Russian Premier League facts for kids

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Russian Premier League

Organising body	Russian Football Union (RFU)
Founded	1992 (as Top League) 2001 (as Premier League)
Country	Russia
Confederation	UEFA
Number of teams	16
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	First League
Domestic cup(s)	Russian Cup Russian Super Cup
Current champions	Zenit Saint Petersburg (11th title) (2025–26)
Most championships	Zenit Saint Petersburg (11 titles)
TV partners	List of broadcasters

The Russian Premier League (RPL) is the top professional association football league in Russia. It's where the best football clubs in Russia compete to become champions! The league started in its current form in 2001. Before that, from 1992 to 2001, it was known as the Russian Football Championship.

There are 16 exciting teams in the competition. Normally, the top teams would get a chance to play in big European tournaments like the UEFA Champions League. However, due to international decisions, Russian clubs are currently not taking part in these competitions. At the end of each season, the two teams at the bottom of the league move down to a lower division. Other teams might play special matches to stay in the Premier League.

Since 2022, the league has also been known as the Mir Russian Premier League because of a sponsorship. Many famous clubs have won the championship. Zenit Saint Petersburg is the current champion, having won their 11th title in the 2025–26 season. Other successful teams include Spartak Moscow, CSKA Moscow, and Lokomotiv Moscow.

How the League Started

After the Soviet Union ended in 1991, Russia started its own national football championship in 1992. Six strong Russian teams from the old Soviet league joined with 14 other teams. This created a 20-team league called the Russian Top Division. To make the schedule easier, they split into two groups.

Over time, the league became smaller, settling on 16 teams by 1994. This number has mostly stayed the same for the Russian Top Division and later the Premier League.

In the early years, Spartak Moscow was incredibly dominant, winning nine out of the first ten titles! Only Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz managed to win a title in 1995 during this period. Later, other teams like Lokomotiv Moscow and CSKA Moscow also became champions. In 2007, Zenit St. Petersburg won their first Russian title, adding to a Soviet title they won much earlier. In 2008, Rubin Kazan surprised everyone by winning the league, even though they were new to the top division.

The league got a fresh new look and logo in 2018. Following recent international decisions, Russian clubs and national teams are currently not allowed to play in European competitions.

How the Games are Played

In the Russian Premier League, each of the 16 teams plays every other team twice. They play one game at their home stadium and one game away. This means each team plays a total of 30 matches in a season.

Scoring and Winning

If a team wins a match, they get 3 points.
If a match ends in a draw (a tie), both teams get 1 point.
If a team loses, they get 0 points.

The team with the most points at the end of the season wins the championship! If two teams have the same number of points, there are special rules to decide who is higher. These rules look at things like how many games they won or the difference between goals scored and goals allowed. If teams are tied for first place, they might even play an extra match to decide the champion.

Normally, the top teams in the Premier League would earn spots in big European tournaments like the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa Conference League. However, as mentioned, Russian clubs are currently not participating in these international competitions.

Moving Up and Down (Promotion and Relegation)

At the end of each season, the two teams with the fewest points are moved down to the First League, which is a lower division. This is called relegation. The teams that finish 13th and 14th in the Premier League get another chance. They play special two-game matches against teams from the First League. The winners of these matches get to play in the Premier League next season.

Season Schedule

The Russian Premier League used to play its matches from spring to autumn to avoid the cold winter weather. But since the 2012–13 season, it changed to an autumn-to-spring schedule, similar to many other European leagues. This means there's a long winter break, usually from mid-December to mid-March. Sometimes, playing in winter can be tough for teams from colder regions of Russia.

Young Talent: The Youth Championship

The Youth Championship is a special league for the younger players of the Russian Premier League clubs. It runs at the same time as the main league. This is where future football stars get to practice and show their skills!

Each Premier League team must have a youth team in this championship. There are rules about how many older players or non-Russian players can be on the field. The youth teams don't get relegated based on their own performance. Instead, they stay in the league as long as their club's main team is in the Premier League.

