2017–18 Russian Premier League

Russian Premier League 2017–18
Season information
Winners	Lokomotiv Moscow
Relegated	Amkar Perm Tosno SKA-Khabarovsk
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	Lokomotiv Moscow CSKA Moscow Spartak Moscow
Europa League	Krasnodar Zenit St. Petersburg Ufa
Season statistics
Matches played	240
Goals scored	541
Top goalscorer	Quincy Promes (15 goals)
Biggest home win	Rubin 6–0 Anzhi CSKA Moscow 6–0 Tosno CSKA Moscow 6–0 Arsenal Tula St. Petersburg 6–0 Khabarovsk
Biggest away win	Anzhi 1–5 Krasnodar Dynamo 0–4 Lokomotiv
Highest scoring	Spartak Moscow 3–4 Lokomotiv
Previous season	Next season
← 2016–17	2018–19 →

The 2017–18 Russian Premier League will be the 26th season of the premier league football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 15th under the current Russian Premier League name. Spartak Moscow came into the season as the defending champions of the 2016-17 season.

Teams

As in the previous season, 16 teams play in the 2017–18 season. After the 2016–17 season, FC Orenburg, FC Tom Tomsk and FC Krylia Sovetov Samara were relegated to the 2017–18 Russian National Football League. They were replaced by three clubs from the 2016–17 Russian National Football League, FC Dynamo Moscow, FC Tosno and FC SKA-Khabarovsk. Dynamo returns after one season of absence, while Tosno and Khabarovsk make their debuts in the Russian top division.

FC Terek Grozny changed its name to FC Akhmat Grozny.

Stadiums

Team	Stadium	City	Opened	Capacity
Akhmat	Akhmat-Arena	Grozny	2011	30,597
Amkar	Zvezda Stadium	Perm	1969	17,000
Anzhi	Anzhi Arena	Kaspiysk	2003	26,400
Arsenal	Arsenal Stadium	Tula	1959	20,048
CSKA	VEB Arena	Moscow	2016	30,000
Dynamo	Arena Khimki	Khimki	2008	18,636
Krasnodar	Krasnodar Stadium	Krasnodar	2016	34,291
Lokomotiv	Lokomotiv Stadium	Moscow	2002	28,800
Rostov	Olimp-2	Rostov-on-Don	1930	15,840
Rubin	Kazan Arena	Kazan	2013	45,379
SKA-Khabarovsk	Lenin Stadium	Khabarovsk	1951	15,200
Spartak	Otkrytiye Arena	Moscow	2014	45,360
Tosno	Petrovsky Stadium	Saint Petersburg	1925	21,405
Ufa	Neftyanik Stadium	Ufa	1967	15,234
Ural	SKB-Bank Arena	Yekaterinburg	1940	10,000
Zenit	Krestovsky Stadium	Saint Petersburg	2017	64,287

Personnel and sponsorship

Team	Location	Head coach	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Akhmat Grozny	Grozny	Igor Lediakhov (caretaker)	Adidas	Akhmat Foundation
Amkar Perm	Perm	Vadim Evseev (caretaker)	Adidas
Anzhi Makhachkala	Makhachkala	Vadim Skripchenko	Nike
Arsenal Tula	Tula	Miodrag Božović	Adidas	SPLAV
CSKA Moscow	Moscow	Viktor Goncharenko	Adidas	Rosseti
Dynamo Moscow	Moscow	Dmitri Khokhlov	Nike	VTB
Krasnodar	Krasnodar	Murad Musayev (caretaker)	Puma	Constell Group
Lokomotiv Moscow	Moscow	Yuri Semin	Adidas	RZhD
Rostov	Rostov-on-Don	Valeri Karpin	Adidas
Rubin Kazan	Kazan	Kurban Berdyev	Jako, New Balance	Nizhnekamskneftekhim
SKA-Khabarovsk	Khabarovsk	Sergei Perednya	Adidas	LeonBets
Spartak Moscow	Moscow	Massimo Carrera	Nike	LUKOIL
Tosno	Tosno	Dmytro Parfenov	Nike	Fort Group
Ufa	Ufa	Sergei Semak	Joma
Ural Yekaterinburg	Yekaterinburg	Aleksandr Tarkhanov	Joma	Renova, TMK
Zenit Saint Petersburg	Saint Petersburg	Roberto Mancini	Nike	Gazprom

