# 1998–99 Vyshcha Liha

The 1998–99 Vyshcha Liha season was the 8th since its establishment. FC Dynamo Kyiv were the defending champions.

## Teams
### Promotions

* SC Mykolaiv, the champion of the 1997–98 Ukrainian First League – (returning after absence of two seasons)
* Metalist Kharkiv, the third-place runner-up of the 1997–98 Ukrainian First League – (returning after absence of four seasons)

### Location
## Managers

| Club | Coach | Replaced coach | Home stadium |
| FC Dynamo Kyiv | Valery Lobanovsky | | Dynamo Stadium |
| FC Shakhtar Donetsk | Anatoliy Byshovets | Valery Yaremchenko 18 games | Shakhtar Stadium |
| FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | Oleh Taran | | Metalurh Stadium |
| FC Karpaty Lviv | Stepan Yurchyshyn | Myron Markevych the first half | Ukraina Stadium |
| FC Metalurh Mariupol | Mykola Pavlov | | Azovstal Stadium |
| FC Metalist Kharkiv | Mykhailo Fomenko | | Metalist Stadium |
| FC CSKA Kyiv | Volodymyr Bezsonov | | CSK ZSU Stadium |
| FC Metalurh Zaporizhia | Myron Markevych | Oleksandr Shtelin 17 games | Metalurh Stadium |
| SC Tavriya Simferopol | Anatoliy Korobochka | Viktor Hrachov the first half Valery Petrov 13 games | Lokomotyv Stadium |
| FC Vorskla Poltava | Anatoliy Konkov | Oleksandr Dovbiy 6 games Serhiy Sobetskyi 7 games | Vorskla Stadium Politekhnik Stadium (Kremenchuk) |
| FC Zirka Kirovohrad | Oleksandr Ischenko | | Zirka Stadium |
| FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | Leonid Koltun | Vadym Tyschenko 13 games Volodymyr Kobzarev 7 games | Meteor Stadium |
| FC Nyva Ternopil | Ihor Yurchenko | | City Stadium |
| FC Metalurh Donetsk | Mykhailo Sokolovskyi | Volodymyr Onyschenko 7 games Volodymyr Havrylov 8 games Ihor Yavorskyi 7 games | Stalekanatchyk Stadium (Khartsyzk) Donetsk Metallurgical Factory Stadium |
| FC Prykarpattia Ivano-Frankivsk | Ihor Yavorskyi | Bohdan Blavatskiy 6 games Anatoliy Boyko 6 games Anatoliy Zayaev 14 games Bohdan Blavatskiy 2 games | Rukh Stadium |
| SC Mykolaiv | vacant | Anatoliy Konkov 12 games Leonid Nikolaenko 3 games Ivan Krasnetskyi 1 game | Central City Stadium |
Notes: Games between Dynamo Kyiv and CSKA Kyiv were played at Republican Stadium.

### Changes

| Team | Outgoing head coach | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Table | Incoming head coach | Date of appointment | Table |
| FC Nyva Ternopil | Leonid Ishchuk | | | pre-season | Ihor Yurchenko | | pre-season |
| FC CSKA Kyiv | Serhiy Morozov | | | pre-season | Volodymyr Bezsonov | | pre-season |

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Dynamo Kyiv (C) | 30 | 23 | 5 | 2 | 75 | 17 | +58 | 74 | Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round |
| 2 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 30 | 20 | 5 | 5 | 70 | 25 | +45 | 65 | Qualification to UEFA Cup qualifying round |
| 3 | Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | 30 | 16 | 11 | 3 | 43 | 18 | +25 | 59 | Qualification to UEFA Cup qualifying round |
| 4 | Karpaty Lviv | 30 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 54 | 34 | +20 | 55 | Qualification to UEFA Cup first round |
| 5 | Metalurh Mariupol | 30 | 14 | 6 | 10 | 35 | 27 | +8 | 48 | |
| 6 | Metalist Kharkiv | 30 | 14 | 5 | 11 | 31 | 32 | −1 | 47 | |
| 7 | CSKA Kyiv | 30 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 37 | 35 | +2 | 43 | |
| 8 | Metalurh Zaporizhzhia | 30 | 12 | 6 | 12 | 46 | 43 | +3 | 42 | |
| 9 | Tavriya Simferopol | 30 | 10 | 7 | 13 | 33 | 39 | −6 | 37 | |
| 10 | Vorskla Poltava | 30 | 10 | 5 | 15 | 36 | 43 | −7 | 35 | |
| 11 | Zirka Kirovohrad | 30 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 31 | 40 | −9 | 34 | |
| 12 | Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | 30 | 9 | 5 | 16 | 28 | 46 | −18 | 32 | |
| 13 | Nyva Ternopil | 30 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 29 | 41 | −12 | 31 | |
| 14 | Metalurh Donetsk | 30 | 7 | 7 | 16 | 27 | 51 | −24 | 28 | |
| 15 | Prykarpattya Ivano-Frankivsk | 30 | 6 | 6 | 18 | 24 | 59 | −35 | 24 | Qualification to relegation play-off |
| 16 | SC Mykolaiv (R) | 30 | 2 | 6 | 22 | 18 | 67 | −49 | 12 | Relegated to Ukrainian First League |
* 1 2 Participant of the 1999 Ukrainian Cup Final

