The Russian Football Championship (Russian Football Premier League) is the top division among all professional leagues in Russian football. 16 teams take part in the tournament. The first three places in the league allow clubs to play in the UEFA Champions League, while the fourth and fifth places qualify for the Europa League. Every year, the last two teams leave the Premier League and go to the National Football League (NFL).

The current champion of the Premier League is the St. Petersburg "Zenith".

Table of Russian football champions for all years since 1992

For 2019, 27 championship draws were held.

List of all champions:

• Spartak - 10
• CSKA - 6
• Zenith - 5
• Locomotive - 3
• Spartak-Alania - 1
• Ruby - 2

After the collapse Soviet Union Since 1991, each former Soviet republic has organized its own independent football championship. In Russia, the Major League was also formed, in which 6 clubs from former championship USSR (Spartak Moscow, Dynamo Moscow, Torpedo Moscow, CSKA Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow and Spartak Vladikavkaz) and 14 teams from the lower divisions (2nd and 3rd).

In the first championships, 20 teams took part, but in 1993 there were 18, and in 1994 - 16. Since then, the Major League (later the Premier League) consisted of 16 clubs, with the exception of an experiment in 1996 and 1997 with 18 participants.

The first Russian football championships were dominated by Spartak Moscow. " People's Team» won 9 of the first 10 league games. The only club that managed to break the dominance of the “red-whites” in the 90s was Spartak-Alania (Vladikavkaz). Lokomotiv managed to win the title three times, and CSKA - 6.

In 2007, Zenit St. Petersburg became the strongest club in Russia for the first time in its history, winning gold medals in the Premier League. In 2008, Rubin Kazan became the champion of Russia.

The Russian Premier League is becoming similar to its English namesake. In the British Isles, four to six clubs have been vying for championship gold for many years. Although no, "pretend" is too loud a word. Rather, four to six clubs are nominally contenders for the triumph.

Not so in other leagues. In Spain and Portugal, two and a half clubs claim the title, in Italy and France - one and a half, in Germany - one and only. And we have five.

Last season, in almost all foreign top leagues, the intrigue died long before the finish line. Even in England, where Manchester City bombed all rivals and scored as many as a hundred points. The gap "+19" of the champion from the silver medalist - and this is in the most competitive championship of the European elite!

In Russia, the name of the victor became known for the tour to the end. And it is symbolic that the champion won the main favorite of the season in the golden match -. before the starting round, few people included in the number of applicants. And we in the “SE” outlined the circle of applicants with the so-called “big three” - “Zenith”, and.

So there is no more "big three". As in England a few years ago, the classic "big four" was diluted and now in Russia there are five candidates for the title. Only here, unlike England, there is not and cannot be the superiority of one team over all the others.

Sergey SEMAK. Photo by Vyacheslav Evdokimov, FC Zenit

In recent years, Zenit has claimed the status of the number one favorite - the composition spoke for him, coaching staff, financial opportunities. Even now, bookmakers give cautious preference to St. Petersburg, but this time their victory is not at all obvious. The blue-white-blues now have not only perestroika, but also a rethinking of philosophy - for the first time in many years, a Russian specialist, and even a young one, has come to the coaching post. And at the same time, a "foreign" squad is at the disposal - people for the previous coach are selected in it. And he himself would hardly want to acquire some of them, and many players would not be lured to St. Petersburg by the name of Semak.

Viktor GONCHARENKO. Photo by Alexander FEDOROV, "SE"

CSKA is also changing. But it’s even easier for the army team: it’s one thing when a coach suddenly leaves the team after half-done work, another thing is when the players leave the club, for whose departure everyone was ready. Yes, without , it will be hard for red-blue. But not so much that the team will instantly fall into the middle of the table. We all just need to get used to the new CSKA. To another, but still CSKA.

Murad Musaev. Photo of FC Krasnodar

And a new era. It is also a kind of experiment - to entrust the main team to a 34-year-old coach with experience only with youth teams. But I want to cheer for you, because young specialists are rarely trusted by teams so high level. And if he succeeds, then Russia will get a strong coach.