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Akhmat	Rashid Rakhimov	Mutual consent	22 May 2017	pre-season	Oleg Kononov	22 May 2017
Zenit	Mircea Lucescu	Fired	28 May 2017		Roberto Mancini	1 June 2017
Arsenal	Sergei Kiriakov	Contract expired	31 May 2017		Miodrag Božović	18 June 2017
Rostov	Ivan Daniliants		1 June 2017		Leonid Kuchuk	9 June 2017
Rubin	Javi Gracia	Mutual consent	8 June 2017		Kurban Berdyev	9 June 2017
Anzhi	Aleksandr Grigoryan	Resigned	13 August 2017	15th	Vadim Skripchenko	14 August 2017
Dynamo	Yuriy Kalitvintsev	Mutual consent	7 October 2017	15th	Dmitri Khokhlov	7 October 2017
Akhmat	Oleg Kononov	Resigned	30 October 2017	9th	Mikhail Galaktionov (caretaker) (permanent)	30 October 2017 14 December 2017
Rostov	Leonid Kuchuk	Resigned	6 December 2017	10th	Dmitri Kirichenko (caretaker)	6 December 2017
Rostov	Dmitri Kirichenko (caretaker)	Caretaking spell over	19 December 2017	10th	Valeri Karpin	19 December 2017
SKA-Khabarovsk	Aleksei Poddubskiy	Moved to the director of sports position	20 December 2017	16th	Rinat Bilyaletdinov	12 January 2018
Amkar	Gadzhi Gadzhiyev	Resigned	2 March 2018	13th	Vadim Evseev (caretaker)	2 March 2018
SKA-Khabarovsk	Rinat Bilyaletdinov	Mutual consent	31 March 2018	16th	Sergei Perednya	3 April 2018
Krasnodar	Igor Shalimov	Fired	2 April 2018	5th	Murad Musayev (caretaker)	3 April 2018
Akhmat	Mikhail Galaktionov	Resigned	7 April 2018	11th	Igor Lediakhov (caretaker)	7 April 2018

Tournament format and regulations

Basic

The 16 teams will play a round-robin tournament whereby each team plays each one of the other teams twice, once at home and once away. Thus, a total of 240 matches will be played, with 30 matches played by each team.

Promotion and relegation

The teams that finish 15th and 16th will be relegated to the FNL, while the top 2 in that league will be promoted to the Premier League for the 2017–18 season.

The 13th and 14th Premier League teams will play the 4th and 3rd FNL teams respectively in two playoff games with the winners securing Premier League spots for the 2018–19 season.