Some big clubs even have a third team. This team plays in a lower division and helps develop players for the main squad. An example is Krasnodar-2.

Reserves tournament champions (2001–2007)

Youth championship winners (since 2008)

2008: Spartak Moscow
2009: Zenit Saint Petersburg
2010: Spartak Moscow
2011: Lokomotiv Moscow
2012: Dynamo Moscow
2012–13: Spartak Moscow
2013–14: Dynamo Moscow
2014–15: Dynamo Moscow
2015–16: Lokomotiv Moscow
2016–17: Spartak Moscow
2017–18: Krasnodar
2018–19: CSKA Moscow
2019–20: Dynamo Moscow
2020–21: CSKA Moscow
2021–22: CSKA Moscow
2022–23: Krasnodar
2023: Lokomotiv Moscow
2024: CSKA Moscow
2025: Zenit Saint Petersburg

Clubs in the League

Teams Playing Now (2025–26 Season)

The following teams are competing in the 2025–26 season:

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity	Head coach
Akron Tolyatti	Zhigulyovsk	Solidarity Samara Arena	42,389	Zaur Tedeyev
Akhmat Grozny	Grozny	Akhmat Arena	30,000	Stanislav Cherchesov
Baltika Kaliningrad	Kaliningrad	Rostec Arena	33,399	Andrey Talalayev
CSKA Moscow	Moscow	VEB Arena	29,071	Fabio Celestini
Dynamo Makhachkala	Makhachkala	Anzhi Arena	26,364	Vadim Yevseyev
Dynamo Moscow	Moscow	VTB Arena	25,716	Rolan Gusev
Krasnodar	Krasnodar	Ozon Arena	33,395	Murad Musayev
Krylia Sovetov	Samara	Solidarity Samara Arena	42,389	Magomed Adiyev
Lokomotiv Moscow	Moscow	RZD Arena	27,084	Mikhail Galaktionov
FC Nizhny Novgorod	Nizhny Novgorod	Sovcombank Arena	42,532	Aleksey Shpilevsky
Orenburg	Orenburg	Gazovik	10,046	Ildar Akhmetzyanov
Rostov	Rostov-on-Don	Rostov Arena	45,415	Jonatan Alba
Rubin Kazan	Kazan	Ak Bars Arena	43,284	Franc Artiga
Sochi	Sochi	Fisht	45,994	Igor Osinkin
Spartak Moscow	Moscow	Lukoil Arena	44,897	Juan Carlos Carcedo
Zenit Saint Petersburg	Saint Petersburg	Gazprom Arena	60,177	Sergei Semak

Top Teams and Champions

Who Won Each Season?

