The 1986

Soviet Top League The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (russian: Чемпионат СССР по футболу: Высшая лига), served as the top division of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991. The professional top level ...

season was the 49th of its kind.

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Union, Soviet Dynamo Sports Club, Dynamo Sports Soc ...

were the defending 11-times champions. A total of sixteen teams participated in the league, which was two teams fewer than in the 1985 season and no teams were promoted from the First League due to the league reorganization. The overdraw concept was preserved with no more than 10 draws being allowed (same as the previous season). Dynamo Kyiv, however, was excused from the rule because the Soviet national football team, consisting almost exclusively out of the first team of Dynamo Kyiv, participated at the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia ha ...

. The reduction of the league was compensated by the introduction of a new competition, the Cup of Football Federation of USSR. For that purpose the league took a short break in September when the new competition kicked off and involved only the participants of the Soviet Top League. The new competition was brief, lasting for just over a month. The season began on March 1 and lasted until November 22, 1986, however some additional postponed games were played until December 7. The season was won by

once again for the 12th time on the last day of the season on December 7 when they faced off against their main opponent

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (russian: МГО ВФСО «Динамо»), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first ...

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, pulling off a dramatic 2–1 win and thus passing their Moscow rivals in the final league standings. The top five clubs of the league later entered European competitions, joined additionally by the losing cup finalist Dinamo Minsk, beaten by

in the 1987 Final. The winner of the 1986 League Cup

Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk Football Club Dnipro ( uk, Футбо́льний Клуб «Дніпро́», ) was a Ukrainian football club based in Dnipro. The club was owned by the Privat Group that also owns BC Dnipro and Budivelnyk Kyiv. In 2018 FC Dnipro was forced in ...

did not qualify for any European tournaments.

Teams

Promoted teams

* none

Location

League standings

Next year promotion *

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was a central piece ...

() *

Guria Lanchkhuti FC Guria is a Georgian association football club from Lanchkhuti, which competes in Liga 3, the third tier of the national league. Being one of the strongest Georgian teams in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Guria have taken part in the Soviet ...

()

Results

Top scorers

;21 goals *

Aleksandr Borodyuk Aleksandr Genrikhovich Borodyuk (russian: Александр Генрихович Бородюк; born 30 November 1962) is a Russian football manager and former international player for USSR (playing one match in 1990 FIFA World Cup) and Russia ...

(Dynamo Moscow) ;17 goals *

Oleh Protasov Oleh Valeriyovych Protasov ( uk, Олег Валерійович Протасов; born 4 February 1964) is a Ukrainian and Soviet former footballer who played as a striker. He was a key member of the Soviet Union national team throughout the ...

(Dnipro) *

Sergey Rodionov Sergei Yurievich Rodionov (russian: Серге́й Юрьевич Родионов, born 3 September 1962) is a Russian football coach and former professional player, who played most of his career as a forward for Spartak Moscow. Career Durin ...

(Spartak Moscow) ;13 goals *

Mashalla Akhmedov Mashalla Ahmad ogly Ahmadov (russian: Машалла Ахмед-оглы Ахмедов; born 2 June 1959) is a retired Soviet Azerbaijani professional football player. Career Ahmadov played professional football in the Soviet leagues with Prog ...

(Neftchi) * Georgi Kondratyev (Dinamo Minsk) ;12 goals *

Alexei Mikhailichenko Oleksiy Oleksandrovych Mykhaylychenko ( uk, Олексій Олександрович Михайличенко; born 30 March 1963) is a Ukrainian football coach and former professional player. He is a Distinguished Master of Sports of the U ...

(Dynamo Kyiv) *

Ihor Petrov Ihor Hryhorovych Petrov (born 30 January 1964) is a Ukrainian professional football coach and a former player. In 1983 Petrov took part in the Summer Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR in the team of Ukrainian SSR. In 2012, he received the ...

(Shakhtar) * Yuri Savichev (Torpedo Moscow) ;10 goals *

Ihor Belanov Igor Ivanovich Belanov ( rus, И́горь Ива́нович Бела́нов) or Ihor Ivanovych Bielanov ( uk, Ігор Іванович Бєланов; born 25 September 1960) is a Ukrainian former professional footballer who played as a stri ...

(Dynamo Kyiv) *

Revaz Chelebadze Revaz Chelebadze ( ka, რევაზ ჩელებაძე) (born 2 October 1955) was a retired Georgian football player. He was nicknamed Chele (an allusion to Pelé), for his brilliant technical play and ability to score goals. The ...

(Dynamo Tbilisi) *

Arminas Narbekovas Arminas Narbekovas (born 28 January 1965 in Gargždai) is a former Lithuanian football player. In 2003, he was selected by UEFA as his country's Golden Player, the greatest player of the past 50 years. Personal life Arminas Narbekovas was bor ...

(Žalgiris) * Yevstafi Pekhlevanidi (Kairat)

Medal squads

''(league appearances and goals listed in brackets)''

Number of teams by union republic

External links

1986 Calendar for the Soviet Football competitions

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

{{1986–87 in European football (UEFA) Soviet Top League seasons 1

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...