Massimo CARRERA. Photo by Daria ISAEVA, "SE"

“Spartak” of the five contenders looks the strongest. The same coach, to whom the patron of the club expressed full credit of confidence. The same leaders - did not go anywhere, although he could. The same ambitions - "Spartacus" and before last year's gold in the Premier League swung to the top of the pedestal, and now it's unnecessary to mention it. At the training camp, the red-whites won 9 wins in 11 matches - a result that further strengthens the idea of ​​​​the high status of the team.

Yuri SEMIN. Photo by Daria ISAEVA, "SE"

Lokomotiv also did not weaken during the off-season, but even strengthened - the central midfielder remains the loudest acquisition of the Russian summer. But red-green this season will be harder. Now they are already considered, the players themselves are no longer so hungry. The Champions League will be an additional burden on the weak neck of the railroad workers - its severity is unusual for Loko.

It turns out that there is no clear contender for the title. And that's great. While the difference between the champions and the rest is growing in Europe, competition is increasing in Russia. So much the better: let them watch not only the World Cup in Russia, but also the Russian Championship abroad.

The Russian football league system includes 3 divisions - the Premier League, the National Football League (FNL) and the Second Division, which is divided into 5 zones: West, Center, South, Ural-Volga Region and East ".

The Russian Premier League according to the regulations since the 2011/2012 season has the name - “SOGAZ Russian Football Championship among the teams of Premier League clubs. At the end of each season, 15th and 16th places go to the FNL, where they are replaced by two strongest teams this division. Teams that take the final 13th and 14th places play play-offs with representatives of the FNL (3rd and 4th places), the winners get the right to play in the Premier League for the next season. Until 1997, the tournament was called the Higher League, and in 1998 it was renamed the Higher Division. For a long time, the championship was held according to the “autumn-spring” system, until in 2010 the new leadership of the RFU carried out a reform and the 20th Russian championship started in the spring of 2011, went through four rounds and was completed in the spring of 2012. Thus, since 2012 the Russian championship has been held according to the autumn-spring system.

The most titled club of the Russian championship is Spartak Moscow, which in the first 10 years of the tournament's existence became the champion 9 times, once Spartak-Alania (Vladikavkaz) managed to do this in 1995. Moscow "Spartak" is also the leader among the points scored in the history of the championship and the number of participation Russian clubs in European competition.

Titles and awards of RFPL teams:

Team/Prize	1st place	2nd place	3rd place	Cup	super bowl
Spartak Moscow	9 times	Five times	2 times	3 times	-
CSKA	Five times	Five times	3 times	7 times	6 times
Zenith	3 times	3 times	2 times	2 times	2 times
Lokomotiv Moscow	2 times	4 times	Five times	Five times	2 times
Ruby	2 times	-	2 times	1 time	2 times
Alanya	1 time	2 times	-	-	-
Rotor	-	2 times	1 time	-	-
Dynamo Moscow	-	1 time	4 times	1 time	-
Torpedo Moscow	-	-	1 time	1 time	-
Wings of Soviets	-	-	1 time	-	-
Anji	-	-	1 time	-	-
Terek	-	-	-	1 time	-
Rostov	-	-	-	1 time	-

Interesting Russian Premier League Facts:

• Spartak-Alania (Vladikavkaz) is the only team that left the Premier Division after the championship in 1995.
• The first foreign football player to be recognized best player of the year in the Premier League was the Brazilian Daniel Carvalho (CSKA).
• The largest number of matches among legionnaires (not counting neighboring countries) was held by Elver Rahimich, he has 282 games.
• Dick Advocaat (Zenith 2007) became the first foreign coach to win the Russian championship.
• Only 4 teams took part in all the Russian Championship draws - Dynamo Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow, Spartak Moscow and CSKA Moscow.
• In 2014, for the first time in history, 4 clubs left the Premier League at once: Volga and Anji took the last two places, while Tom and Krylya Sovetov (13th and 14th places) lost their play-offs.
• The most productive round of the Russian Championship was the 6th round of the 2012/13 season - 36 goals were scored in eight matches.
• The longest dry streak belongs to Lokomotiv goalkeeper Ruslan Nigmatulin, who did not concede a goal for 934 minutes.
• Records for winning streak belong to Lokomotiv and CSKA, who managed to win 12 rounds in a row.

