Russian Premier League

The Russian Premier League (RPL; Russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ) (Russian Premier Liga) is the top division professional association football league in Russia.[1] It was established at the end of 2001 as the Russian Football Premier League (RFPL; Russian: Российская футбольная премьер-лига; РФПЛ) and was rebranded with its current name in 2018.[2] From 1992 through 2001, the top level of the Russian football league system was the Russian Football Championship (Russian: Чемпионат России по футболу, Chempionat Rossii po Futbolu).[3] There are 16 teams in the competition. The league has three Champions League qualifying spots given to the top three teams at the end of the season and the two Europa League spots will be allocated to the fourth and fifth placed teams. The last two teams are relegated to the Russian National Football League at the end of the season.

Russian Premier League
Organising bodyRussian Football Union (RFU)
Founded2001 (2001)
CountryRussia
ConfederationUEFA
Number of teams16
Level on pyramid1
Relegation toFootball National League
Domestic cup(s)Russian Cup
Russian Super Cup
International cup(s)UEFA Champions League
UEFA Europa League
UEFA Europa Conference League
Current championsZenit Saint Petersburg (6th title)
(2019–20)
Most championshipsSpartak Moscow (10 titles)
TV partnersList of broadcasters
Websitepremierliga.ru
Current: 2020–21 Russian Premier League

The Russian Premier League succeeded the Top Division including history and records. The Top Division was run by the Professional Football League of Russia. Creation of the Premier League is considered to give the clubs a greater degree of independence. The league is currently called Tinkoff Russian Premier League (Russian: Тинькофф Российская Премьер-Лига) (Tinkoff Russian Premier Liga) for sponsorship reasons.[4]

Since the introduction of the Russian Premier League in 2002, CSKA Moscow (6 times), Zenit Saint Petersburg (6 times), Lokomotiv Moscow (3 times), Rubin Kazan (2 times) and Spartak Moscow (1 time) have won the title. Zenit Saint Petersburg are the current Russian Premier League champions.

History

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, starting in 1992, each former Soviet republic organized an independent national championship. In Russia, the six Russian teams who had played in the Soviet Top League in 1991 (CSKA Moscow, Spartak Moscow, Torpedo Moscow, Dynamo Moscow, Spartak Vladikavkaz, and Lokomotiv Moscow) were supplemented with 14 teams from lower divisions to form a 20-team Russian Top Division. The Top Division was further divided into two groups to reduce the total number of matches. The number of teams in the Top Division was gradually reduced to 18 in 1993 and 16 in 1994. Since then, the Russian Top Division (and the Premier League since 2002) has consisted of 16 teams, except for a short-lived experiment with having two more teams in 1996 and 1997.

Spartak Moscow was the dominant force in the top division, winning nine of the first ten titles. Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz was the only team which managed to break Spartak's dominance, winning the top division title in 1995. Lokomotiv Moscow have won the title three times, and CSKA Moscow six times.

In 2007, Zenit St. Petersburg climbed to the top, winning the title for the first time in their history in Russian professional football; they had also won a Soviet title in 1984. 2008 brought the rise of Rubin Kazan, a club entirely new to the Russian top flight, as it had never competed in the Soviet Top League.

In preparation for the 2018–19 season, it was decided to hold a rebranding in which a new logo was presented.[5][6][7][8][9]

Competition
Russian Premier League match between Zenit and Dynamo (the last Zenit match at the Kirov Stadium, stadium had been already partially demolished.)

Teams in the Russian Premier League play each other twice, once at home and once away, for a total of 30 matches. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss. If teams are level on points, the tie-breakers are the number of wins, then the goal difference, followed by several other factors. If the teams are tied for the first position, the tie-breakers are the number of wins, then head-to-head results. If the teams tied for the first place cannot be separated by these tie-breakers, a championship play-off is ordered.

Russian Premier League match between Lokomotiv and Spartak at the Lokomotiv Stadium

As of 2020–21 season, the champions qualify for the UEFA Champions League group stage. The runners-up qualifies for the Champions League third qualifying round. The third and fourth-place teams qualify for the UEFA Europa Conference League. If the winner of Russian Cup ends in first or second on the championship in same season, then the third-place temas qualifies to UEFA Europa League group stage, while fourth and fifth-place teams qualify for the UEFA Europa Conference League instead. The bottom two teams are relegated to the National League. Starting on the 2020–21 season the teams ranked in 13th and 14th-place play a two legs relegation play-off against 4th and 3rd-place team from Nationa League. The two winners of this play-off secures the right to play in Premier League in following season.