Season	Champions	Runners-up	Third place	Top scorer
1992	Spartak Moscow	Spartak Vladikavkaz	Dynamo Moscow	Yuri Matveyev (Uralmash Yekaterinburg, 20 goals)
1993	Spartak Moscow (2)	Rotor Volgograd	Dynamo Moscow (2)	Victor Panchenko (KamAZ Naberezhnye Chelny, 21 goals)
1994	Spartak Moscow (3)	Dynamo Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow	Igor Simutenkov (Dinamo Moscow, 21 goals)
1995	Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz	Lokomotiv Moscow	Spartak Moscow	Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor Volgograd, 25 goals)
1996	Spartak Moscow (4)	Alania Vladikavkaz (2)	Rotor Volgograd	Aleksandr Maslov (Rostselmash, 23 goals)
1997	Spartak Moscow (5)	Rotor Volgograd (2)	Dynamo Moscow (3)	Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor Volgograd, 22 goals)
1998	Spartak Moscow (6)	CSKA Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow (2)	Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor Volgograd, 22 goals)
1999	Spartak Moscow (7)	Lokomotiv Moscow (2)	CSKA Moscow	Georgi Demetradze (Alania Vladikavkaz, 21 goals)
2000	Spartak Moscow (8)	Lokomotiv Moscow (3)	Torpedo Moscow	Dmitri Loskov (Lokomotiv Moscow, 18 goals)
2001	Spartak Moscow (9)	Lokomotiv Moscow (4)	Zenit Saint Petersburg	Dmitri Vyazmikin (Torpedo Moscow, 18 goals)
2002	Lokomotiv Moscow	CSKA Moscow (2)	Spartak Moscow (2)	Rolan Gusev (CSKA Moscow, 15 goals) Dmitri Kirichenko (CSKA Moscow, 15 goals)
2003	CSKA Moscow	Zenit Saint Petersburg	Rubin Kazan	Dmitri Loskov (Lokomotiv Moscow, 14 goals)
2004	Lokomotiv Moscow (2)	CSKA Moscow (3)	Krylia Sovetov Samara	Aleksandr Kerzhakov (Zenit St. Petersburg, 18 goals)
2005	CSKA Moscow (2)	Spartak Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow (3)	Dmitri Kirichenko (Moscow, 14 goals)
2006	CSKA Moscow (3)	Spartak Moscow (2)	Lokomotiv Moscow (4)	Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow, 18 goals)
2007	Zenit Saint Petersburg	Spartak Moscow (3)	CSKA Moscow (2)	Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow, 14 goals) Roman Adamov (Moscow, 14 goals)
2008	Rubin Kazan	CSKA Moscow (4)	Dynamo Moscow (4)	Vágner Love (CSKA Moscow, 20 goals)
2009	Rubin Kazan (2)	Spartak Moscow (4)	Zenit Saint Petersburg (2)	Welliton (Spartak Moscow, 21 goals)
2010	Zenit Saint Petersburg (2)	CSKA Moscow (5)	Rubin Kazan (2)	Welliton (Spartak Moscow, 19 goals)
2011–12	Zenit Saint Petersburg (3)	Spartak Moscow (5)	CSKA Moscow (3)	Seydou Doumbia (CSKA Moscow, 28 goals)
2012–13	CSKA Moscow (4)	Zenit Saint Petersburg (2)	Anzhi Makhachkala	Yura Movsisyan (Krasnodar/Spartak Moscow, 13 goals) Wánderson (Krasnodar, 13 goals)
2013–14	CSKA Moscow (5)	Zenit Saint Petersburg (3)	Lokomotiv Moscow (5)	Seydou Doumbia (CSKA Moscow, 18 goals)
2014–15	Zenit Saint Petersburg (4)	CSKA Moscow (6)	Krasnodar	Hulk (Zenit Saint Petersburg, 15 goals)
2015–16	CSKA Moscow (6)	Rostov	Zenit Saint Petersburg (3)	Fyodor Smolov (Krasnodar, 20 goals)
2016–17	Spartak Moscow (10)	CSKA Moscow (7)	Zenit Saint Petersburg (4)	Fyodor Smolov (Krasnodar, 18 goals)
2017–18	Lokomotiv Moscow (3)	CSKA Moscow (8)	Spartak Moscow (3)	Quincy Promes (Spartak Moscow, 15 goals)
2018–19	Zenit Saint Petersburg (5)	Lokomotiv Moscow (5)	Krasnodar (2)	Fyodor Chalov (CSKA Moscow, 15 goals)
2019–20	Zenit Saint Petersburg (6)	Lokomotiv Moscow (6)	Krasnodar (3)	Sardar Azmoun (Zenit Saint Petersburg, 17 goals) Artem Dzyuba (Zenit Saint Petersburg, 17 goals)
2020–21	Zenit Saint Petersburg (7)	Spartak Moscow (6)	Lokomotiv Moscow (6)	Artem Dzyuba (Zenit Saint Petersburg, 20 goals)
2021–22	Zenit Saint Petersburg (8)	Sochi	Dynamo Moscow (5)	Gamid Agalarov (Ufa, 19 goals)
2022–23	Zenit Saint Petersburg (9)	CSKA Moscow (9)	Spartak Moscow (4)	Malcom (Zenit Saint Petersburg, 23 goals)
2023–24	Zenit Saint Petersburg (10)	Krasnodar (1)	Dynamo Moscow (6)	Mateo Cassierra (Zenit Saint Petersburg, 21 goals)
2024–25	Krasnodar (1)	Zenit Saint Petersburg (4)	CSKA Moscow (4)	Manfred Ugalde (Spartak Moscow, 17 goals)
2025-26	Zenit Saint Petersburg (11)	Krasnodar (2)	Lokomotiv Moscow (7)	Jhon Córdoba (Krasnodar, 17 goals)