MOSCOW, May 13 — R-Sport. The Russian Football Championship in the 2016/17 season, three rounds before its completion, was won by Spartak Moscow, which won the gold medals of the tournament for the tenth time. Silver and bronze medalists will be determined later.

The following is reference Information about the history and regulations of the tournament.

After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the former Soviet republics began to hold independent football championships. Six Russian teams- CSKA, Spartak, Torpedo, Dynamo, Lokomotiv (all from Moscow), as well as Spartak from Vladikavkaz. This number of teams was not enough to make a league.

In 1992 in established Russian major league 20 clubs competed - 11 teams from the first allied league and 3 teams from the second were added to the six teams of the major league. The tournament was held in two stages from March 23 to November 10. At the first stage, the participants were divided into two groups of ten teams. On the second stage, the first eight teams in the groups continued to fight for medals, and the rest - for 9th-20th places. At the second stage, the teams were counted the results of the matches they played among themselves in the groups of the first stage. Moscow "Spartak" became the champion.

IN Russian Football Championship 1993 18 teams have already taken part. According to the regulations, the tournament was held in one group in a two-round system. At the end of the season, the two bottom-placed teams were promoted to the first league, while those placed 14th to 16th participated in a transitional tournament along with the three winning teams of the first league zones. The teams that took the first three places in the transitional tournament remained in the major leagues. Spartak became the champion again.

In 1994, the number of participants in the Russian Football Championship was again reduced to 16 teams. The tournament was held in one group on a two-round system. At the end of the season, the two last-placed teams (Lada Togliatti and Dynamo Stavropol) moved to the first league, and teams from the first league took their place, taking 1st and 2nd places. Spartak became the champion for the third time in a row.

In the fourth Russian football championship, as in the previous one, 16 teams took part, it was also held in two rounds. However, the scoring system was changed: now, instead of two points, they gave three points for a win, one and zero points for a draw and a loss, respectively. The number of teams leaving the league has also changed, since the next year it was decided to increase the number of participants again to 18. from the first league, who took 1-3 places. The Vladikavkaz club Spartak-Alania, whose coach he was, became the champion of Russia.

In the fifth Russian football championship, which took place from March to November 1996, the composition of the participants was again expanded to 18 teams. The rest of the tournament format remained the same. At the end of the season, the three worst teams left the league (Uralmash Yekaterinburg, Energia-Tekstilshchik from Kamyshin, and Lada), and three winners of the first league received the right to play in the top division next season.

According to the results of 34 rounds, Moscow "Spartak" and Vladikavkaz "Alania" scored 72 points each. According to the regulations, other indicators of the performance of the teams were not taken into account - an additional "golden match" was envisaged. The champion for the fourth time was "Spartak", who won in St. Petersburg at the stadium "Petrovsky" with a score of 2:1. Andrei Tikhonov also scored goals for the Moscow team, Anatoly Kanishchev scored for Alania.

In the sixth Russian Football Championship 18 clubs also took part, which determined the winner in a two-round system - in 34 rounds. The three worst teams (Fakel Voronezh, Lokomotiv Nizhny Novgorod and KAMAZ from Naberezhnye Chelny) were relegated to the lower league, where only one club came from, since the championship was again supposed to be held among 16 teams next season. Subsequently, the number of participants in the tournament has not changed. Spartak became the champion of Russia.