Unlike most other European football leagues, the league traditionally used to ran in summer, from March to November, to avoid playing games in the cold and snowy weather in winter. This was altered ahead of the 2012–13 season, with the league planning to run the season from autumn to spring. The transitional season of the competition began in early 2011 and continued until summer of 2012. After the 16 Premier League teams played each other twice over the course of the 2011 calendar year, they were split into two groups of eight, and the teams played other teams in their groups two more times for a total of 44 games (30 in 2011 and 14 in 2012). Those two groups were contested in spring 2012, with the top eight clubs playing for the title and European places. The other sides vied to avoid relegation: the bottom two went down while the next two played off against the sides third and fourth in the National Football League, with the two losers being relegated (or denied promotion).[10] Under the current autumn-spring calendar, the league takes a three-month winter break from mid-December until mid-March. Merging the calendar with other UEFA leagues however, has increased numbers of games in winter. This has resulted in the Russian Far East and Siberian teams being forced to play more home games in hostile weather conditions which affected the Premier League when SKA Khabarovsk took part.[11]

Youth championship

The Youth championship (Russian: Молодежное первенство), also known as Youth teams championship (Russian: Первенство молодёжных команд), Reserve team tournament (Russian: Турнир дублирующих составов) or Reserves tournament (Russian: Турнир дублёров), full name Youth football championship of Russia among teams of clubs of the Premier League (Russian: Молодёжное Первенство России по футболу среди команд клубов Премьер-Лиги), is a league that runs in parallel to the Russian Premier League and includes the youth or reserve teams of the Russian Premier League teams. The number of players a team can have on the pitch at a time that are over 21 years of age or without a Russian citizenship is limited. 16 teams participate in the league. Matches are commonly played a day before the match of the senior teams of the respective teams. All of the Russian Premier League teams are obliged to have a youth team that would participate in the Youth championship. The teams that are promoted from the National Football League and do not have a youth team must create one. The teams in the league are not relegated based on their final league position, but on the league position of their respective clubs' senior teams.

It has to be noted however that some Premier League clubs have three teams. Apart from the senior team and the team that plays in the Youth championship a team might have another senior team that plays in a lower division of Russian football and serves as the farm team for the main team. Some examples include Spartak-2 and Zenit-2, playing in the Russian Football National League.

Reserves tournament champions (2001–2007)

Youth championship winners (since 2008)

UEFA club rankings

Russia are currently seventh in the UEFA coefficient rankings. The following are the best ranked Russian teams in Europe as of December 2020:[12]

No.TeamPoints
27Zenit Saint Petersburg50.000
35CSKA Moscow40.000
44Krasnodar34.500
51Lokomotiv Moscow31.000
79Spartak Moscow18.500
106Rostov14.000
146Dynamo Moscow1.500
147Ufa1.500
148Rubin Kazan2.500

Current clubs
Locations of teams in 2019–20 Russian Premier League

The following teams are competing in the 2019–20 season:

Team Home city Stadium Capacity
Akhmat Grozny Grozny Akhmat-Arena 30,597
Arsenal Tula Tula Arsenal Stadium 20,048
CSKA Moscow Moscow VEB Arena 30,457[13]
Dynamo Moscow Moscow VTB Arena 26,700
Khimki Moscow Arena Khimki 18,636
Krasnodar Krasnodar Krasnodar Stadium 34,291
Lokomotiv Moscow Moscow Lokomotiv Stadium 27,320
Rostov Rostov-on-Don Rostov Arena 45,000
Rotor Volgograd Volgograd Volgograd Arena 45,568
Rubin Kazan Kazan Kazan Arena 45,093[14]
Spartak Moscow Moscow Otkrytiye Arena 44,307[15]
Sochi Sochi Fisht Olympic Stadium 44,287
Tambov Tambov Spartak Stadium 8,000
Ufa Ufa Neftyanik Stadium 15,132[16]
FC Ural Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg Central Stadium 35,696
Zenit Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg Krestovsky Stadium 67,800[17]