League table

2017–18 Russian Premier League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Template:Fb team FC Lokomotiv Moscow	30	18	6	6	41	21	+20	60	Qualification to Champions League group stage
2	Template:Fb team PFC CSKA Moscow	30	17	7	6	49	23	+26	58	Qualification to Champions League third qualifying round
3	Template:Fb team FC Spartak Moscow	30	16	8	6	51	32	+19	56	Qualification to Champions League third qualifying round
4	Template:Fb team FC Krasnodar	30	16	6	8	46	30	+16	54	Qualification to Europa League group stage
5	Template:Fb team FC Zenit Saint Petersburg	30	14	11	5	46	21	+25	53	Qualification to Europa League third qualifying round
6	Template:Fb team FC Ufa	30	11	10	9	34	30	+4	43	Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round
7	Template:Fb team FC Arsenal Tula	30	12	6	12	35	41	−6	42
8	Template:Fb team FC Dynamo Moscow	30	10	10	10	29	30	−1	40
9	Template:Fb team FC Akhmat Grozny	30	10	9	11	30	34	−4	39
10	Template:Fb team FC Rubin Kazan	30	9	11	10	32	25	+7	38
11	Template:Fb team FC Rostov	30	9	10	11	27	28	−1	37
12	Template:Fb team FC Ural Yekaterinburg	30	8	13	9	31	32	−1	37
13	Template:Fb team FC Amkar Perm	30	9	8	13	20	30	−10	35	Dissolved after the season
14	Template:Fb team FC Anzhi Makhachkala	30	6	6	18	31	55	−24	24	Qualification to Relegation play-offs
15	Template:Fb team FC Tosno	30	6	6	18	23	54	−31	24	Dissolved after the season
16	Template:Fb team FC SKA-Khabarovsk (R)	30	2	7	21	16	55	−39	13	Relegation to FNL

Updated to games played on 13 May 2018
Source: Russian Premier League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

Relegation play-offs

First leg

17 May 2018 (2018-05-17) 19:00 UTC+7	Yenisey Krasnoyarsk	3–0	Anzhi Makhachkala	Football Arena Yenisey, Krasnoyarsk Attendance: 3,000 Referee: Mikhail Vilkov (Nizhny Novgorod)
	Kutyin  25' (pen.), 58' Sarkisov  32'	Report

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17 May 2018 (2018-05-17) 19:30 UTC+5	Amkar Perm	2–0	Tambov	Zvezda Stadium, Perm Attendance: 13,478 Referee: Sergey Lapochkin (Saint Petersburg)
	Gol  60' Balanovich  79'	Report

Second leg

20 May 2018 (2018-05-20) 18:00 UTC+3	Tambov	0–1	Amkar Perm	STC Tambov, Tambov Attendance: 1,500 Referee: Roman Galimov (Ulan-Ude)
		Report	Kostyukov  39'

Amkar Perm won 3–0 on aggregate and retained their spot in the 2018–19 Russian Premier League; FC Tambov remained in the 2018–19 Russian National Football League.

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20 May 2018 (2018-05-20) 21:00 UTC+3	Anzhi Makhachkala	4–3	Yenisey Krasnoyarsk	Anzhi Arena, Kaspiysk Attendance: 6,100 Referee: Kirill Levnikov (Saint Petersburg)
	Poku  45' Kalmykov  73' Poluyakhtov  74'  90'	Report	Obradović  15' Semakin  16' Serderov  84' (pen.)

Yenisey Krasnoyarsk won 6–4 on aggregate and were promoted to the 2018–19 Russian Premier League; Anzhi Makhachkala were relegated to the 2018–19 Russian National Football League.

On 13 June 2018, FC Amkar Perm announced that the Russian Football Union recalled their 2018–19 season license, making them ineligible for the Russian Premier League or Russian Football National League. The final decision on the club's future will be made on 18 June 2018 at the club's board meeting. As a consequence, Anzhi Makhachkala will not be relegated.

Season statistics

Scoring

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Quincy Promes	Spartak	15
2	Fyodor Smolov	Krasnodar	14
3	Luiz Adriano	Spartak	10
	Viktor Claesson	Krasnodar
	Jefferson Farfán	Lokomotiv
	Aleksandr Kokorin	Zenit
	Vitinho	CSKA
8	Yevgeni Markov	Tosno/Dynamo	9
9	Eric Bicfalvi	Ural	8
10	Luka Đorđević	Arsenal	7
	Artem Dzyuba	Zenit/Arsenal
	Manuel Fernandes	Lokomotiv
	Sylvester Igboun	Ufa
	Aleksei Miranchuk	Lokomotiv
	Aleksandr Tashayev	Dynamo
	Aleksandr Yerokhin	Zenit

Last updated: 13 May 2018

External links

• Official website
• History and statictics