2020–21 Russian Premier League

Russian Premier League 2020–21
Season information
Dates	8 August 2020 - 16 May 2021
Winners	Zenit Saint Petersburg
Relegated	Rotor Volgograd Tambov (dissolved)
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	Petersburg Spartak Moscow
Europa League	Lokomotiv Moscow
Europa Conference League	Rubin Kazan Sochi
Season statistics
Matches played	240
Goals scored	637
Top goalscorer	Artem Dzyuba (20 goals)
Biggest home win	Petersburg 6–0 Ufa (26 September 2020) Petersburg 6–0 Rotor (24 April 2021)
Biggest away win	Krasnodar 0–5 Akhmat (3 April 2021)
Highest scoring	Krasnodar 7–2 Khimki (18 September 2020)
← 2019–20	2021–22 →

The 2020–21 Russian Premier League was the 29th season of the premier football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 17th under the current Russian Premier League name.

Teams

As in the previous season, 16 teams are playing in the 2020–21 season. After the 2019–20 season, Orenburg and Krylya Sovetov were relegated to the 2020–21 Russian National Football League. Orenburg return to the second tier after a two-year stay in the top tier. They were replaced by Rotor and Khimki, the winners and runners up of the 2019–20 Russian National Football League. Rotor Volgograd return to the Premier League after a 16-year absence, while Khimki return after an 11-year absence.

Venues

Zenit Saint Petersburg	Rotor	Khimki	Rostov
Gazprom Arena	Volgograd Arena	Arena Khimki	Rostov Arena
Capacity: 67,800	Capacity: 45,568	Capacity: 18,636	Capacity: 45,000
Spartak Moscow	Ural Yekaterinburg
Otkritie Arena	Central Stadium
Capacity: 44,307	Capacity: 35,696
Krasnodar	Akhmat Grozny
Krasnodar Stadium	Akhmat-Arena
Capacity: 34,291	Capacity: 30,597
CSKA Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow
VEB Arena	RZD Arena
Capacity: 30,457	Capacity: 27,320
Sochi	Tambov
Fisht Olympic Stadium	Mordovia Arena
Capacity: 47,659	Capacity: 44,442
Arsenal Tula	Dynamo Moscow	Ufa	Rubin Kazan
Arsenal Stadium	VTB Arena	Neftyanik Stadium	Kazan Arena
Capacity: 20,048	Capacity: 26,319	Capacity: 15,132	Capacity: 45,093

Personnel and kits

Team	Location	Head coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Akhmat	Grozny	Andrei Talalayev	Bernard Berisha	Adidas	Akhmat Foundation
Arsenal	Tula	Dmytro Parfenov	Yevgeni Lutsenko	Adidas	SPLAV
CSKA	Moscow	Ivica Olić	Igor Akinfeev	Joma	X-Holding
Dynamo	Moscow	Sandro Schwarz	Anton Shunin	Kelme	VTB
Khimki	Khimki	Igor Cherevchenko	Dmitri Tikhiy	Puma	Parimatch
Krasnodar	Krasnodar	Viktor Goncharenko	Matvei Safonov	Puma	1XBET
Lokomotiv	Moscow	Marko Nikolić	Vedran Ćorluka	Adidas	RZhD
Rostov	Rostov-on-Don	Valeri Karpin	Maksim Osipenko	Puma	TNS Energo
Rotor	Volgograd	Yuri Baturenko	Sergei Makarov	Nike	Marathonbet
Rubin	Kazan	Leonid Slutsky	Filip Uremović	Jako	TAIF
Sochi	Sochi	Vladimir Fedotov	Soslan Dzhanayev	Nike
Spartak	Moscow	Domenico Tedesco	Georgi Dzhikiya	Nike	Lukoil
Tambov	Tambov	Sergei Pervushin	Aleksandr Denisov	Nike	Parimatch
Ufa	Ufa	Aleksei Stukalov	Bojan Jokić	Joma	BetBoom
Ural	Yekaterinburg	Yuri Matveyev	Denys Kulakov	Nike	TMK
Zenit	Saint Petersburg	Sergei Semak	Dejan Lovren	Nike	Gazprom