In 1998 seventh championship of Russia took place from March 28 to October 30. In the course of the tournament, St. Petersburg "Zenit" was in the lead with a margin of five points, confidently took first place after the first round, however, due to the departure of coach Anatoly Byshovets to the national team, he lost his game and could not even take a prize. Spartak became the champion for the sixth time. At the end of the season major league left the "Tyumen" and the Kaliningrad "Baltika", in their place came near Moscow "Saturn" and Nizhny Novgorod "Locomotive".

Eighth Russian Football Championship was held from 3 April to 8 November 1999. The tournament was won for the seventh time by Spartak Moscow, who achieved 22 victories in 30 matches and suffered only two defeats. Sochi "Pearl" and Yaroslavl "Shinnik" flew to the first division.

Ninth Russian Football Championship was held from March 24 to November 12, 2000. It was attended by 16 clubs from 12 cities of Russia. At the end of the season, Lokomotiv Nizhny Novgorod and Uralan Elista left the top league, Torpedo-ZIL (Moscow) and Sokol (Saratov) came in their place. Spartak became the champion for the eighth time.

Tenth Russian Football Championship was held from March 10 to November 4, 2001. It was attended by 16 teams from 11 cities. "Spartak" became the champion for the ninth time, the silver was won by the capital "Locomotive", the bronze went to the St. Petersburg "Zenith". Elite Division left the Voronezh "Torch" and the Novorossiysk "Chernomorets".

Until 2001, the Russian Championship was managed by the Professional football league(PFL), since 2002, the Russian Football Premier League (RFPL), specially created for this purpose, has become responsible for organizing the competition.

11th Russian Football Championship was held from March 8 to November 17, 2002. According to the tournament regulations, if two or more teams scored an equal number of points in the fight for the first place, the owner of the gold medals was determined in an additional match (tournament) on a neutral field, which was chosen by mutual agreement. According to the results of 30 rounds, two Moscow teams had an equal number of points - Lokomotiv and CSKA.

November 21, 2002, four days after the end of the regular championship, in the "golden match" for first place at the Dynamo stadium in Moscow, Lokomotiv defeated CSKA 1-0 and won gold medals for the first time in its history, breaking the hegemony " Spartak" from 6 championships in a row. The only goal in the "golden match" in the 6th minute was scored by Dmitry Loskov. "Red-white" won bronze medals. Anji Makhachkala and Sokol Saratov were relegated to the first division, followed by Rubin Kazan and Chernomorets.

12th Russian Football Championship was held from March 15 to November 1, 2003. At the end of the season, "Uralan" and "Chernomorets" left the top league, in their place came the Perm "Amkar" and the Krasnodar "Kuban". Champion for the first time in his Russian history became Moscow CSKA. The second place was taken by "Zenith". Bronze medals for the first time in the history of the tournament won a newcomer to the Premier League - "Ruby".

13th Russian Football Championship was held from March 12 to November 12, 2004. At the end of the season, Kuban and Volgograd Rotor left the top league, Terek Grozny and Tomsk Tomsk came in their place. After the 13th round, the Moscow club "Torpedo-Metallurg" changed its name to FC "Moscow". Lokomotiv became the champion, CSKA took the second place, Samara Wings of the Soviets took the third place.

14th Russian Football Championship was held from March 12 to November 19, 2005. For the second time in Russian history, CSKA became the champion, winning the tournament in the 29th round. Spartak returned to the top three after two seasons, becoming the second. The bronze was won by Lokomotiv. Vladikavkaz "Alania" and "Terek" flew to the first division, they were replaced by "Luch-Energia" (Vladivostok) and "Spartak-Nalchik".

15th Russian Football Championship was held from March 17 to November 26, 2006. Of the 16 teams participating in the tournament, 7 clubs represented Moscow/Moscow Region, the rest of the cities were represented by only one club. At the end of the season, Torpedo Moscow left the top league (the club left the top division for the first time in its history) and Yaroslavl's Shinnik. They were replaced by the suburban “Khimki” and “Kuban”.

