The Russian Premier League (the official name since February 2020 – Tinkoff Russian Premier League is a professional football league, the top division in the system of Russian football leagues. 16 clubs play in it. Since its inception, it has been called the Russian Football Premier League (RFPL). In July 2018, it was renamed the Russian Premier League (RPL) with the introduction of a new logo.
All about Russian Football Premier League
As the name suggests the Russian Football Premier League which is currently called as SOGAZ among the Russian football lovers has been founded in 2001, hence it is one of the most modern and new football leagues of the world. The Russian football premier league is associated with the UEFA and it has 16 teams as participants. The relegated teams play for the National Football League. The domestic cup for football in Russia is called the Russian Cup and the winners of the Russian Football Premier League play in the UEFA Champions League and in the Europa League. Currently the Russian Football Premier League stands at the 7th place among the top European football leagues list of UEFA. CSKA Moscow are the current champions of the league and Spartak Moscow have won most number of titles, which is 7. NTV and Our Football are the television partners of the Russian Football Premier league and RFPL.org is the official website for the league.
History and the Format of the Russian Football Premier League
Since 2002 he has been organizing the Russian Football Championship (the Professional Football League was involved in this until 2001). Since the founding of the league, the Russian Football Championship has been held annually according to the “spring-autumn” system. On September 13, 2010, at a meeting of the RFU Executive Committee, it was decided to switch to the “autumn-spring” system. According to the decision, the Championship in 2011/12 was held according to the transitional system “spring-autumn-spring”, and from autumn 2012 to the present – according to the system “autumn-spring”
The Russian Football Premier League was formed at the end of 2001 from 16 clubs that received the right to play in the 2002 top division of the Russian championship . After that, each year, the teams that finished in the last two places in the championship were excluded from the partnership, and the teams that took the first two places in the first division became members.
In February 2010, the Moscow football club terminated its membership on a voluntary basis, the Alania football club was offered to take its place , which accepted the offer , in 2011, Saturn voluntarily left the RFPL , and was replaced by FC Krasnodar… Since 2011, the teams that took the 13th and 14th places in the final standings of the championship have played two transitional matches with the teams that took 4th and 3rd places in the FNL championship , respectively . The teams, winning on aggregate, take part in the Russian Championship , the losers will play next season in the First Division.
Four of the sixteen clubs that played in the first season of the RFPL in 2002 have never left it since then: Zenit, Lokomotiv, Spartak and CSKA .
During the entire existence of the RPL (RFPL) since 2002, 39 teams have played in it
Teams Qualified to Play the 2021-22 Season of the Russian Football Premier League
- Akhmat Grozny
- Arsenal Tula
- CSKA Moscow
- Dynamo Moscow
- Khimki
- Krasnodar
- Lokomotiv Moscow
- Rostov
- Rotor Volgograd
- Rubin Kazan
- Sochi
- Spartak Moscow
- Tambov
- Ufa
- FC Ural Yekaterinburg
- Zenit Saint Petersburg