Russian Premier League

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Russian Premier League
Country Russia
Confederation UEFA
Founded 2001
Number of teams 16
Levels on pyramid 1
Relegation to National Football League
Domestic cup(s) Russian Cup
International cup(s) Champions League
Europa League
Current champions CSKA Moscow
(2012–13 season)
Most championships Spartak Moscow (9 titles)*
TV partners NTV (1st pick), Our Football
Website http://www.rfpl.org

2012–13 Russian Premier League

* Incl. Rus. Top League and Rus. Top Division titles

The Russian league (Russian: Чемпионат России по футболу), currently called SOGAZ Russian Football Championship (Russian: СОГАЗ — Чемпионат России по футболу) due to sponsorship reasons, is the top division of Russian football. The competition is currently run by the Russian football Premier-League (Russian: Российская футбольная Премьер-Лига). There are 16 teams in the competition. The league has two Champions League qualifying places given to teams who finish in the top two at the end of the season and three Europa League places to teams who finish third, fourth and fifth. Relegation to the National League Championship are given to teams who finish bottom and second-bottom at the end of the season. The Russian Premier League was established in 2001 and succeeded the Top Division, the difference being that the Top Division was run by the Professional Football League of Russia, and the creation of the Premier League gave the clubs a greater degree of independence.

The Russian league has improved considerably lately, and the Russian Premier League is now ranked 9th by UEFA; at one point the league was ranked 6th.

CSKA Moscow are the current Russian Premier League champions.

Contents

History [edit]

After the break-up 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 organize 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 subsequently the Premier League) 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 twice, and CSKA Moscow three 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 pinnacle of the rise of Rubin Kazan, a club entirely new to the Russian top flight, as it had never even competed in the Soviet Top League.

Competition [edit]

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 2010, the champions and the runners-up qualify for the UEFA Champions League group stage. The third-placed team qualifies for the Champions League second qualifying round. The fourth- and fifth-place teams qualify for the UEFA Europa League. The bottom two teams are relegated to the First Division (renamed the National Football League starting in 2011).

Unlike most other European football leagues, the league traditionally 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).[1] Under the current autumn-spring calendar, the league takes a three-month winter break from mid-December until mid-March.

Youth championship [edit]

The Youth championship (Russian: Молодежное первенство), also known as Youth teams championship (Russian: Первенство молодёжных команд), Reserve team tournament (Russian: Турнир среди 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 Lokomotiv-2, and Rubin-2, playing in the Russian Second Division. Also of note is that for example Lokomotiv-2 has a youth team of its own, participating in the Amateur Football League, giving Lokomotiv a total of 4 teams in the Russian football league.

Youth Champions since 2001 [edit]

2012–13 clubs [edit]

The following teams are confirmed to compete in the 2012–13 season:

Champions and top scorers [edit]

