# 1997–98 Vyshcha Liha

The 1997–98 Vyshcha Liha season was the 7th since its establishment. FC Dynamo Kyiv were the defending champions.

## Teams
### Promotions

* Metalurh Donetsk, the champion of the 1996–97 Ukrainian First League – (debut)
* Metalurh Mariupol, the third-place runner-up of the 1996–97 Ukrainian First League – (debut)

### Renamed

* In a winter break Zirka-NIBAS Kirovohrad changed its name to Zirka Kirovohrad.

### Location
## Managers

| Club | Coach | Replaced coach | Home stadium |
| FC Dynamo Kyiv | Valery Lobanovsky | | Dynamo Stadium |
| FC Shakhtar Donetsk | Valery Yaremchenko | | Shakhtar Stadium |
| FC Karpaty Lviv | Myron Markevych | | Ukraina Stadium |
| FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | Vadym Tyschenko | Vyacheslav Hrozny 15 games (first half) | Meteor Stadium |
| FC Vorskla Poltava | Oleksandr Dovbiy | Viktor Pozhechevskyi 27 games (first half) | Vorskla Stadium |
| FC Metalurh Donetsk | Volodymyr Onyschenko | | Avanhard Stadium (Makiivka) Donetsk Metallurgical Factory Stadium |
| FC Nyva Ternopil | Leonid Ischuk | Ihor Yavorskyi 29 games | City Stadium |
| FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | Oleh Taran | | Metalurh Stadium |
| FC Metalurh Zaporizhia | Oleksandr Shtelin | Oleksandr Tomakh 17 games Leonid Kliuchyk 1 game | Metalurh Stadium |
| FC Prykarpattia Ivano-Frankivsk | Bohdan Blavatskiy | Ihor Yurchenko 15 games (first half) | Rukh Stadium |
| FC Zirka Kirovohrad | Oleksandr Ischenko | Oleksandr Dovbiy 27 games Serhiy Strashnenko 1 game | Zirka Stadium |
| FC Metalurh Mariupol | Mykola Pavlov | Volodymyr Kuzovlev 1 game Yuriy Pohrebniak 2 games | Azovstal Stadium |
| FC CSKA Kyiv | Serhiy Morozov | Volodymyr Bezsonov 15 games | CSK ZSU Stadium |
| SC Tavriya Simferopol | Viktor Hrachov | Ivan Balan 25 games | Lokomotyv Stadium |
| FC Chornomorets Odesa | Volodymyr Kozerenko | Leonid Buriak 22 games | Black Sea Shipping Stadium |
| FC Torpedo Zaporizhia | Leonid Koltun | Viktor Matvienko 18 games Vyacheslav Pershyn 4 games | AvtoZAZ Stadium |

### Changes

| Team | Outgoing head coach | Table | Incoming head coach | Table |
| SC Tavriya Simferopol | Mykola Pavlov | pre-season | Ivan Balan | pre-season |
| FC CSKA Kyiv | Volodymyr Lozynsky | pre-season | Volodymyr Bezsonov | pre-season |
| FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | Oleksandr Lysenko | pre-season | Oleh Taran | pre-season |
| FC Prykarpattia Ivano-Frankivsk | Viktor Kolotov | pre-season | Ihor Yurchenko | pre-season |

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Dynamo Kyiv (C) | 30 | 23 | 3 | 4 | 70 | 15 | +55 | 72 | Qualification to Champions League first qualifying round |
| 2 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 30 | 20 | 7 | 3 | 61 | 25 | +36 | 67 | Qualification to UEFA Cup first qualifying round |
| 3 | Karpaty Lviv | 30 | 16 | 9 | 5 | 36 | 20 | +16 | 57 | |
| 4 | Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | 30 | 17 | 4 | 9 | 47 | 27 | +20 | 55 | |
| 5 | Vorskla Poltava | 30 | 15 | 4 | 11 | 41 | 46 | −5 | 49 | Qualification to Intertoto Cup first round |
| 6 | Metalurh Donetsk | 30 | 11 | 7 | 12 | 28 | 27 | +1 | 40 | |
| 7 | Nyva Ternopil | 30 | 12 | 4 | 14 | 37 | 39 | −2 | 40 | |
| 8 | Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | 30 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 34 | 33 | +1 | 39 | |
| 9 | Metalurh Zaporizhzhia | 30 | 10 | 7 | 13 | 40 | 44 | −4 | 37 | |
| 10 | Prykarpattya Ivano-Frankivsk | 30 | 8 | 9 | 13 | 33 | 41 | −8 | 33 | |
| 11 | Zirka Kirovohrad | 30 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 27 | 48 | −21 | 33 | |
| 12 | Metalurh Mariupol | 30 | 8 | 9 | 13 | 27 | 48 | −21 | 33 | |
| 13 | CSKA Kyiv | 30 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 30 | 35 | −5 | 33 | Qualification to Cup Winners' Cup qualifying round |
| 14 | Tavriya Simferopol | 30 | 8 | 9 | 13 | 35 | 41 | −6 | 33 | |
| 15 | Chornomorets Odesa (R) | 30 | 8 | 8 | 14 | 31 | 39 | −8 | 32 | Relegated to Ukrainian First League |
| 16 | Torpedo Zaporizhzhia (R) | 30 | 2 | 7 | 21 | 20 | 69 | −49 | 13 | Relegated to Ukrainian First League |
* 1 2 Participants of the 1998 Ukrainian Cup Final

