Russian Premier League

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Russian Premier League
Russian Premier League
Country Russia
Confederation UEFA
Founded 2001
Number of teams 16
Relegation to Russian First Division
Level on pyramid Level 1
Domestic cup(s) Russian Cup
UEFA cup(s) Champions League
UEFA Cup
Intertoto Cup
Current champions FC Zenit St. Petersburg (2007)
Most successful club FC Spartak Moscow (9 titles)*
Website Russian Premier League home page
2008 season
  • Incl. Rus. Top League and Rus. Top Division titles

The Russian Premier League (also known as Rosgosstrakh Championship of Russia) is the top division of Russian football. There are 16 teams in the competition. At the end of the season two teams get relegated to the Russian First Division and get replaced with the two top First Division teams.

The Russian Premier League was organized 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.

Zenit Saint Petersburg are the current Russian Premier League champions.

Contents

[edit] History

After the break-up of the Soviet Union, starting in 1992, each former Soviet republic organized an independent national championship. In Russia, the 6 Russian teams who had played in the Soviet Top League in 1991 (CSKA Moscow, Spartak Moscow, Torpedo Moscow, Dinamo Moscow, Spartak Vladikavkaz, and Lokomotiv Moscow) were supplemented with 14 teams from lower divisions to organize 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 9 of the first 10 titles. Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz was the only team which managed to break Spartak's dominance, winning the Top Division title in 1995.

Lokomotiv Moscow won the title twice, and CSKA Moscow three times.

Recently, Zenit Saint Petersburg climbed to the top. Zenit won the title for the first time. They also won Soviet Union champion title in 1984.

[edit] Competition

Russian Premier League match between Zenit and Dynamo
Russian Premier League match between Zenit and Dynamo

Each team in the league plays each opponent twice, one 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 the teams are level on points, the tie-breakers are the number of wins, then the goal difference, followed by several others. 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, the championship play-off is ordered.

As of 2007, the champions qualify for the UEFA Champions League, and the runners-up for the Champions League qualification. Teams that finished 3rd , 4th or 5th qualify for the UEFA Cup qualification. Two bottom teams are relegated to the First Division.

The league typically runs from March to November.

[edit] 2008 clubs

Russian Premier League 2008 team distribution
Russian Premier League 2008 team distribution

In the 2008 season the Russian Premier League consists of the following teams:

[edit] Champions and top scorers

Season Champion Runner-up 3rd position Top scorer
1992* Spartak Moscow Spartak Vladikavkaz Dynamo Moscow Veli Kasumov (Dynamo, 16 goals)
1993* Spartak Moscow (2) Rotor Volgograd Dynamo Moscow Victor Panchenko (KamAZ, 21 goals)
1994* Spartak Moscow (3) Dynamo Moscow Lokomotiv Moscow Igor Simutenkov (Dynamo, 21 goals)
1995* Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz Lokomotiv Moscow Spartak Moscow Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor, 25 goals)
1996* Spartak Moscow (4) Alania Vladikavkaz Rotor Volgograd Aleksandr Maslov (Rostselmash, 23 goals)
1997* Spartak Moscow (5) Rotor Volgograd Dynamo Moscow Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor, 22 goals)
1998** Spartak Moscow (6) CSKA Moscow Lokomotiv Moscow Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor, 22 goals)
1999** Spartak Moscow (7) Lokomotiv Moscow CSKA Moscow Georgi Demetradze (Alania, 21 goals)
2000** Spartak Moscow (8) Lokomotiv Moscow Torpedo Moscow Dmitri Loskov (Lokomotiv, 15 goals)
2001** Spartak Moscow (9) Lokomotiv Moscow Zenit Saint Petersburg Dmitri Vyazmikin (Torpedo, 18 goals)
2002 Lokomotiv Moscow CSKA Moscow Spartak Moscow Rolan Gusev (CSKA, 15 goals)
Dmitri Kirichenko (CSKA, 15 goals)
2003 CSKA Moscow Zenit Saint Petersburg Rubin Kazan Dmitri Loskov (Lokomotiv, 14 goals)
2004 Lokomotiv Moscow (2) CSKA Moscow Krylya Sovetov Samara Aleksandr Kerzhakov (Zenit, 18 goals)
2005 CSKA Moscow (2) Spartak Moscow Lokomotiv Moscow Dmitri Kirichenko (Moskva, 14 goals)
2006 CSKA Moscow (3) Spartak Moscow Lokomotiv Moscow Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow, 18 goals)
2007 Zenit St. Petersburg Spartak Moscow CSKA Moscow Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow, 14 goals)
Roman Adamov (Moskva, 14 goals)
* The league was named Top League
** The league was named Top Division