## Results

| Home \ Away | CSK | DNI | DYN | KAR | KRY | MET | MDO | MTM | MZA | MYK | NVT | PRY | SHA | TAV | VOR | ZIR |
| CSKA Kyiv | — | 1–0 | 0–4 | 3–3 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 2–1 | 0–0 |
| Dnipro | 0–1 | — | 0–1 | 0–2 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 5–1 | 1–0 | 1–4 | 2–1 | 4–0 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 |
| Dynamo Kyiv | 2–0 | 2–3 | — | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 6–2 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 7–0 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 4–0 | 1–0 |
| Karpaty Lviv | 3–3 | 4–1 | 2–1 | — | 2–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 5–1 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 2–1 |
| Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | 0–0 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | — | 1–0 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 4–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 1–0 |
| Metalist Kharkiv | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–6 | 3–1 | 0–0 | — | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–4 | 3–0 |
| Metalurh Donetsk | 2–2 | 2–0 | 1–4 | 4–3 | 0–2 | 0–0 | — | 1–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 0–4 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 |
| Metalurh Mariupol | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 4–2 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | — | 4–2 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 |
| Metalurh Zaporizhzhia | 1–0 | 2–2 | 1–3 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 3–2 | 0–0 | 3–0 | — | 4–1 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 2–3 | 3–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 |
| SC Mykolaiv | 2–3 | 2–0 | 0–4 | 0–3 | 0–4 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 0–4 | — | 0–1 | 1–1 | 0–3 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 2–2 |
| Nyva Ternopil | 1–2 | 0–0 | 1–5 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 3–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 3–1 | — | 3–1 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 3–2 |
| Prykarpattya Ivano-Frankivsk | 2–4 | 3–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 2–2 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 | — | 1–3 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| Shakhtar Donetsk | 1–0 | 6–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 4–2 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 7–0 | 1–1 | 6–1 | — | 2–0 | 7–3 | 1–2 |
| Tavriya Simferopol | 1–1 | 3–0 | 3–3 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 3–2 | 0–2 | 2–3 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 2–1 | — | 2–0 | 1–0 |
| Vorskla Poltava | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 4–0 | 1–2 | 2–2 | — | 4–2 |
| Zirka Kirovohrad | 1–1 | 2–0 | 0–5 | 2–2 | 2–3 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 0–2 | 3–1 | 1–0 | — |

## Top goalscorers

| Rank | Player | Club | Goals (Pen.) |
| 1 | Andriy Shevchenko | Dynamo Kyiv | 18 (1) |
| 2 | Ivan Hetsko | Karpaty Lviv | 16 |
| 2 | Oleksandr Palyanytsia | Karpaty Lviv | 16 (5) |
| 4 | Valentyn Poltavets | Metalurh Zaporizhzhya | 13 (3) |
| 5 | Andriy Vorobei | Shakhtar Donetsk | 11 |
| 6 | Oleksiy Osipov | Tavriya Simferopol | 11 (3) |
| 7 | Alexander Khatskevich | Dynamo Kyiv | 10 |
| 8 | Oleksandr Haidash | Tavriya Simferopol | 9 |
| 8 | Avtandil Kapanadze | Nyva Ternopil | 9 |
| 8 | Ihor Kislov | Zirka Kirovohrad | 9 |
| 8 | Ihor Kostiuk | Vorskla Poltava | 9 |
| 8 | Vitaliy Pantilov | Metalurh Mariupol | 9 |
| 8 | Serhii Rebrov | Dynamo Kyiv | 9 |
| 8 | Yuriy Selezniov | Shakhtar Donetsk | 9 |

### Notable Transfers

* Andriy Shevchenko, FC Dynamo Kyiv to A.C. Milan
* Oleksandr Palyanytsia, FC Karpaty Lviv to FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih
* Ihor Kostiuk, FC Vorskla Poltava to FC Dynamo-2 Kyiv