| Season | 1991 |
|---|---|
| Dates | 10 March – 2 November 1991 |
| Champions | CSKA Moscow (7th title) |
| Relegated | none(7 clubs withdrew) |
| Champions League | CSKA Moscow(for Russia) |
| Cup Winners' Cup | Spartak Moscow(for Russia) |
| UEFA Cup | Dynamo Moscow Torpedo Moscow (for Russia) |
| Top goalscorer | (18)Igor Kolyvanov (Dynamo Moscow) |
| Biggest home win | Spartak – Dynamo M. 7–1 (26th) |
| Biggest away win | Dynamo M. – Torpedo 1–4 (18th) Metalurh – Chornomorets 1–4 (16th) |
| Highest scoring | Spartak – Dynamo M. 7–1 (26th) Dynamo M. – Dnipro 6–2 (28th) |
←1990 | |
The1991Soviet Top League season (Russian:Чемпионат СССР по футболу 1991 (высшая лига)) was 22nd in the Top League and the 54th since the establishment of nationwide club competition, also the last one.Dynamo Kyiv were the defending 13-times champions and came fifth this season. A total of sixteen teams participated in the league, twelve of them have contested in the1990 season while the remaining four were promoted from theSoviet First League due to withdrawals. The representatives of theBaltic states as well asGeorgia chose not to take part in the competition.
The season began on 10 March and lasted until 2 November 1991. The season was won byPFC CSKA Moscow that returned to the top league prior to the last season while winning theSoviet Cup competition as well. The season's culmination occurred in its final rounds, when the army team managed to overtake Spartak, while with four rounds left in the season, Spartak was leading the table a point ahead of CSKA and a recent thrashing of Dynamo Moscow 7 to 1.
Due to participants withdrawal in the preceding season four new teams entered the league. Upon the conclusion of the season no clubs were relegated and 12 out of its 16 participants formed a base for either the Russian or the Ukrainian competitions, while other four participants joined their own newly formed national leagues. If the Soviet Union had remained intact,Metalist Kharkiv andLokomotiv Moscow would have been relegated to theSoviet First League for the next season, whileFC Rotor Volgograd andFC Tiligul Tiraspol would have been promoted to the Top League for 1992.
The top six clubs of the league later entered European competitions for their respective nations. The Ukrainian clubs chose to qualify through aseparate national competition.
The league was expanded to 16 after the last season, during which number of clubs left the Soviet competitions (fromGeorgia andBaltic states). The last-placedFC Rotor Volgograd of the1990 Soviet Top League lost promotion/relegation playoff toLokomotiv Moscow and was relegated to the1991 Soviet First League. Rotor Volgograd returned to theSoviet First League after two seasons absence, while at the same timeLokomotiv Moscow returned to theSoviet Top League after only a one-season absence.
Beside the fourth placed Lokomotiv three more teams were promoted and included the champion (FC Spartak Vladikavkaz) and the runners-up of the1990 Soviet First League (FC Pakhtakor Tashkent andFC Metalurh Zaporizhzhia).
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| Club | Head coach |
|---|---|
| PFC CSKA Moscow | Pavel Sadyrin |
| FC Spartak Moscow | Oleg Romantsev |
| FC Torpedo Moscow | Valentin Ivanov (until September) Yevgeni Skomorokhov (from September) |
| FC Chornomorets Odesa | Viktor Prokopenko |
| FC Dynamo Kyiv | Anatoliy Puzach |
| FC Dynamo Moscow | Semen Altman (until March) Valery Gazzaev (from April) |
| FC Dinamo Minsk | Eduard Malofeyev (until April) Mikhail Vergeyenko (from April) |
| FC Ararat Yerevan | Armen Sarkisyan |
| FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | Yevhen Kucherevskyi |
| FC Pamir Dushanbe | Sharif Nazarov |
| FC Spartak Vladikavkaz | Valery Gazzaev (until March) Nikolai Khudiyev (April to July) Ruslan Khadartsev (from July) |
| FC Shakhtar Donetsk | Valeriy Yaremchenko |
| FC Metalurh Zaporizhzhia | Ihor Nadein |
| FC Pakhtakor Tashkent | Fyodor Novikov (until June) Ahrol Inoyatov (from July to October) Alexander Tarkhanov (from November) |
| FC Metalist Kharkiv | Leonid Tkachenko |
| FC Lokomotiv Moscow | Valeri Filatov |
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  CSKA Moscow(C) | 30 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 57 | 32 | +25 | 43 | Qualification forChampions League first round |
| 2 | Spartak Moscow | 30 | 17 | 7 | 6 | 57 | 30 | +27 | 41 | Qualification forCup Winners' Cup first round |
| 3 | Torpedo Moscow | 30 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 36 | 20 | +16 | 36 | Qualification forUEFA Cup first round |
| 4 |  Chornomorets | 30 | 10 | 16 | 4 | 39 | 24 | +15 | 36 | Withdrew from the league |
| 5 | Dynamo Kyiv | 30 | 13 | 9 | 8 | 43 | 34 | +9 | 35 | |