## Results

| Home \ Away | CHO | CSK | DNI | DYN | KAR | KRY | MDO | MTM | MZA | NVT | PRY | SHA | TAV | TZA | VOR | ZIR |
| Chornomorets Odesa | — | 1–0 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–3 | 1–2 | 5–0 | 2–2 | 3–0 |
| CSKA Kyiv | 2–1 | — | 1–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 2–1 | 3–2 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 3–1 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 1–1 |
| Dnipro | 2–0 | 2–1 | — | 0–2 | 4–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 4–0 | 1–2 | 3–0 |
| Dynamo Kyiv | 1–0 | 4–0 | 2–1 | — | 0–1 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 2–1 | 4–2 | 4–0 | 3–0 | 3–0 | 3–0 | 5–0 | 4–1 |
| Karpaty Lviv | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | — | 2–1 | 1–0 | 4–1 | 1–1 | 4–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 0–0 |
| Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 2–2 | — | 1–2 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 2–2 | 3–0 | 3–2 | 4–0 |
| Metalurh Donetsk | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | — | 2–0 | 3–2 | 3–0 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 3–0 |
| Metalurh Mariupol | 2–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | — | 4–2 | +:- | 0–3 | 0–5 | 3–0 | 3–1 | 2–5 | 0–0 |
| Metalurh Zaporizhzhia | 1–1 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 1–5 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | — | 3–2 | 3–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 2–3 | 4–2 |
| Nyva Ternopil | 1–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 2–0 | 5–0 | 1–2 | — | 3–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 4–1 | 1–2 | 2–0 |
| Prykarpattya Ivano-Frankivsk | 1–1 | 2–0 | 1–4 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 2–2 | 1–1 | — | 0–2 | 2–0 | 3–2 | 4–0 | 4–1 |
| Shakhtar Donetsk | 4–1 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 2–2 | 3–1 | 5–0 | 4–1 | — | 1–0 | 4–0 | 3–2 | 3–2 |
| Tavriya Simferopol | 3–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–3 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 3–3 | — | 5–0 | 3–1 | 1–0 |
| Torpedo Zaporizhzhia | 2–2 | 0–1 | 2–2 | 0–3 | 0–2 | 0–3 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 2–2 | 0–0 | 4–3 | — | 1–2 | 0–1 |
| Vorskla Poltava | 1–0 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1–4 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 0–3 | 1–0 | 2–0 | — | 2–0 |
| Zirka-NIBAS Kirovohrad | 2–3 | 2–1 | 1–3 | 1–3 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | — |

## Top goalscorers

| Rank | Player | Club | Goals (Pen.) |
| 1 | Serhii Rebrov | Dynamo Kyiv | 22 (5) |
| 2 | Andriy Shevchenko | Dynamo Kyiv | 21 (1) |
| 3 | Oleksandr Palyanytsia | Karpaty Lviv | 17 (2) |
| 4 | Avtandil Kapanadze | Nyva Ternopil | 15 |
| 5 | Oleksandr Haidash | Tavriya Simferopol | 14 |
| 6 | Hennady Shchekotylin | Chornomorets Odesa | 13 (1) |
| 7 | Valeriy Kryventsov | Shakhtar Donetsk | 11 |
| 8 | Petro Rusak | Spartak Ivano-Frankivsk | 9 |
| 8 | Hennadiy Orbu | Shakhtar Donetsk | 9 (1) |
| 10 | Valentyn Platonov | Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | 9 |
| 10 | Vitaliy Mintenko | Metalurh Donetsk | 9 (2) |
| 10 | Volodymyr Haschyn | Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | 9 (3) |