Name changes

Champions and top scorers
Main article: List of Soviet and Russian football champions
Season Champion Runner-up Third place Top scorer
1992 Spartak Moscow Spartak Vladikavkaz Dynamo Moscow Vali Gasimov (Dinamo Moscow, 16 goals – 1–8 place)
Yuri Matveyev (Uralmash Yekaterinburg, 20 goals – 9–20 place)
1993 Spartak Moscow (2) Rotor Volgograd Dynamo Moscow (2) Victor Panchenko (KamAZ Naberezhnye Chelny, 21 goals)
1994 Spartak Moscow (3) Dynamo Moscow Lokomotiv Moscow Igor Simutenkov (Dinamo Moscow, 21 goals)
1995 Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz Lokomotiv Moscow Spartak Moscow Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor Volgograd, 25 goals)
1996 Spartak Moscow (4) Alania Vladikavkaz (2) Rotor Volgograd Aleksandr Maslov (Rostselmash, 23 goals)
1997 Spartak Moscow (5) Rotor Volgograd (2) Dynamo Moscow (3) Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor Volgograd, 22 goals)
1998 Spartak Moscow (6) CSKA Moscow Lokomotiv Moscow (2) Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor Volgograd, 22 goals)
1999 Spartak Moscow (7) Lokomotiv Moscow (2) CSKA Moscow Georgi Demetradze (Alania Vladikavkaz, 21 goals)
2000 Spartak Moscow (8) Lokomotiv Moscow (3) Torpedo Moscow Dmitri Loskov (Lokomotiv Moscow, 18 goals)
2001 Spartak Moscow (9) Lokomotiv Moscow (4) Zenit Saint Petersburg Dmitri Vyazmikin (Torpedo Moscow, 18 goals)
2002 Lokomotiv Moscow CSKA Moscow (2) Spartak Moscow (2) Rolan Gusev (CSKA Moscow, 15 goals)
Dmitri Kirichenko (CSKA Moscow, 15 goals)
2003 CSKA Moscow Zenit Saint Petersburg Rubin Kazan Dmitri Loskov (Lokomotiv Moscow, 14 goals)
2004 Lokomotiv Moscow (2) CSKA Moscow (2) Krylia Sovetov Samara Aleksandr Kerzhakov (Zenit St. Petersburg, 18 goals)
2005 CSKA Moscow (2) Spartak Moscow Lokomotiv Moscow (3) Dmitri Kirichenko (Moscow, 14 goals)
2006 CSKA Moscow (3) Spartak Moscow (2) Lokomotiv Moscow (4) Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow, 18 goals)
2007 Zenit Saint Petersburg Spartak Moscow (3) CSKA Moscow (2) Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow, 14 goals)
Roman Adamov (Moscow, 14 goals)
2008 Rubin Kazan CSKA Moscow (4) Dynamo Moscow (4) Vágner Love (CSKA Moscow, 20 goals)
2009 Rubin Kazan (2) Spartak Moscow (4) Zenit Saint Petersburg (2) Welliton (Spartak Moscow, 21 goals)
2010 Zenit Saint Petersburg (2) CSKA Moscow (5) Rubin Kazan (2) Welliton (Spartak Moscow, 19 goals)
2011–12 Zenit Saint Petersburg (3) Spartak Moscow (5) CSKA Moscow (3) Seydou Doumbia (CSKA Moscow, 28 goals)
2012–13 CSKA Moscow (4) Zenit Saint Petersburg (2) Anzhi Makhachkala Yura Movsisyan (Krasnodar/Spartak Moscow, 13 goals)
Wánderson (Krasnodar, 13 goals)
2013–14 CSKA Moscow (5) Zenit Saint Petersburg (3) Lokomotiv Moscow (5) Seydou Doumbia (CSKA Moscow, 18 goals)
2014–15 Zenit Saint Petersburg (4) CSKA Moscow (6) Krasnodar Hulk (Zenit Saint Petersburg, 15 goals)
2015–16 CSKA Moscow (6) Rostov Zenit Saint Petersburg (3) Fyodor Smolov (Krasnodar, 20 goals)
2016–17 Spartak Moscow (10) CSKA Moscow (7) Zenit Saint Petersburg (4) Fyodor Smolov (Krasnodar, 18 goals)
2017–18 Lokomotiv Moscow (3) CSKA Moscow (8) Spartak Moscow (3) Quincy Promes (Spartak Moscow, 15 goals)
2018–19 Zenit Saint Petersburg (5) Lokomotiv Moscow (5) Krasnodar (2) Fyodor Chalov (CSKA Moscow, 15 goals)
2019–20 Zenit Saint Petersburg (6) Lokomotiv Moscow (6) Krasnodar (3) Sardar Azmoun (Zenit Saint Petersburg, 17 goals)
Artem Dzyuba (Zenit Saint Petersburg, 17 goals)