| 6 | Dynamo Moscow | 30 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 43 | 42 | +1 | 31 | Qualification forUEFA Cup first round |
| 7 |  Ararat | 30 | 11 | 7 | 12 | 29 | 36 | −7 | 29 | Withdrew from the league |
| 8 |  Dinamo Minsk | 30 | 9 | 11 | 10 | 29 | 31 | −2 | 29 | |
| 9 | Dnipro | 30 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 31 | 36 | −5 | 28 | Withdrew from the league |
| 10 |  Pamir Dushanbe | 30 | 7 | 13 | 10 | 28 | 32 | −4 | 27 | |
| 11 | Spartak Vladikavkaz | 30 | 9 | 8 | 13 | 33 | 41 | −8 | 26 | |
| 12 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 30 | 6 | 14 | 10 | 33 | 41 | −8 | 26 | Withdrew from the league |
| 13 | Metalurh Zaporizhzhia | 30 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 27 | 38 | −11 | 25[a] | |
| 14 |  Pakhtakor Tashkent | 30 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 37 | 45 | −8 | 25[a] | |
| 15 | Metalist Kharkiv[b] | 30 | 8 | 9 | 13 | 32 | 43 | −11 | 25 | Withdrew from the league |
| 16 | Lokomotiv Moscow | 30 | 5 | 8 | 17 | 18 | 47 | −29 | 18 | Avoided relegation |
| Home \ Away | ARA | CHO | CSK | DNE | DYK | DMN | DMO | LOK | MKH | MZA | PAK | PAM | SHA | SPA | SPV | TOR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ararat Yerevan | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | |
| Chornomorets Odesa | 5–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–3 | 2–1 | |
| CSKA Moscow | 2–1 | 4–3 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 5–1 | 4–0 | 4–0 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 3–4 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 3–1 | |
| Dnipro | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 1–3 | 1–2 | 3–1 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 0–0 | |
| Dynamo Kyiv | 4–3 | 0–1 | 2–2 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 3–3 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 2–3 | 2–1 | 1–3 | |
| Dinamo Minsk | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 4–1 | 2–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 2–2 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | |
| Dynamo Moscow | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–2 | 6–2 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 6–1 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 1–4 | |
| Lokomotiv Moscow | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–3 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 0–2 | |
| Metalist Kharkiv | 0–1 | 3–1 | 3–2 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 3–1 | 3–1 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 1–3 | 2–0 | 0–2 | |
| Metalurh Zaporizhzhia | 1–1 | 1–4 | 0–0 | 3–2 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | |
| Pakhtakor Tashkent | 3–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 4–2 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 4–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | |
| Pamir Dushanbe | 2–1 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 3–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 2–0 | 0–0 | |
| Shakhtar Donetsk | 2–0 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 2–3 | 0–0 | 2–3 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 2–2 | |
| Spartak Moscow | 3–2 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 4–0 | 7–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 4–0 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 1–2 | |
| Spartak Vladikavkaz | 2–0 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 2–2 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 3–3 | 1–0 | |
| Torpedo Moscow | 2–0 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 5–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 1–1 |
| Prize | Founder | Laureate |
|---|---|---|
| Footballer of the Year | Football weekly | Igor Kolyvanov |
| Goalkeeper of the Year | Ogoniok magazine | Valeri Sarychev |
| Top Scorer | newspaperLabor | Igor Kolyvanov |
| Knight of Attack | Soviet Warrior magazine | Igor Kolyvanov |
| Top Rookie | Sport Games magazine | Valeriy Velichko |
| With Two Squads | Football Federation | Spartak Moscow |
| Grigory Fedotov Memorial | CSKA Moscow | Spartak Moscow |
| Fair Play | Person and Law magazine | Chornomorets Odesa |
| Large Score | Football weekly | Chornomorets Odesa |
| Will to Win | newspaperSovetskaya Rossiya | Pamir Dushanbe |
| Best Difference of Aggregates | Start magazine | Spartak Moscow |
| Aggressive Visitor | newspaper Komsomol's Banner | CSKA Moscow |
| Danger of the Best | Sport Moscow weekly | Chornomorets Odesa |
| Progress Cup | newspaper Labor Newspaper | Chornomrets Odesa |
| First Height | newspaper Socialist Industry | CSKA Moscow |
(league appearances and goals listed in brackets)