CSKA became the champion of Russia for the third time in the history of the club and for the second year in a row. At the same time, for the first time in the history of Russian championships, with equal points for two top clubs the golden match was not held: according to the regulations, CSKA was ahead of Spartak in more victories. The bronze was won by Lokomotiv.

16th Russian Football Championship was held from March 10 to November 11, 2007. Only in last round the champion was determined - for the first time in the history of the championships of Russia, it was Zenit. Spartak became the silver medalist for the third year in a row, and the 2006 Russian champion CSKA won bronze. At the end of the season, Kuban and Rostov (Rostov-on-Don) left the Premier League. Foreign referees were involved to service a number of matches of the Russian championship.

17th Russian Football Championship was held from March 14 to November 23, 2008. The opening of the championship took place with the match "Terek" (the team from Grozny returned to the Premier League) - "Wings of the Soviets". Official football matches in Grozny began to be held almost 14 years later. Three rounds before the end of the championship early championship issued Kazan "Rubin". For the second year in a row, a non-Moscow club became the champion - for the first time in the history of Russian championships. Shinnik and Luch-Energia were relegated to the first division. CSKA took second place, Spartak won bronze.

18th Russian Football Championship was held from March 14 to November 29, 2009. Rubin Kazan became the champion for the second time. Silver was won by Spartak, bronze by Zenit. At the end of the season, Kuban and Khimki were relegated from the Premier League.

19th Russian Football Championship was held from March 12 to November 28, 2010. On February 16, 2010, FC Moskva was officially expelled from the Premier League following a corresponding request from the club's management after its sponsor decided to no longer finance the club's performance. The place of FC "Moskva" was taken by Vladikavkaz "Alania" - the team that took third place in the first division of the PFL in 2009. The championship was won by Zenit for the second time. Second place was taken by CSKA, the third - "Spartak". In the first division took off "Alania" and Novosibirsk "Siberia". In January 2011, Saturn filed a voluntary withdrawal from the Premier League due to bankruptcy, and FC Krasnodar took its place in the tournament.

20th Russian Football Championship was a transitional tournament - for the first time in history, the tournament was held according to the "spring-autumn-spring" system and officially lasted from March 12, 2011 to May 13, 2012. The championship was held in two stages. On the first team played a two-round tournament of 30 rounds. At the second stage, they were divided into two groups: the first eight clubs, following the results of the first stage, played each other in two rounds, playing places from 1st to 8th. The remaining eight clubs also played each other in two rounds, playing places from 9th to 16th. At the same time, the points scored by the teams in the first stage were saved.

According to the results of the first stage, the first place in standings occupied by Zenit, ahead of CSKA by 2 points. The club from St. Petersburg eventually won the tournament in the second stage as well, gaining a total of 88 points in 44 rounds and winning the third league title. Silver was won by Spartak, bronze by CSKA.

At the end of the season, Tom and Spartak (Nalchik) left the Premier League directly. At the same time, according to the rules of the competition, the teams that took 13th and 14th places at the end of the championship had to play play-offs with the teams of the first division that took 4th and 3rd places, respectively. Winners play-offs qualified to play in the next Premier League championship. According to the results of the play-offs, Rostov and Volga (Nizhny Novgorod) retained their residence in the Premier League, beating Shinnik and Nizhny Novgorod, respectively.

21st Russian Football Championship was held from July 20, 2012 to May 26, 2013. It was the first to be fully organized according to the "autumn-spring" format. Champion title for the fourth time won CSKA, the second place was taken by "Zenith", the third - "Anji" (Makhachkala). Saransk "Mordovia" and "Alania" flew directly to the FNL championship, while "Rostov" and "Wings of the Soviets" retained their residence in the top division following the play-offs with Khabarovsk "SKA-Energy" and "Spartak" from Nalchik, respectively.

22nd Russian Football Championship was held from July 14, 2013 to May 15, 2014. In 2013, 19 rounds were held, in 2014 - 11. The season ended a month before the start of the World Cup in Brazil. In the tournament, four clubs represented Moscow (Spartak, Lokomotiv, CSKA and Dynamo), two - Krasnodar (Kuban and Krasnodar). Grozny, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Makhachkala, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, St. Petersburg and Tomsk were represented by one club.