[edit] All-time table

As of end of 2007 season
Rank Club1 Seasons Most
recent
season		 Played2 Won Drawn Lost Goals Points3
1 Spartak Moscow 16 489 287 121 81 976-480 982
2 Lokomotiv Moscow 16 489 252 135 102 755-435 891
3 CSKA Moscow 16 489 240 120 129 761-490 840
4 Dynamo Moscow 16 488 203 141 144 704-564 750
5 Torpedo Moscow 15 2006 462 182 131 149 597-553 677
6 Zenit Saint Petersburg 13 398 171 111 116 547-430 624
7 Krylya Sovetov Samara 16 492 164 128 200 543-640 620
8 Alania Vladikavkaz 14 2005 429 168 93 168 579-569 597
9 Rotor Volgograd 13 2004 402 151 109 142 562-506 562
10 Rostov 15 2007 458 122 139 197 484-645 505
11 Saturn Moscow Oblast 9 270 92 93 85 305-270 369
12 Shinnik Yaroslavl 9 274 80 79 115 269-355 319
13 Chernomorets Novorossiysk 8 2003 248 74 65 109 274-357 287
14 Moskva 7 210 70 63 77 222-247 273
15 Lokomotiv Nizhny Novgorod 8 2000 248 68 63 117 233-356 267
16 Zhemchuzhina Sochi 7 1999 222 61 57 104 263-390 240
17 Rubin Kazan 5 150 59 41 50 195-167 218
18 Uralmash Yekaterinburg 5 1996 158 57 33 68 215-241 204
19 Energia-Tekstilshchik Kamyshin 5 1996 158 53 43 62 172-177 202
20 KAMAZ-Chally Naberezhnye Chelny 5 1997 162 51 32 79 198-253 1794
21 Uralan Elista 5 2003 150 36 39 75 138-225 147
22 Amkar Perm 4 120 31 46 43 105-142 139
23 Baltika Kaliningrad 3 1998 98 30 37 31 114-111 127
24 Fakel Voronezh 4 2001 124 31 29 64 101-175 122
25 Luch-Energia Vladivostok 3 94 31 20 43 92-134 113
26 Tom Tomsk 3 90 28 29 33 100-101 113
27 Anzhi Makhachkala 3 2002 90 27 28 35 94-108 109
28 Dynamo Stavropol 3 1994 94 27 23 44 94-125 104
29 Tyumen 5 1998 154 25 26 103 116-326 101
30 Kuban Krasnodar 3 2007 90 17 30 43 77-133 81
31 Okean Nakhodka 2 1993 64 22 14 28 65-83 80
32 Spartak Nalchik 2 60 19 17 24 62-70 74
33 Asmaral Moscow 2 1993 60 19 11 30 74-102 68
34 Sokol Saratov 2 2002 60 17 13 30 55-87 64
35 Lada Togliatti 2 1996 64 10 16 38 42-105 46
36 Khimki 1 30 9 10 11 32-33 37
37 Terek Chechen Republic 1 30 5 5 20 20-50 145
  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.
  3. For the purposes of this table, each win is worth 3 points. The three-points system was adopted in 1995.
  4. KAMAZ-Chally were deducted 6 points in 1997.
  5. Terek were deducted 6 points in 2005.

[edit] Players with most appearances

As of 12 November 2007 [1] [2] [3]
Rank Player Apps
1 Valery Yesipov 390
2 Dmitri Loskov 371
3 Sergei Semak 347
4 Igor Chugaynov 317
4 Andrey Tikhonov 317
6 Yegor Titov 314
7 Yury Drozdov 311
8 Yury Kovtun 304
9 Aleksandr Filimonov 295
10 Sergey Ovchinnikov 290
10 Artur Pagayev 290

[edit] All-time top scorers

As of 12 November 2007 [4]
Rank Player Goals
1 Oleg Veretennikov 143
2 Dmitri Loskov 110
3 Dmitri Kirichenko 102
4 Andrey Tikhonov 91
5 Valery Yesipov 88
6 Egor Titov 87
7 Oleg Teryokhin 84
8 Sergei Semak 81
9 Roman Pavlyuchenko 77
9 Aleksandr Shirko 77

[edit] Champions (Players)

9-time

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Russian Premier League 2008
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