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Akhmat Grozny	Igor Shalimov	Contract expired	26 July 2020	Off-season	Andrei Talalayev	26 July 2020	Off-season
Khimki	Sergei Yuran	Fired	1 August 2020	Off-season	Dmitri Gunko	1 August 2020	Off-season
Khimki	Dmitri Gunko	Mutual consent	21 September 2020	15th	Igor Cherevchenko	25 September 2020	15th
Dynamo	Kirill Novikov	Resigned	29 September 2020	9th	Alyaksandr Kulchy (caretaker)	29 September 2020	9th
Ufa	Vadim Evseev	Mutual consent	7 October 2020	15th	Rashid Rakhimov	11 October 2020	15th
Dynamo	Alyaksandr Kulchy (caretaker)	End of role	14 October 2020	6th	Sandro Schwarz	14 October 2020	6th
Arsenal	Sergei Podpaly	Fired	2 November 2020	13th	Dmytro Parfenov	2 November 2020	13th
Rotor	Alyaksandr Khatskevich	Fired	19 March 2021	13th	Yuri Baturenko	20 March 2021	13th
CSKA	Viktor Goncharenko	Mutual consent	22 March 2021	5th	Ivica Olić	23 March 2021	5th
Ufa	Rashid Rakhimov	Resigned	3 April 2021	15th	Nikolai Safronidi (caretaker)	3 April 2021	15th
Krasnodar	Murad Musayev	Resigned	3 April 2021	10th	Viktor Goncharenko	6 April 2021	10th
Ufa	Nikolai Safronidi (caretaker)	End of role	9 April 2021	15th	Aleksei Stukalov	9 April 2021	15th

Tournament format and regulations

Basic

The 16 teams were playing 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 was played, with 30 matches played by each team.

Promotion and relegation

The teams that finish 15th and 16th will be relegated to the FNL 2021–22, while the top 2 in that league will be promoted to the 2021–22 season.

The 13th and 14th Premier League teams will play the 4th and 3rd FNL 2020–21 teams respectively in two (home-and-away) playoff games with the winners securing Premier League spots for the 2021–22 season. In case one of the Premier League teams that finish 13th and 14th will not pass licensing for the 2021–22 Premier League season, the other Premier League club will remain in the league, and the 3rd and 4th FNL teams will play each other in a two games playoff for the remaining spot. In case one of the FNL teams that finish 3rd and 4th will not pass licensing for the 2021–22 Premier League season, the team that finished Premier League in 13th place will remain in the league, and the team that finished 14th will play the FNL team that passed licensing in a two game playoffs, with the winner securing the Premier League spot. In case only two of the clubs otherwise eligible for the playoffs pass licensing for the 2020–21 season, the playoffs will not be held and the clubs that passed licensing will get the Premier League spots. In case any teams otherwise eligible for the 2021–22 Premier League (including the top 2 2020–21 FNL clubs) will not pass licensing or will be unable to participate in the season for any other reason, the spots will be passed on to the teams that lost in the playoffs, in order of their 2020–21 league position, with the Premier League positions considered higher than FNL positions (for example, if 13th Premier League team and 3rd FNL team lose in the playoffs, the spot will go to the 13th Premier League team). If, after following these procedures, there are still 2021–22 Premier League spots available (in case 3 or more teams otherwise qualified are unable to participate), the remaining replacements will be chosen by the Russian Football Union with agreement of the Premier League and FNL.

2nd and 4th FNL teams (FC Orenburg and FC Alania Vladikavkaz) failed licensing for the 2021–22 Premier League season (due to lack of acceptable stadium), their appeal was denied on 12 May 2021. On 15 May 2021, Russian Football Union confirmed that the relegation playoffs will not be held. RFU also amended the playoff regulations accordingly. If the original version of the regulations was followed to the letter, FC Nizhny Novgorod would have faced FC Arsenal Tula in a home-and-away playoff series, and then the loser of the series would be promoted into the Premier League anyway, rendering the playoffs meaningless.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Zenit St. Petersburg	30	19	8	3	76	26	+50	65	Qualification to Champions League group stage
2	Spartak Moscow	30	17	6	7	56	37	+19	57	Qualification to Champions League third qualifying round
3	Lokomotiv Moscow	30	17	5	8	45	35	+10	56	Qualification to Europa League group stage
4	Rubin Kazan	30	16	5	9	42	33	+9	53	Qualification to Europa League third qualifying round
5	Sochi	30	15	8	7	49	33	+16	53	Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round
6	CSKA Moscow	30	15	5	10	51	33	+18	50
7	Dynamo Moscow	30	15	5	10	44	33	+11	50
8	Khimki	30	13	6	11	35	39	−4	45
9	Rostov	30	13	4	13	37	35	+2	43
10	Krasnodar	30	12	5	13	52	45	+7	41
11	Akhmat Grozny	30	11	7	12	36	38	−2	40
12	Ural Yekaterinburg	30	7	13	10	26	36	−10	34
13	Ufa	30	6	7	17	26	46	−20	25
14	Arsenal Tula	30	6	5	19	28	51	−23	23
15	Rotor Volgograd  (R)	30	5	7	18	15	52	−37	22	Relegation to Football National League
16	Tambov	30	3	4	23	19	65	−46	13	Dissolved after the season

Source: Russian Premier League
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

Kits

External links

• Official website

2020–21 in Russian football

Domestic leagues

Premier League · National Football League · Professional Football League

Domestic cups

Russian Cup (Final) · Super Cup

International club competitions

Champions League · Europa League

2019–20                                                        2021–22