Performance by club
Club Winners Runners-up Third place Years won
Spartak Moscow
10
5
3
 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2016–17
CSKA Moscow
6
8
3
 2003, 2005, 2006, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2015–16
Zenit Saint Petersburg
6
3
4
 2007, 2010, 2011–12, 2014–15, 2018–19, 2019–20
Lokomotiv Moscow
3
6
5
 2002, 2004, 2017–18
Rubin Kazan
2
0
2
 2008, 2009
Spartak Vladikavkaz
1
2
0
 1995
Rotor Volgograd
0
2
1
Dynamo Moscow
0
1
4
Rostov
0
1
0
Krasnodar
0
0
3
Torpedo Moscow
0
0
1
Krylia Sovetov Samara
0
0
1
Anzhi Makhachkala
0
0
1
Total 28 28 28

UEFA ranking
See also: UEFA coefficient

UEFA League Ranking at the end of the 2018–19 season:[18]

  1. Spanish La Liga
  2. English Premier League
  3. Italian Serie A
  4. German Bundesliga
  5. French Ligue 1
  6. Russian Premier League
  7. Portuguese Primeira Liga
  8. Belgian Pro League
  9. Ukrainian Premier League
  10. Süper Lig

All-time table
As of the end of the 2017–18 season. Teams in bold compete in 2018–19 Premier League.
RankClub1SeasonsSpellsMost
recent
season		Played2WonDrawnLostGoalsPoints3GoldSilverBronzeNotes
1Spartak Moscow2718034281851601424-81615251053
2CSKA Moscow2718034061801871148-7311456683
3Lokomotiv Moscow2718033752181801131-7181403345
4Zenit Saint Petersburg2427123341921561085-6801247434
5Dynamo Moscow2627723072122231053-8651173-14
6Krylya Sovetov Samara253746233207306793–971906--1
7Rostov253742207206299758–959864-1-
8Rubin Kazan161464184122128570–4347122-2
9Torpedo Moscow1622014–15492188142162625–598706--1
10Alania Vladikavkaz1632012–13489179109201630–66364612-Disbanded and reestablished 2014
11Rotor Volgograd1312004402151109142562–506562-21
12Amkar Perm1412017–18434114131159368–478508---Disbanded 2018
13Saturn Moscow Oblast1212010360120121119396–378481---
14Akhmat Grozny12234410277135322–404422 4---
15Ural Sverdlovsk Oblast1123089358127337–421374---
16Krasnodar81224885452295–213372--1
17Anzhi Makhachkala1133148683115299–353365--1
18Moscow912009270928395295–311359---Disbanded 2010
19Shinnik Yaroslavl10420083048586133294–403341---
21Tom Tomsk922016–172847577132259–395302---
22Chernomorets Novorossiysk8220032487465109274–357287---
24Zhemchuzhina Sochi7119992226157104263–390240---Disbanded 2003 and 2013, reestablished 2007
25Spartak Nalchik612011–12194545783207–239219---
26Energia-Tekstilshchik Kamyshin511996158534362172–177202---
27KAMAZ Naberezhnye Chelny511997162513279198–253179 5---
28Uralan Elista522003150363975138–225147---Disbanded 2005, reestablished 2014
29Ufa419025263973–108144---
30Luch-Energia Vladivostok422008124343258116–187134---
31Baltika Kaliningrad31199898303731114–111127---
32Fakel Voronezh432001124312964101–175122---
33Dynamo Stavropol3119949427234494–125104---Disbanded 2014, re-established 2015
34Tyumen5319981542526103116–326101---
35Arsenal Tula326014113538–8695---
36Volga Nizhny Novgorod312013–1410425166387–17191---Disbanded 2016
37Mordovia Saransk322015–169020224882–15082---
38Okean Nakhodka2119936422142865–8380---Disbanded 2015, reestablished 2018
39Khimki3120099017235086–15174---
40Asmaral Moscow2119936019113074–10268---Disbanded 1999
41Sokol Saratov2120026017133055–8764---
42Lada Togliatti2219966410163842–10546---
43Orenburg2230791425–3630---
44Tosno112017–1830661823–5424---Disbanded 2018
46SKA-Khabarovsk112017–1830272116–5513---
47Yenisey Krasnoyarsk112018-1930481824-5520---
Competing in RPL
Competing in FNL (2nd tier)
Competing in PFL (3rd tier)
Competing in amateur leagues (below 3rd tier)
Defunct (see notes)
Notes
  1. For clubs that have been renamed, their name at the time of their most recent season in the Russian League is given. The current members are listed in bold.
  2. Includes championship play-offs, does not include relegation play-offs.
  3. For the purposes of this table, each win is worth 3 points. The three-point system was adopted in 1995.
  4. Terek were deducted 6 points in 2005.
  5. KAMAZ-Chally were deducted 6 points in 1997.

