1991 Soviet First League

Soviet First League

Season	1991
Champions	Rotor Volgograd
Relegated	none
Top goalscorer	(25) Serhiy Husyev (Tiligul Tiraspol)
← 1990 1992 Russia →

Soviet First League 1991 was the last season of the Soviet First League. With the collapse of the Soviet Union the football structure was reformed. All of its participants have entered the Top Divisions of the republics of their origin, except of Dinamo Sukhumi that because of the 1992-93 War in Abkhazia was dissolved.

Teams

Promoted teams

• FC Uralmash Yekaterinburg – Winner of the Second League, Zone East (returning after an absence of 10 seasons)
• FC Bukovina Chernovtsy – Winner of the Second League, Zone West (debut)
• FC Neftianik Fergona – Winner of the Second League finals (debut)
• FC Novbakhor Namangan – Winner of the Second League finals (debut)
• FC Textilshchik Kamyshin – Winner of the Second League finals (debut)
• FC Daugava Riga – Winner of the Second League, Zone West (debut)

Relegated teams

• Rotor Volgograd – (Returning after 2 seasons)

Renamed teams

• Prior to the start of the season Tiras Tiraspol was renamed to Tiligul Tiraspol.
• Prior to the start of the season Nistru Kishenev was renamed to Zimbrul Kishinev.

Replaced or withdrawn teams

With fall of the Soviet Union, the promoted FC Daugava Riga was dissolved and replaced with FC Pardaugava Riga that was based on the junior squad of the Latvian national football team (U-21) and took part in the 1990 Baltic League placing only 15th out 17 teams.

Locations

Rotor

Tiligul

Uralmash

Rostselmash

Bukovyna

Tavriya

Neftiannik

Lokomotiv

Novbahor

Dinamo Sukh

Tekstilschik

Shinnik

Fakel

Kairat

Neftchi

Dinamo Stav

Kotayk

Zenit

Zimbru

Geolog

Kuban

Pardaugava

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Location of teams in the 1991 Soviet First League.

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Rotor Volgograd (C)	42	24	11	7	79	44	+35	59
2	Tiligul Tiraspol	42	22	10	10	64	45	+19	54	Left the Soviet/Russian competitions
3	Uralmash Yekaterinburg	42	21	9	12	68	40	+28	51
4	Rostselmash Rostov-on-Don	42	20	10	12	47	39	+8	50
5	Bukovyna Chernivtsi	42	20	8	14	56	49	+7	48	Left the Soviet/Russian competitions
6	Tavriya Simferopol	42	19	10	13	64	56	+8	48
7	Neftiannik Fergona	42	21	5	16	54	56	−2	47
8	Lokomotiv Nizhniy Novgorod	42	17	13	12	46	35	+11	47
9	Novbahor	42	19	7	16	60	53	+7	45	Left the Soviet/Russian competitions
10	Dinamo Sukhumi	42	16	11	15	50	50	0	43	Dissolved
11	Textilschik Kamyshin	42	15	13	14	56	52	+4	43
12	Shinnik Yaroslavl	42	17	7	18	57	59	−2	41
13	Fakel Voronezh	42	17	7	18	45	50	−5	41
14	Kairat Almaty	42	17	6	19	58	52	+6	40	Left the Soviet/Russian competitions
15	Neftchi Baku	42	17	5	20	60	58	+2	39
16	Dinamo Stavropol	42	14	11	17	50	54	−4	39
17	Kotayk Abovyan	42	15	7	20	30	48	−18	37	Left the Soviet/Russian competitions
18	Zenit St. Petersburg	42	11	14	17	44	50	−6	36
19	Zimbru Chisinau	42	11	13	18	36	49	−13	35	Left the Soviet/Russian competitions
20	Geolog Tyumen	42	11	13	18	32	47	−15	35
21	Kuban Krasnodar	42	8	10	24	40	68	−28	26
22	Pardaugava Riga	42	7	6	29	31	73	−42	20	Left the Soviet/Russian competitions

Source:
(C) Champions

Notes:

• The city of Leningrad was renamed into Saint Petersburg
• The city of Sverdlovsk was renamed into Yekaterinburg

• 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 clubs from Russia were moved to the Russian Premier League, the top tier of Russian football.

Under UEFA

• • Vyscha Liha (Bukovyna Chernivtsi, Tavriya Simferopol)
  • Armenian Premier League (Kotayk Abovyan)
  • Moldovan National Division (Zimbru Chisinau, Tiligul Tiraspol)
  • Latvian Higher League (Pardaugava Riga)
  • Azerbaijan Top League (Neftchi Baku)

Under AFC

• • Uzbek League (Neftiannik Fergona, Novbahor)
  • Kazakhstan Top Division (Kairat Almaty)

Number of teams by union republic

Rank	Union republic	Number of teams	Club(s)
1	RSFSR	11	Dinamo Stavropol, Fakel Voronezh, Geolog Tyumen, Kuban Krasnodar, Lokomotiv Nizhniy Novgorod, Rostselmash Rostov-na-Donu, Rotor Volgograd, Shinnik Yaroslavl, Tekstilschik Kamyshin, Uralmash Yekaterinburg, Zenit Saint Petersburg
2	Moldavian SSR	2	Tiligul Tiraspol, Zimbru Kishenev
	Ukrainian SSR		Bukovina Chernovtsy, Tavriya Simferopol
	Uzbek SSR		Navbahor Namangan, Neftiannik Fergana
5	Armenian SSR	1	Kotaik Abovian
	Azerbaijan SSR		Neftchi Baku
	Georgian SSR		Dinamo Sukhumi
	Kazakh SSR		Kairat Alma-Ata
	Latvian SSR		Pardaugava Riga

Top scorers

#	Player	Club	Goals	Games
1	Serhiy Husyev	«Tiligul Tiraspol»	25	36
2	Serhiy Shevchenko	«Tavriya Simferopol»	21	40
3	Valeri Shushlyakov	«Uralmash Yekaterinburg»	20	38
4	Vladislav Lemish	«Kuban Krasnodar»	20	42
5	Rustam Zabirov	«Navbahor Namangan»	19	35
6	Yuri Kalitvintsev	«Rotor Volgograd»	18	37
7	Aleksandr Tikhonov	«Rostselmash Rostov»	17	40
8	Yunis Hüseynov	«Neftchi Baku»	16	34
9	Vəli Qasımov	«Neftchi Baku»	16	38
10	Rustem Shaymukhametov	«Textilshchik Kamyshin»	15	38
11	Yuriy Hudymenko	«Rotor Volgograd»	15	39

See also

• 1991 Soviet Top League
• 1991 Soviet Second League
• 1991 Soviet Second League B

External links

• 1990 First League at the RSSSF