History of Ukrainian Football

Origin
Before the WWI the Ukrainian ethnic areas were parted between two empires - Austria-Hungary (Western Ukraine) and Russia (the rest of Ukraine).
Fooball came to these areas from the west countries. The L'viv townpeople took this famous game from the British. The Uzhhorod gymnasia pupils, who were studying in Budapest, learned football there and started to play in their native city during the holidays. The Chernivtsi townpeople were learning football by an Austrian teacher, who arrived in the city and
was working there.
The Ukrainians of the Russian Empire were also learning football by the foreigners, who worked in their cities. The Odesa townpeople were made interested in football by the British employers; Mykolaiv townpeople - by the British seamen; Kyiv and Luhans'k townpeople - by the Czech workers; Donbas people - by the British and German miners.
The first football club in the Ukrainian ethnic areas was Odesa British Athletic Club (OBAC).

First successes
From 1912 the Ukrainian cities took part in Russian championships. Only teams of the cities instead of clubs took part in the championships of Russian Empire. One year later Odesa won the league.
After the WWI the Ukrainian ethnic areas were parted between four new States - USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania. Teams from the Ukrainian ethnic cities were playing in championships of those countries. Pogon L'viv won Polish championships four times running in 1922, 1923, 1925, 1926. SC Rusj Uzhhorod was playing in Czechoslovakian premier league. Two footballers from Chernivtsi were playing on the World Cups for Romania - Alfred Eissenbeiser-Ferraru (in 1930) and Robert Sadowski (1938).
Teams of the cities took part in the Soviet championships until 1935. Kharkiv won it in 1924. From 1936 leading Ukrainian clubs started to play in new USSR league football.

The Rising
Western Ukraine was passed to Ukrainian SSR, which was a part of the USSR, during the WWII. The talented west Ukrainian footballers were transferred to the best Ukrainian club - Dynamo Kyiv.
Only Dynamo Kyiv - club of military department (interior ministry) - could draft and keep more talented young Ukrainian footballers in the strict Soviet society. The talented young players, who weren't invited by Dynamo Kyiv, were "drafted" by Soviet Army, i.e. by two Moscow "military" clubs.
The another Ukrainian club, which constantly played in the Soviet premier league - Shakhtar Donets'k - was created in the most industrial area - Donbas. Dynamo and sometimes Shakhtar (and also Dnipro Dnipropetrovs'k in 1983-1989) rivaled the Moscow football clubs. Its ability to challenge the dominance of the Moscow clubs in Soviet soccer, and frequently defeat them to win the Soviet championship, was a matter of national pride for Ukraine.
In 1961 the Ukrainian club first won the USSR championship (Dynamo Kyiv) and the USSR Cup (Shakhtar). Donets'k won USSR Cup in 1962 too.
From the middle 1960s other Ukrainian clubs made progress and began to play constantly in the USSR premier league. First of all, Chornomorets' Odesa, Zorya Luhans'k, then Karpaty L'viv, Dnipro Dnipropetrovs'k. In 1980's Metalist Kharkiv played in premier league constantly instead of Zorya and Karpaty.
Yuri Voynov from Dynamo Kyiv (originally from Leningrad, Russia) won the European Championship 1960 with the USSR national team.

The Golden Era
From 1966 till 1990 the Ukrainian clubs won 15 of 26 USSR championships (placed second Russia - only 7), 14 of 25 USSR Cups.
The 1975 and 1986-1988 are the culmination moments in the Ukrainian football history.
In 1975 Dynamo won the triple - the European Cups Winners Cup, the European Super Cup, the USSR Championship. In several matches the Soviet national team featured just the Ukrainian players. Oleh Blokhin was the best European player of the year.
Dynamo beat the best European club of the middle of 1970's - Bayern Munich - twice - in the Super Cup final 1975 and in the European Champions Cup quarter-final 1977 -, but Kyiv club was beated by Saint Ettiene and Borussia Moenchengladbach and could not win the Champions Cup.

The Silver Era
Dynamo Kyiv won the European Cups Winners Cup in 1986 again. The Soviet national team with Dynamo Kyiv players forming its backbone was a favourite on the World Cup 1986, but it was beated by Belgium with referee mistakes. Then 13 footballers and 1 head coach were the European Championship 1988 finalists.
In 1980's Ukraine has a lot of international top players like Oleh Blokin, Ihor Belanov, Olexi Mykhaylychenko, Olexandr Zavarov, Oleh Protasov, Oleh Kuznetsov, Anatoly Demyanenko, Pavlo Yakovenko, Volodymyr Bezsonov. And, absolutely, genial coach Valery Lobanovs'ky, who was a major maker of those successes.
Ihor Belanov was the best European player of 1986.
Dynamo Kyiv was elected the second team 1986 by "World Soccer" poll inferioring to Argentine less then 0.1% of votes.
Valery Lobanovsky was elected a second World coach 1986.

The Bronze Era
After the Soviet Union's collapse, the Ukrainian clubs became members of the new football league of Ukraine. After crisis of the beginning of 1990's Dynamo Kyiv reborned with president Hryhori Surkis and head coach Valery Lobanovsky, who returned home in 1997. Dynamo has excellent players like Yuri Kalitvintsev, Oleh Luzhny, Serhi Rebrov, Olexandr Shovkovsky and one of the best players in the world Andri Shevchenko. Dynamo's bronze era began from two victories over Barcelona 3:0 and 4:0. Kyivan team was beated by Bayern Munich in semi-final 1999 and could not win Champions League again.
Some of the best Ukrainian players of the beginning of 1990's (including Andrey Kanchelskis, Viktor Onopko, Yuri Nikiforov and Oleg Salenko) chose to play for Russia as it was named the official successor of the USSR, while Ukraine didn't participate in major international competitions until 1994. However, Ukraine had a good chance of qualification for the 1998 and 2002 World Cup, for the 2000 European Championship too. Three times running "yellow-blues" lost at the last stage, the playoffs. It lost to Croatia, failing to get to the 1998 World Cup, Slovenia prevented Ukraine from going to Euro 2000, and Germany stopped them prior to the 2002 World Cup.

The past seasons
After an unsuccesful Euro 2004 campaign, Ukraine appointed Oleh Blokhin as the national team's head coach. It would seem, the Ukrainian achievements were in the past or will in the future, because now Ukraine has only one international top player Andri Shevchenko. Ukraine had very difficult rivals (WC 2002 semi-finalist Turkey, Euro 2004 champion Greece and strong Denmark), but Blokhin was sure of success. Sensationally Ukraine achieved qualification for the 2006 World Cup, the first time for the team.