Russian Women's Football Championship facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Founded	1992
Country	Russia
Confederation	UEFA
Number of teams	12
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Women’s 1.Division
Domestic cup(s)	Russian Women's Cup
International cup(s)	UEFA Women's Champions League
Current champions	Zenit Saint Petersburg (2023)
Most championships	Zvezda-2005 Perm (6 titles)
Website	wfl.rfs.ru

The Russian Women's Football Championship (Russian: Чемпионат России по футболу среди женщин) is the top professional football league for women in Russia. It's also called the Top Division or the Women's Football League.

This league started in 1992. Before the Soviet Union ended, there was a women's league that played in 1990 and 1991.

How the League Works

In the 2010 season, seven teams played each other four times. This meant two games at home and two away for each team. In earlier years, teams only played each other twice.

Russia's league is one of the top 8 in Europe. This is based on something called the UEFA Coefficient, which ranks leagues. Because of this, the top two teams from the Russian league get to play in the UEFA Women's Champions League. The team that finishes last in the Russian league moves down to the Women's 1.Division. This is called "relegation."

The 2011–12 season was the first time the league played through the winter months. Eight teams competed that season. They played each other four times, making a total of 28 matches for each team.

Tie-Breaking Rules

After the season, if teams have the same number of points, there are rules to decide who ranks higher. First, they look at the number of wins. If still tied, they check games played between the tied teams. They look at points, wins, goal difference, and goals scored in those games.

If teams are still tied, they look at all games played in the season. They check goal difference, goals scored, and away goals scored. A better fair-play record (fewer fouls) is also considered. If everything is still tied, they might even draw lots to decide.

There's one special rule: if the first-place teams are tied, they play an extra match. If three or more teams are tied for first, they play a special tournament to decide the champion.

Changes in League Format

In the 2012–13 season, the league added a championship and relegation round. After 14 regular season matches, the top four teams played each other twice more to decide the champion. The bottom four teams also played each other twice more.

In 2013, the league went back to a spring-autumn schedule. They did not have the extra championship group that year. But in 2014, a championship group was used again after the regular season. The points from both parts of the season were added together.

Teams in the 2022 Season

Here are the teams that played in the 2022 season:

League Champions and Top Scorers

Here are the teams that have won the championship over the years. The "Champion" is the winner, "Runner-up" is the second-place team, and "Third place" is the team that finished third. The "Top scorer" is the player who scored the most goals in that season.

