR
|
+ |
| 12 | Shakhter Donetsk | 30 | 6 | 14 | 10 | 33–41 | 26 | Ukrainian SSR
|
withdrew |
| 13 | Metallurg Zaporozhye | 30 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 27–38 | 25 | Ukrainian SSR
|
+ withdrew |
| 14 | Pakhtakor Tashkent | 30 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 37–45 | 25 |  Uzbek SSR
|
+ withdrew |
| 15 | Metallist Kharkov | 30 | 8 | 9 | 13 | 32–43 | 25 | Ukrainian SSR
|
withdrew |
| 16 | Lokomotiv Moscow | 30 | 5 | 7 | 18 | 18–47 | 18 | Russian SFSR
|
+ |
- + − Newly promoted. Names are in italic.
- After this season the league was reorganized as the Soviet Union fell apart. All of the non-Russia based participant teams went on to compete at the top national level of their native countries. The Russian Premier League became the direct successor of the Soviet Top League.
Under UEFA
Under AFC
Top scorers
- 18 goals
- Igor Kolyvanov (Dynamo Moscow)
- 14 goals
- Oleg Salenko (Dynamo Kyiv)
- Igor Shkvyrin (Pakhtakor)
- 13 goals
- Aleksandr Mostovoi (Spartak Moscow)
- Dmitri Radchenko (Spartak Moscow)
- Nazim Suleymanov (Spartak Vladikavkaz)
- 12 goals
- Dmitri Kuznetsov (CSKA Moscow)
- 10 goals
- Igor Korneev (CSKA Moscow)
- Andrei Piatnitski (Pakhtakor)
- 9 goals
- Andrei Kobelev (Dynamo Moscow)
- Viktor Leonenko (Dynamo Moscow)
- Oleg Sergeyev (CSKA Moscow)
- Valeri Velichko (Dinamo Minsk)
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 Odessa | 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 Zaporizhya | Ihor Nadein |
| FC Pakhtakor Tashkent | Fyodor Novikov (until June) Alexander Tarkhanov (from November) |
| FC Metalist Kharkiv | Leonid Tkachenko |
| FC Lokomotiv Moscow | Valeri Filatov |
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 Odessa |
| Large Score | Football weekly | Chornomorets Odessa |
| 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 Odessa |
| Progress Cup | newspaper Labor Newspaper | Chornomrets Odessa |
| First Height | newspaper Socialist Industry | CSKA Moscow |
Medal squads
(league appearances and goals listed in brackets)
Managers and captains
See also
- 1991 Soviet First League
- 1991 Soviet Second League
- 1991 Soviet Second League B
- 1990–91 Soviet Cup
- 1991–92 Soviet Cup