Russian Premier League

Russian Premier League
Country	Russia
Confederation	UEFA
Founded	2001
Number of teams	16
Relegation to	Russian National Football League
Level on pyramid	1
Domestic cup(s)	Russian Cup Russian Super Cup
UEFA cup(s)	None (due to war with Ukraine)
Current champions	Zenit Saint Petersburg (10th title) (2023-24)
Most successful club	Spartak Moscow Zenit Saint Petersburg (10 titles)
TV	List of broadcasters
Website	Official website
2024–25

The Russian Football Premier League is the top division professional association football league in Russia. The competition is administered by the Russian Football Premier League. There are 16 teams in the competition. The league currently has two Champions League places, however, from the 2017–18 season, the league will have 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 cup winner qualifies for the UEFA Europa League without play-offs.

The last two teams are relegated to the Russian National Football League at the end of the season. The Russian Premier League was established in 2001 and succeeded the Top Division. 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 Rosgosstrakh Russian Football Championship for sponsorship reasons.

CSKA Moscow are the current Russian Premier League champions.

History

After the break-up of the USSR, 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 USSR divisions to organize a 20-team Russian Top Division. The Top Division was further divided into two groups to reduce the total number of matches in the first season. 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 subsequently the Premier League) has consisted of 16 teams, except for a short-lived experiment with having two more teams in 1996 and 1997 seasons.

Spartak Moscow was the dominant force in the Top Division, winning nine of the first ten titles. Alania Vladikavkaz was the only team which managed to break Spartak's first ten years of dominance, winning the Top Division title in 1995.

Since 2002 there has been 4 different winners with the teams being Lokomotiv Moscow twice, CSKA Moscow three times, Rubin Kazan twice and Zenit St. Petersburg.

Current clubs (2024–25)

The following teams are competing in the 2024–25 season:

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity	Head coach
Akron Tolyatti	Zhigulyovsk	Kristall Stadium	3,065	Zaur Tedeyev
Akhmat Grozny	Grozny	Akhmat-Arena	30,597	Magomed Adiyev
Fakel Voronezh	Voronezh	Tsentralnyi Profsoyuz Stadion	32,750	Igor Cherevchenko
CSKA Moscow	Moscow	VEB Arena	30,457	Marko Nikolić
Dynamo Makhachkala	Makhachkala	Dynamo Stadium	15,200	Khasanbi Bidzhiyev
Dynamo Moscow	Moscow	VTB Arena	26,700	Marcel Lička
Khimki	Khimki	Arena Khimki	18,636	Franc Artiga
Krasnodar	Krasnodar	Krasnodar Stadium	34,291	Murad Musayev
Krylia Sovetov	Samara	Solidarnost Arena	44,918	Igor Osinkin
Lokomotiv Moscow	Moscow	RZD Arena	27,320	Mikhail Galaktionov
FC Nizhny Novgorod	Nizhny Novgorod	Nizhny Novgorod Stadium	44,899	Saša Ilić
Rostov	Rostov-on-Don	Rostov Arena	45,000	Valeri Karpin
FC Orenburg	Orenburg	Gazovik Stadium	10,046	David Deogracia
Spartak Moscow	Moscow	Lukoil Arena	44,307	Dejan Stanković
Rubin Kazan	Kazan	Kazan Arena	45,379	Rashid Rakhimov
Zenit Saint Petersburg	Saint Petersburg	Krestovsky Stadium	67,800	Sergei Semak

External links

• Official website
• History and statictics