Player records

Most appearances
As of 17 December 2020
RankPlayerApps
1 Sergei Ignashevich489
2 Igor Akinfeev476
3 Sergei Semak456
4 Dmitri Loskov453
5 Igor Semshov433
6 Vasili Berezutski402
7 Ruslan Adzhindzhal397
8 Valery Yesipov390
9 Aleksandr Samedov386
10 Igor Denisov384

Most goals
As of 16 December 2020
RankPlayerGoalsAppsAvg/Game
1 Oleg Veretennikov1432740.52
2 Aleksandr Kerzhakov1393390.41
3 Dmitri Kirichenko1293770.34
3 Artem Dzyuba1293520.37
5 Dmitri Loskov1204530.26
6 Roman Pavlyuchenko1043090.34
7 Sergei Semak1024560.22
8 Andrey Tikhonov983460.28
8 Igor Semshov984330.23
10 Valery Yesipov883900.23

Champions (players)

Media coverage

Russia and CIS
Channel Summary Ref
Match TV 60 matches per season live [19]
Match Premier All 240 matches live

the Super Cup matches for viewers in Russia are excluded.

Worldwide (excluding Russia, CIS, and China)

All 240 matches are aired live globally on YouTube with a required subscription. There will be two membership levels for the viewers outside Russia, CIS, and China. The first level includes two matches with English commentary each matchday and will cost a monthly fee of $2.99. The second level, for $4.99 a month, gives subscribers access to all eight matches in Russian and two matches with English commentary as well.[20] In 2018–19 season, YouTube broadcast four live matches per week for free (in matchweek 30, aired all last eight matches).[21] From 2020–21, YouTube also broadcast the FTA coverage of Super Cup before airing the league.

Country/Region Broadcaster
Sport Klub
 Brazil Grupo Bandeirantes
 China Tencent QQ
 Cyprus CytaVision [22]
 Hong Kong i-Cable
 Spain LaLigaSportsTV [23]

See also

References
  1. "Russian Premier League". uefa.com. Archived from the original on 11 December 2014.
  2. "RFPL". rfpl.org. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014.
  3. "ABOUT RUSSIAN FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP". rfpl.org. Archived from the original on 7 June 2017.
  4. "Tinkoff named title partner of the Russian Premier Liga". Russian Premier Liga. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  5. "Футбол и сомбреро, они, если честно... Новые логотипы РФПЛ как прививка от скуки" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 18 April 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  6. "Новый логотип премьер-лиги. Просто бомба!" (in Russian). 12 April 2018. Archived from the original on 29 June 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  7. "Медведь на логотипе РФПЛ" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  8. "Представлен рабочий вариант нового логотипа РФПЛ" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  9. "Cоздание логотипа Российской премьер-лиги". www.artlebedev.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 14 July 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  10. "Russian league switches to new calendar". UEFA.com. UEFA. 13 September 2010. Archived from the original on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2010.
  11. "Russia fears freezing out top players". Gulf News. 21 November 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  12. "Member associations - UEFA rankings - Club coefficients – UEFA.com". UEFA.com. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  13. "Arena CSKA (VEB Arena)".
  14. "Kazan Arena".
  15. "Otkritie Arena".
  16. "Neftyanik".
  17. "Arena St Petersburg".
  18. "UEFA Country Ranking 2019 – kassiesA – Xs4all". Kassiesa.home.xs411.nl. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  19. "Match TV creates new channel for Russian Premier Liga". SportBusiness Media. 25 July 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  20. "Russian Premier Liga launches YouTube memberships to broadcast all matches of the 2019/2020 season live". Russian Premier League. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  21. Sansun, David (2 March 2019). "RPL announce live matches to be broadcast free on YouTube". Russian Football News. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  22. "Sports content 2020-21 from 22 Sports Channels". cyta.com.cy. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  23. "LaLigaSportsTV and Telestare acquire RPL broadcast rights". eng.premierliga.ru. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
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