Main article: List of Soviet and Russian football champions
Season Champion Runner-up Third place Top scorer
1992* Spartak Moscow Alania Vladikavkaz Dynamo Moscow Azerbaijan Vali Gasimov (Dinamo Moscow, 16 goals - 1-8 place)
Russia Yuri Matveyev (Uralmash, 20 goals - 9-20 place)
1993* Spartak Moscow (2) Rotor Volgograd Dynamo Moscow Russia Victor Panchenko (KamAZ Naberezhnye Chelny, 21 goals)
1994* Spartak Moscow (3) Dynamo Moscow Lokomotiv Moscow Russia Igor Simutenkov (Dinamo Moscow, 21 goals)
1995* Alania Vladikavkaz Lokomotiv Moscow Spartak Moscow Russia Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor Volgograd, 25 goals)
1996* Spartak Moscow (4) Alania Vladikavkaz Rotor Volgograd Russia Aleksandr Maslov (Rostselmash, 23 goals)
1997* Spartak Moscow (5) Rotor Volgograd Dynamo Moscow Russia Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor Volgograd, 22 goals)
1998** Spartak Moscow (6) CSKA Moscow Lokomotiv Moscow Russia Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor Volgograd, 22 goals)
1999** Spartak Moscow (7) Lokomotiv Moscow CSKA Moscow Georgia (country) Georgi Demetradze (Alania Vladikavkaz, 21 goals)
2000** Spartak Moscow (8) Lokomotiv Moscow Torpedo Moscow Russia Dmitri Loskov (Lokomotiv Moscow, 18 goals)
2001** Spartak Moscow (9) Lokomotiv Moscow Zenit Saint Petersburg Russia Dmitri Vyazmikin (Torpedo Moscow, 18 goals)
2002 Lokomotiv Moscow CSKA Moscow Spartak Moscow Russia Rolan Gusev (CSKA Moscow, 15 goals)
Russia Dmitri Kirichenko (CSKA Moscow, 15 goals)
2003 CSKA Moscow Zenit Saint Petersburg Rubin Kazan Russia Dmitri Loskov (Lokomotiv Moscow, 14 goals)
2004 Lokomotiv Moscow (2) CSKA Moscow Krylia Sovetov Samara Russia Aleksandr Kerzhakov (Zenit St. Petersburg, 18 goals)
2005 CSKA Moscow (2) Spartak Moscow Lokomotiv Moscow Russia Dmitri Kirichenko (FC Moscow, 14 goals)
2006 CSKA Moscow (3) Spartak Moscow Lokomotiv Moscow Russia Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow, 18 goals)
2007 Zenit Saint Petersburg Spartak Moscow CSKA Moscow Russia Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow, 14 goals)
Russia Roman Adamov (FC Moscow, 14 goals)
2008 Rubin Kazan CSKA Moscow Dynamo Moscow Brazil Vágner Love (CSKA Moscow, 20 goals)
2009 Rubin Kazan (2) Spartak Moscow Zenit Saint Petersburg Brazil Welliton (Spartak Moscow, 21 goals)
2010 Zenit Saint Petersburg (2) CSKA Moscow Rubin Kazan Brazil Welliton (Spartak Moscow, 19 goals)
2011–12 Zenit Saint Petersburg (3) Spartak Moscow CSKA Moscow Ivory Coast Seydou Doumbia (CSKA Moscow, 28 goals)
2012–13 CSKA Moscow (4) Zenit Saint Petersburg Anzhi Makhachkala
* The league was named Top League
** The league was named Top Division
Zenit players celebrating their 2007 triumph
Club Winners Runners-Up Third place Years won
Spartak Moscow
9
5
2
 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
CSKA Moscow
4
5
3
 2003, 2005, 2006, 2012–13
Zenit St. Petersburg
3
2
2
 2007, 2010, 2011–12
Lokomotiv Moscow
2
4
4
 2002, 2004
Rubin Kazan
2
0
2
 2008, 2009
Alania Vladikavkaz
1
2
0
 1995
Rotor Volgograd
0
2
1
Dynamo Moscow
0
1
4
Torpedo Moscow
0
0
1
Krylia Sovetov Samara
0
0
1
Anzhi Makhachkala
0
0
1

UEFA Ranking [edit]

Main article: UEFA coefficient

All-time table [edit]

