1979 Soviet Top League

Soviet Top League

Season	1979
Champions	Spartak Moscow
Relegated	Zaria Voroshilovgrad, Krylya Sovetov Kuibyshev
European Cup	Spartak Moscow
Cup Winners' Cup	Dinamo Tbilisi
UEFA Cup	Dinamo Moscow Dinamo Kiev Shakhter Donetsk
Matches played	306
Goals scored	758 (2.48 per match)
Top goalscorer	(26) Vitaliy Starukhin (Shakhter)
← 1978 1980 →

Statistics of Soviet Top League for the 1979 season.

Overview

1979 Top League was composed of 18 teams, the championship was won by Spartak Moscow.

On 11 August 1979, a mid-air collision killed virtually the entire FC Pakhtakor Tashkent team. The Top League ordered all the other teams to make three players available for a draft to restock the team, and Pakhtakor was given exemption from relegation for the next three years.

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Spartak Moscow (C)	34	21	10	3	66	25	+41	50	Qualification for European Cup first round
2	Shakhtar Donetsk	34	20	8	6	57	33	+24	48	Qualification for UEFA Cup first round
3	Dynamo Kyiv	34	21	5	8	51	26	+25	47
4	Dinamo Tbilisi	34	19	12	3	54	27	+27	46	Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup first round
5	Dynamo Moscow	34	17	9	8	41	27	+14	42	Qualification for UEFA Cup first round
6	Dinamo Minsk	34	15	6	13	48	38	+10	36
7	Ararat Yerevan	34	12	13	9	44	32	+12	32
8	CSKA Moscow	34	12	8	14	46	46	0	32
9	Pakhtakor Tashkent	34	11	9	14	42	53	−11	30
10	Zenit Leningrad	34	11	9	14	41	45	−4	30
11	Chornomorets Odessa	34	10	11	13	32	37	−5	28
12	Lokomotiv Moscow	34	8	12	14	44	57	−13	24
13	Kairat Alma-Ata	34	8	9	17	29	44	−15	24
14	Neftchi Baku	34	8	8	18	29	50	−21	24
15	SKA Rostov-on-Don	34	8	14	12	37	50	−13	24
16	Torpedo Moscow	34	8	9	17	32	46	−14	24
17	Zaria Voroshilovgrad (R)	34	6	11	17	41	62	−21	20	Relegation to First League
18	Krylya Sovetov Kuibyshev (R)	34	7	5	22	24	60	−36	19

Source:
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

Results

Home \ Away	ARA	CHO	CSK	DYK	DMN	DYN	DTB	KAI	KRY	LOK	NEF	PAK	SHA	SKA	SPA	TOR	ZAR	ZEN
Ararat Yerevan		2–0	2–1	3–1	4–1	0–0	0–0	4–2	0–0	2–2	0–0	3–1	1–1	2–0	2–0	1–1	0–0	1–1
Chornomorets Odessa	2–1		0–1	2–0	0–1	3–1	0–1	0–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	2–1	0–0	2–2	1–1	1–1	3–1	1–2
CSKA Moscow	1–3	3–0		0–1	1–2	0–0	2–0	4–0	1–0	0–3	2–1	1–1	0–0	2–2	2–5	1–2	2–1	1–1
Dynamo Kyiv	2–1	1–0	1–0		1–0	2–1	1–1	2–1	4–1	3–1	5–1	4–3	2–0	2–1	0–2	2–0	2–0	3–0
Dinamo Minsk	3–2	2–0	0–0	0–0		2–3	1–2	1–0	0–0	3–1	3–0	2–1	2–0	2–2	1–2	2–0	6–2	3–1
Dynamo Moscow	0–1	3–0	2–1	0–0	1–0		1–1	2–0	1–0	3–2	3–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	0–0	0–2	2–2	0–0
Dinamo Tbilisi	1–0	3–1	3–1	1–0	1–0	1–1		2–0	2–1	1–0	1–1	4–0	0–0	3–1	0–0	3–1	3–0	2–0
Kairat Alma-Ata	1–0	1–3	2–3	1–0	1–0	0–2	0–0		0–2	2–2	3–1	0–1	1–2	4–1	1–2	0–0	2–1	1–0
Krylya Sovetov Kuibyshev	0–3	1–1	1–0	0–1	1–4	2–0	1–3	2–1		0–4	0–1	1–1	0–3	2–1	0–5	1–0	1–0	0–2
Lokomotiv Moscow	2–1	0–0	1–1	1–2	1–1	0–1	4–2	2–2	2–1		0–0	1–1	1–1	5–0	1–8	1–0	1–2	1–1
Neftçi Baku	4–2	1–0	0–3	0–1	1–2	0–1	1–2	1–0	3–0	2–0		0–1	3–1	2–2	0–2	1–0	1–1	2–2
Pakhtakor Tashkent	0–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	2–0	1–2	2–1	1–2	3–2	2–0	0–0		1–1	1–1	1–1	2–1	3–1	2–1
Shakhtar Donetsk	2–0	1–1	3–2	1–0	1–0	2–0	3–3	1–0	3–2	4–1	2–0	3–0		3–0	2–0	2–0	2–1	3–1
SKA Rostov-on-Don	0–0	1–1	2–1	0–0	1–0	1–2	1–1	0–0	2–0	0–0	2–0	1–3	2–0		2–3	2–1	2–2	1–0
Spartak Moscow	1–0	1–1	4–1	1–0	3–1	2–1	1–1	0–0	1–0	4–0	3–0	1–1	3–1	0–0		0–1	3–1	3–1
Torpedo Moscow	1–1	0–0	1–2	0–4	1–2	0–3	1–1	0–0	2–0	1–2	1–0	6–2	1–2	1–0	1–1		1–0	1–2
Zaria Voroshilovgrad	1–1	2–1	0–3	1–1	0–0	0–0	1–3	1–1	1–1	2–2	1–0	4–1	3–5	1–2	1–2	4–2		1–2
Zenit Leningrad	0–0	2–0	1–2	1–3	2–1	2–0	0–1	1–0	4–1	2–0	2–2	2–1	1–2	2–2	0–1	1–1	1–2

Source:
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

26 goals

• Vitali Starukhin (Shakhtar)

17 goals

• Sergey Andreyev (SKA Rostov-on-Don)
• Oleg Blokhin (Dynamo Kyiv)
• Khoren Hovhannisyan (Ararat)
• Valeriy Petrakov (Lokomotiv Moscow)

16 goals

• Yuri Chesnokov (CSKA Moscow)
• Vladimir Kazachyonok (Zenit)

14 goals

• Aleksandr Prokopenko (Dinamo Minsk)
• Georgi Yartsev (Spartak Moscow)
• Nikolai Vasilyev (Torpedo Moscow)

References

• Soviet Union - List of final tables (RSSSF)