was clearly and firmly for its own independent championship. Other clubs took position from "strongly against" to "possibly for, but". For example, Metalurh Zaporizhya that was playing its first season at such level was for the Soviet championship. Yet, Metalist that was struggling to stay in, took a tricky position: "If we are would relegate to the First Union League, we will be for Ukrainian championship, if we would stay at the top, we will be for Soviet championship". In September 1991 there took place a session of the Football Federation of the Ukrainian SSR Executive Committee (ispolkom), which started with raising of blue-and-yellow flag that was given by a member of parliament Vyacheslav Chornovil. On proposition of Viktor Bannikov who at time was heading the football federation, the struggle for independent championship had to take place under national colors. The executive committee decided that blue-and-yellow flags had to flown over all stadiums where were playing Ukrainian teams. Some members of the executive committee have spoken about the independent Ukrainian championship, but did not rush with a decision. For that it was decided to wait until the Federation's plenum on 13–14 December 1991. Vyshcha Liha and Professional Football League (1992–1999) Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the inaugural independent championship took place hastily at the start of spring 1992 after the creation of the Ukrainian Higher League (, Vyshcha Liha). The League was created out of the six teams that took part in the Soviet Top League, two teams from the Soviet First League, and nine out of the eleven Ukrainian teams from the Soviet Second League. The other two of that eleven were placed in the Ukrainian First League as they were to be relegated anyway. The two best teams of the Soviet Second League B of the Ukrainian Zone were also placed in the Higher League along with the winner of the 1991 Ukrainian Cup which finished ninth in the same group (Soviet Second League B). The 20 participants were split into two groups with the winners playing for the championship title and the runners-up playing for third place. Three teams from each group were to be relegated. As expected, the five favorites, Dynamo Kyiv, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Shakhtar Donetsk, Chornomorets Odesa, and Metalist Kharkiv finished at the top of each group. In the championship play-off game in Lviv, a sensation took place as Tavriya Simferopol beat Dynamo