As of 21 May 2013
Rank Club1 Seasons Spells Most
recent
season		 Played2 Won Drawn Lost Goals Points3 Gold Silver Bronze
1 Spartak Moscow 21 1 652 363 164 125 1240-673 1253 9 5 2
2 CSKA Moscow 21 1 652 329 160 163 1034-635 1147 3 5 3
3 Lokomotiv Moscow 21 1 652 322 180 150 965-609 1146 2 4 4
4 Dynamo Moscow 21 1 651 273 186 192 921-745 1005 - 1 4
5 Zenit Saint Petersburg 18 2 561 260 163 138 853-580 943 3 1 2
6 Krylya Sovetov Samara 21 1 655 212 178 265 712-848 814 - - 1
7 Torpedo Moscow 15 1 2006 462 182 131 149 597-553 677 - - 1
8 Alania Vladikavkaz 16 3 488 179 109 200 630-661 646 1 2 -
9 FC Rostov 19 3 591 157 174 260 611-830 645 - - -
10 Rotor Volgograd 13 1 2004 402 151 109 142 562-506 562 - 2 1
11 Rubin Kazan 10 1 313 142 88 83 430-298 514 2 - 2
12 Saturn Moscow Oblast 12 1 2010 360 120 121 119 396-378 481 - - -
13 FC Moscow 9 1 2009 270 92 83 95 295-311 359 - - -
14 Shinnik Yaroslavl 10 4 2008 304 85 86 133 294-403 341 - - -
15 Amkar Perm 9 1 283 82 90 111 261-338 336 - - -
16 Chernomorets Novorossiysk 8 2 2003 248 74 65 109 274-357 287 - - -
17 Lokomotiv Nizhny Novgorod 8 2 2000 248 68 63 117 233-356 267 - - -
18 Anzhi Makhachkala 6 2 193 70 55 68 222-222 262 - - -
19 Tom Tomsk 7 1 2011/12 224 64 65 95 219-292 257 - - -
20 Zhemchuzhina Sochi 7 1 1999 222 61 57 104 263-390 240 - - -
21 Spartak Nalchik 6 1 2011/12 194 54 57 83 207-239 219 - - -
22 Kuban Krasnodar 6 4 193 51 65 77 197-257 218 - - -
23 Terek Grozny 6 2 193 58 44 91 188-275 212 4 - - -
24 Uralmash Yekaterinburg 5 1 1996 158 57 33 68 215-241 204 - - -
25 Energia-Tekstilshchik Kamyshin 5 1 1996 158 53 43 62 172-177 202 - - -
26 KAMAZ Naberezhnye Chelny 5 1 1997 162 51 32 79 198-253 179 5 - - -
27 Uralan Elista 5 2 2003 150 36 39 75 138-225 147 - - -
28 Luch-Energia Vladivostok 4 2 2008 124 34 32 58 116-187 134 - - -
29 Baltika Kaliningrad 3 1 1998 98 30 37 31 114-111 127 - - -
30 Fakel Voronezh 4 3 2001 124 31 29 64 101-175 122 - - -
31 Dynamo Stavropol 3 1 1994 94 27 23 44 94-125 104 - - -
32 FC Krasnodar 2 1 73 28 19 26 103-98 103 - - -
33 FC Tyumen 5 3 1998 154 25 26 103 116-326 101 - - -
34 Okean Nakhodka 2 1 1993 64 22 14 28 65-83 80 - - -
35 FC Khimki 3 1 2009 90 17 23 50 86-151 74 - - -
36 Volga Nizhny Novgorod 2 1 73 19 12 42 65-106 69 - - -
37 Asmaral Moscow 2 1 1993 60 19 11 30 74-102 68 - - -
38 Sokol Saratov 2 1 2002 60 17 13 30 55-87 64 - - -
39 Lada Togliatti 2 2 1996 64 10 16 38 42-105 46 - - -
40 Mordovia Saransk 1 1 29 5 5 19 29-55 20 - - -
41 Sibir Novosibirsk 1 1 2010 30 4 8 18 34-58 20 - - -
  1. For clubs that have been renamed, their name at the time of their most recent season in the Premier 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.

Players with most appearances [edit]

As of 21 May 2013 [1] [2] [3] [4]
Rank Player Apps
1 Russia Sergei Semak 456
2 Russia Dmitri Loskov 452
3 Russia Igor Semshov 418
4 Russia Valery Yesipov 390
5 Russia Dmitri Kirichenko 376
6 Lithuania Deividas Šemberas 368
7 Russia Ruslan Adzhindzhal 359
8 Russia Sergei Ignashevich 355
9 Russia Andrey Tikhonov 346
10 Russia Konstantin Zyryanov 345

All-time top scorers [edit]

As of 21 May 2013 [5]
Rank Player Goals Apps Avg/Game
1 Russia Oleg Veretennikov 143 274 0.52
2 Russia Aleksandr Kerzhakov 129 292 0.44
3 Russia Dmitri Kirichenko 129 376 0.34
4 Russia Dmitri Loskov 120 452 0.27
5 Russia Sergei Semak 102 456 0.22
6 Russia Andrey Tikhonov 98 346 0.28
7 Russia Igor Semshov 97 418 0.23
8 Russia Roman Pavlyuchenko 89 233 0.38
9 Russia Yegor Titov 88 336 0.26
10 Russia Valery Yesipov 88 390 0.23

Champions (Players) [edit]

9-time

Media coverage [edit]

NTV Plus cameraman

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Russian league switches to new calendar". UEFA.com (UEFA). 2010-09-13. Retrieved 2010-09-13. 

External links [edit]

Russian Premier League – 2012–13 teams
Russian Premier League seasons
Top League
Top Division
Premier League
National teams
men:
women:
League system
men:
women:
youth:
Domestic cups
men:
women:
Awards
Lists
Top level football leagues of Europe (UEFA)
Current
Defunct
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