#	Year	Champion	Runner-up	Third place	Top scorer
1	1992	Interros Moscow	CSK VVS Samara	SKIF Malakhovka	Larisa Savina (CSK VVS Samara, 23 goals)
2	1993	CSK VVS Samara	Rus Moscow	SKIF Malakhovka	Larisa Savina (CSK VVS Samara, 19 goals)
3	1994	CSK VVS Samara	Energiya Voronezh	Kaluzhanka	Nadezhda Bosikova (Energiya Voronezh, 31 goals)
4	1995	Energiya Voronezh	CSK VVS Samara	Sibiryachka Krasnoyarsk	Nadezhda Bosikova (Energiya Voronezh, 37 goals)
5	1996	CSK VVS Samara	Energiya Voronezh	Lada Togliatti	Nadezhda Bosikova (Energiya Voronezh, 39 goals)
6	1997	Energiya Voronezh	CSK VVS Samara	VDV Ryazan	Nadezhda Bosikova (Energiya Voronezh, 21 goals)
7	1998	Energiya Voronezh	CSK VVS Samara	VDV Ryazan	Nadezhda Bosikova (Energiya Voronezh, 19 goals)
8	1999	VDV Ryazan	Energiya Voronezh	CSK VVS Samara
9	2000	Ryazan TNK	Energiya XXI Vek Voronezh	CSK VVS Samara	Nadezhda Bosikova (Energiya Voronezh, 30 goals) Olga Letyushova (Ryazan-VDV, 30 goals)
10	2001	CSK VVS Samara	Energiya XXI Vek Voronezh	Ryazan TNK	Olga Letyushova (Ryazan-VDV, 31 goals)
11	2002	Energiya Voronezh	Lada Togliatti	Ryazan TNK	Natalia Barbashina (Lada Togliatti, 29 goals)
12	2003	Energiya Voronezh	Lada Togliatti	CSK VVS Samara	Natalia Barbashina (Lada Togliatti, 21 goals)
13	2004	Lada Togliatti	Rossiyanka	Energiya Voronezh	Olga Letyushova (Rossiyanka, 18 goals)
14	2005	Rossiyanka	Lada Togliatti	Nadezhda Noginsk	Olga Letyushova (Rossiyanka, 27 goals)
15	2006	Rossiyanka	Spartak Moscow	Nadezhda Noginsk	Olga Letyushova (Rossiyanka, 34 goals)
16	2007	Zvezda-2005 Perm	Rossiyanka	Nadezhda Noginsk	Olga Letyushova (Zvezda-2005 Perm, 19 goals)
17	2008	Zvezda-2005 Perm	Rossiyanka	SKA Rostov	Emueje Ogbiagbevha (Rossiyanka, 16 goals)
18	2009	Zvezda-2005 Perm	Rossiyanka	Energiya Voronezh	Daryna Apanaschenko (Zvezda-2005 Perm, 12 goals) Olesya Kurochkina (Zvezda-2005 Perm, 12 goals)
19	2010	Rossiyanka	Energiya Voronezh	Zvezda-2005 Perm	Emueje Ogbiagbevha (Rossiyanka, 23 goals)
20	2011–12	Rossiyanka	Zorky Krasnogorsk	Energiya Voronezh	Emueje Ogbiagbevha (Energiya Voronezh, 15 goals)
21	2012–13	Zorky Krasnogorsk	Rossiyanka	Ryazan-VDV	Olesya Kurochkina (Izmailovo Moscow, 16 goals)
22	2013	Ryazan-VDV	Zvezda-2005 Perm	Zorky Krasnogorsk	Elena Danilova (Ryazan-VDV, 17 goals)
23	2014	Zvezda-2005 Perm	Zorky Krasnogorsk	Ryazan-VDV	Daryna Apanaschenko (Zvezda-2005 Perm, 8 goals)
24	2015	Zvezda-2005 Perm	Rossiyanka	Zorky Krasnogorsk	Daryna Apanaschenko (Zvezda-2005 Perm, 13 goals)
25	2016	Rossiyanka	Zvezda-2005 Perm	Ryazan-VDV	Margarita Chernomyrdina (Chertanovo Moscow, 8 goals) Nadezhda Karpova (Chertanovo Moscow, 8 goals)
26	2017	Zvezda-2005 Perm	Ryazan-VDV	Chertanovo Moscow	Elena Danilova (Ryazan-VDV, 11 goals)
27	2018	Ryazan-VDV	Chertanovo Moscow	Zvezda-2005 Perm	Elena Danilova (Ryazan-VDV, 11 goals)
28	2019	CSKA Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow	Kubanochka Krasnodar	Nelli Korovkina (Lokomotiv Moscow, 20 goals)
29	2020	CSKA Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow	Zvezda-2005 Perm	Olesya Kurochkina (Zvezda-2005 Perm, 9 goals)
30	2021	Lokomotiv Moscow	CSKA Moscow	Zenit Saint Petersburg	Nelli Korovkina (Lokomotiv Moscow, 20 goals)
31	2022	Zenit Saint Petersburg	CSKA Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow	Nelli Korovkina (Lokomotiv Moscow, 17 goals)
32	2023	Zenit Saint Petersburg	CSKA Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow	Ana Dias (Zenit Saint Petersburg, 18 goals)

Team Performance Over Time

This table shows how many times each club has won, been runner-up, or finished third in the league.

See also

In Spanish: Campeonato Ruso de fútbol femenino para niños

• Women's football in Russia