Club Success Records

Club	Winners	Runners-up	Third place	Seasons won
Zenit Saint Petersburg	11	4	4	2007, 2010, 2011–12, 2014–15, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24, 2025–26
Spartak Moscow	10	6	4	1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2016–17
CSKA Moscow	6	9	4	2003, 2005, 2006, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2015–16
Lokomotiv Moscow	3	6	6	2002, 2004, 2017–18
Rubin Kazan	2	0	2	2008, 2009
Krasnodar	1	2	3	2024–25
Alania Vladikavkaz	1	2	0	1995
Rotor Volgograd	0	2	1
Dynamo Moscow	0	1	6
Rostov	0	1	0
Sochi	0	1	0
Torpedo Moscow	0	0	1
Krylia Sovetov Samara	0	0	1
Anzhi Makhachkala	0	0	1		Total	33	33	33

All-Time Russian Champions

This table shows all the Russian football champions, including titles won before the Premier League was formed.

Club	Titles	Seasons Won	Runners up
Spartak Moscow	22	1936(a), 1938, 1939, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1962, 1969, 1979, 1987, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2016–17	18
CSKA Moscow	13	1946, 1947, 1948, 1950, 1951, 1970, 1991, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2015–16	13
Zenit Saint Petersburg	12	1984, 2007, 2010, 2011–12, 2014–15, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24, 2025–26	4
Dynamo Moscow	11	1936(s), 1937, 1940, 1945, 1949, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1963, 1976(s)	12
Lokomotiv Moscow	3	2002, 2004, 2017–18	7
Torpedo Moscow	3	1960, 1965, 1976(a)	3
Rubin Kazan	2	2008, 2009	0
Alania Vladikavkaz	1	1995	2
Krasnodar	1	2024–25	1

Player Superstars

These tables show some of the most famous players in the Russian Premier League's history, based on how many games they played or how many goals they scored.

Most Games Played

As of 17 May 2026

Rank	Player	Apps
1	Igor Akinfeev	615
2	Sergei Ignashevich	489
3	Artem Dzyuba	470
4	Sergei Semak	456
5	Dmitri Loskov	453
6	Igor Semshov	433
7	Oleg Ivanov	412
8	Vasili Berezutski	402
9	Ruslan Adzhindzhal	397
10	Igor Lebedenko	394

Top Goal Scorers

As of 3 May 2026

Rank	Player	Goals	Apps	Avg/Game
1	Artem Dzyuba	178	470	0.38
2	Oleg Veretennikov	143	274	0.52
3	Aleksandr Kerzhakov	139	340	0.41
4	Dmitri Kirichenko	129	377	0.34
5	Dmitri Loskov	120	453	0.26
6	Fedor Smolov	109	339	0.33
7	Roman Pavlyuchenko	104	309	0.34
8	Sergei Semak	102	456	0.22
9	Andrey Tikhonov	98	346	0.28
10	Igor Semshov	98	433	0.23

Watching the Games

You can watch the Russian Premier League matches in different ways!

Russia and CIS

Channel	Summary	Ref
Match TV	60 matches per season live
Match Premier	All 240 matches live

Worldwide

Many matches are available to watch live around the world through online subscriptions. In previous seasons, some games were even broadcast for free on platforms like YouTube.

Country/Region	Broadcaster
Southeast Europe Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Montenegro Macedonia Serbia Slovenia	Arena Sport
Belarus	Belarus 5
Brazil	Grupo Bandeirantes
CIS Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan	Qsport
Hong Kong	i-cable
Latin America	Gol TV