The title was defended by CSKA, winning the Russian championship for the fifth time. The second place was taken by Zenit, the third - by Lokomotiv. At the end of the season, four teams left the top division for the first time during the Russian Football Premier League tournament - Nizhny Novgorod Volga and Anji flew directly to the FNL championship, while Tom and Krylya Sovetov lost in play-offs to Ufa and "Torpedo" respectively.

23rd Russian Football Championship took place from August 1, 2014 to May 30, 2015. For the first time, four teams entered the Premier League at the end of last season. Ufa and Tula Arsenal are debutants, Mordovia returned after a year-long break, and Torpedo Moscow after relegation in 2006.

In the third round, CSKA set a record for the Russian Championship in terms of the number of victories in a row - 13, beating its own achievement in 1998. In the eighth round, Zenit set new record in the Russian football premier league- 8 victories in a row at the start of the championship, beating the previous achievement of Kazan "Rubin".

Two rounds before the end of the tournament, Zenit became inaccessible to the pursuers, winning the Russian championship for the fourth time. Second place was taken by CSKA, the bronze medalist for the first time in history was Krasnodar, a club that was formed in 2008. Torpedo and Tula Arsenal were relegated to the FNL championship, while Ural and Rostov retained their residence in the Premier League, beating Tosno following the play-offs ( Leningrad region) and "Tom", respectively.

24th Russian Football Championship was held from July 17, 2015 to May 21, 2016 and was the fourth, which was organized according to the "autumn-spring" system. The autumn part of the championship ended on December 6, 2015, the spring part started on March 5, 2016. Torpedo and Arsenal, who dropped out of the Premier League, were replaced by Krylya Sovetov and Anji in the tournament.

CSKA became the champion in the 2015/16 season for the sixth time. Second place went to "Rostov", for the first time in the history of the club won the medals of the national championship. The third was the “Zenith”. At the end of the season, three clubs flew out to the FNL - Mordovia and Dynamo directly, and Kuban - following the results of the play-offs with Tom. Anji retained its residence in the Premier League, having outplayed Volgar on aggregate. "Dynamo" for the first time in its history left the top division of the country's championships.

The rules for holding the Russian Football Championship in the 2016/17 season did not differ from the previous ones - the teams had to play 30 rounds in two rounds "each with each" (on their own field and on the opponent's field). The 15th and 16th teams were relegated to the Football National League (FNL) at the end of the tournament. The teams that took 13th and 14th places had to play two transitional matches (home and away) with the participants of the FNL championship, who took fourth and third places, respectively.

Places of teams in the standings are determined by the sum of points scored in all matches played. Three points are awarded for a win in a match, one point for a draw, and no points are awarded for a loss.

In case of equality of points for two or more teams, the places in the standings are determined: by the largest number of victories in all matches; according to the results of games among themselves; by the best difference between goals scored and conceded in all matches; by the largest number goals scored in all matches; by the highest number of goals scored away from home in all matches.

"Gold Match" (additional tournament) to determine the winner in case of equal points for two or more the best teams championship was provided only in case of equality of all additional indicators.

The champion club is awarded with a RFU diploma and a special challenge prize - the Russian Football Champions Cup. A special challenge prize is awarded to the winning club for one year. In return for a special challenge prize, the champion club receives a copy of it forever. Football players of the champion club are also awarded the title of Russian football champion, they are awarded with gold medals and RFU diplomas.

For the successful preparation of the team, the leaders, administrative and coaching staff of the champion club are awarded gold medals and diplomas of the RFU.

The clubs whose teams took second and third places in the championship are awarded RFU diplomas and prizes from the Premier League. The leaders of these clubs, football players and specialists of the teams are awarded with silver and bronze medals and RFU diplomas, respectively. The total number of awardees in the champion club and prize-winning clubs is 40 people.