Crimean Premier League
| Country | Russia (de facto) Ukraine (de jure) |
|---|---|
| Confederation | UEFA |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Number of teams | 8 |
The Crimean Premier League (Russian: Премьер-лига КФС) is a professional association football league in Crimea devised by Russia. It was created in the aftermath of Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014.
For full list of Crimean champions, see Republican Football Federation of Crimea.
The league was formed by UEFA delegation that is led by former president of the Slovak Football Association František Laurinec. Five of eight teams have never participated at professional level and according to the official UEFA evaluation the region has a poor football infrastructure. According to Laurinec "UEFA wants to help save football in Crimea". At the same time Ukrainian officials does not seem to be strongly against the separate league in Crimea, but do remain firm in their stance that Crimea is part of Ukraine.
In 2016 Vyacheslav Koloskov expressed his opinion that UEFA is not considering to grant Crimea a membership. At the same time, the president of the Crimean Football Union said that UEFA has two ways of solving the issue, either recognize Crimea as part of the Russian Federation or grant a membership like in case with Kosovo.
The first competitive match was a 2–2 draw between SKChF Sevastopol and TSK-Tavria Simferopol in August 2015. The UEFA sanctioned league has 8 teams: TSK Simferopol, SKCHF Sevastopol, Rubin Yalta, Bakhchisaray, Yevpatoriya, Kafa, Ocean Kerch and Berkut Evpatoria. TSK and SKCHF are relatively independent financially, while the rest six clubs in Crimea are financed by the Ministry of Sport of Russian Federation, according to a local journalist. There also were intentions to invite former Russian international football player Andrei Kanchelskis to coach one of the clubs in Crimea.
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