The Russian Premier League (RPL; , Rossiyskaya premyer-liga; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was established at the end of 2001 as the Russian Football Premier League (RFPL; ; РФПЛ) and was rebranded in 2018. From 1992 through 2001, the top level of the Russian league system was the Russian Football Championship (, Chempionat Rossii po Futbolu).
There are 16 teams in the competition. As of the 2021/22 season, the league had two Champions League qualifying spots for the league winners and league runners-up, and two spots in the UEFA Conference League were allocated to the third- and fourth-placed teams. However, those have all been suspended, along with the national team's participation in international competitions. The last two teams are relegated to the Russian First League at the end of the season, while the 13th and 14th placed teams compete against the National League's 4th and 3rd teams respectively in a two-legged playoff.
The Russian Premier League succeeded the Top Division including history and records. The Top Division was run by the Professional Football League of Russia. Since July 2026, the league is called Alfa-Bank Russian Premier League (), also written as Mir Russian Premier Liga (after the bank ), for sponsorship reasons.
Since the introduction of the Russian Premier League in 2002, Zenit Saint Petersburg (11 times), Spartak Moscow (10 times), CSKA Moscow (6 times), Lokomotiv Moscow (3 times), Rubin Kazan (2 times) and Krasnodar (1 time) have won the title. Zenit are the reigning champions, winning the competition in 2025–26.
History After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, starting in 1992, each former Soviet republic organized an independent national championship. In Russia, the six Russian teams who had played in the Soviet Top League in 1991 (CSKA Moscow, Spartak Moscow, Torpedo Moscow, Dynamo Moscow, Spartak Vladikavkaz, and Lokomotiv Moscow) were supplemented with 14 teams from lower divisions to form a 20-team Russian Top Division. The Top Division was divided into two groups to reduce the total number of matches. The number of teams in the Top Division was reduced to 18 in 1993 and 16 in 1994. Since then, the Russian Top Division (and the Premier League since 2002) has consisted of 16 teams, except for a short-lived experiment with having two more teams in 1996 and 1997.
Spartak Moscow won nine of the first ten titles. Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz was the only team which managed to break Spartak's dominance, winning the top division title in 1995. Lokomotiv Moscow have won the title three times, and CSKA Moscow six times. In 2007, Zenit St. Petersburg won the title for the first time in their history in Russian professional football; they had also won a Soviet title in 1984. 2008 brought the rise of Rubin Kazan, a club entirely new to the Russian top flight, as it had never competed in the Soviet Top League.
In preparation for the 2018–19 season, it was decided to hold a rebranding in which a new logo was presented.
In 2022, all Russian club and national teams were banned from European competition indefinitely. Spartak Moscow, who were competing in the UEFA Europa League and were the only Russian club team remaining in European competition at the time, were disqualified from their tie against RB Leipzig, who advanced on a walkover.
Competition
Teams in the Russian Premier League play each other twice, once at 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 teams are level on points, the tie-breakers are the number of wins, then the goal difference, followed by several other factors. 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, a championship play-off is ordered.
As of 2020–21 season, the champions qualify for the UEFA Champions League group stage. The runners-up qualifies for the Champions League third qualifying round. The third and fourth-place teams qualify for the UEFA Europa Conference League. If the winner of Russian Cup ends in first or second on the championship in same season, then the third-place team qualifies to UEFA Europa League group stage, while fourth and fifth-place teams qualify for the UEFA Europa Conference League instead. The bottom two teams are relegated to the First League. Starting on the 2020–21 season the teams ranked in 13th and 14th-place play a two legs relegation play-off against 4th and 3rd-place team from National League. The two winners of this play-off secures the right to play in Premier League in following season.
Unlike most other European football leagues, the league traditionally used to run in summer, from March to November, to avoid playing games in the cold and snowy weather in winter. This was altered ahead of the 2012–13 season, with the league planning to run the season from autumn to spring. The transitional season of the competition began in early 2011 and continued until summer of 2012. After the 16 Premier League teams played each other twice over the course of the 2011 calendar year, they were split into two groups of eight, and the teams played other teams in their groups two more times for a total of 44 games (30 in 2011 and 14 in 2012). Those two groups were contested in spring 2012, with the top eight clubs playing for the title and European places. The other sides vied to avoid relegation: the bottom two went down while the next two played off against the sides third and fourth in the National Football League, with the two losers being relegated (or denied promotion). Under the current autumn-spring calendar, the league takes a three-month winter break from mid-December until mid-March. Merging the calendar with other UEFA leagues however, has increased numbers of games in winter. This has resulted in the Russian Far East and Siberian teams being forced to play more home games in hostile weather conditions which affected the Premier League when SKA Khabarovsk took part.
Youth championship The Youth championship (), also known as Youth teams championship (), Reserve team tournament () or Reserves tournament (), full name Youth football championship of Russia among teams of clubs of the Premier League (), is a league that runs in parallel to the Russian Premier League and includes the youth or reserve teams of the Russian Premier League teams. The number of players a team can have on the pitch at a time that are over 21 years of age or without a Russian citizenship is limited. 16 teams participate in the league. Matches are commonly played a day before the match of the senior teams of the respective teams. All of the Russian Premier League teams are obliged to have a youth team that would participate in the Youth championship. The teams that are promoted from the National Football League and do not have a youth team must create one. The teams in the league are not relegated based on their final league position, but on the league position of their respective clubs' senior teams.
However, some Premier League clubs have three teams. Apart from the senior team and the team that plays in the Youth championship a team might have another senior team that plays in a lower division of Russian football and serves as the farm team for the main team. An example is Krasnodar-2, playing in the Russian First League.
Reserves tournament champions (2001–2007) 2001: Rotor Volgograd 2002: Dynamo Moscow 2003: Dynamo Moscow 2004: Terek Grozny 2005: CSKA Moscow 2006: Spartak Moscow 2007: Spartak Moscow
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
UEFA club rankings In 2022 Russia have been suspended from UEFA and from participating in UEFA competitions and therefore the UEFA coefficient ranking of the Russian Premier League is an automatic 0.
Current clubs
The following teams are competing in the 2025–26 season: Team Home city Stadium Capacity Head coachAkron Tolyatti Zhigulyovsk Solidarity Samara Arena 42,389 Zaur TedeyevAkhmat Grozny Grozny Akhmat Arena 30,000 Stanislav Cherchesov Baltika Kaliningrad Kaliningrad Rostec Arena 33,399 Andrey TalalayevCSKA Moscow Moscow VEB Arena 29,071 Fabio CelestiniDynamo Makhachkala Makhachkala Anzhi Arena 26,364 Vadim YevseyevDynamo Moscow Moscow VTB Arena 25,716 Rolan Gusev Krasnodar Krasnodar Ozon Arena 33,395 Murad MusayevKrylia Sovetov Samara Solidarity Samara Arena 42,389 Magomed AdiyevLokomotiv Moscow Moscow RZD Arena 27,084 Mikhail GalaktionovFC Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod Sovcombank Arena 42,532 Aleksey ShpilevskyOrenburg Orenburg Gazovik 10,046 Ildar AkhmetzyanovRostov Rostov-on-Don Rostov Arena 45,415 Jonatan AlbaRubin Kazan Kazan Ak Bars Arena 43,284 Franc ArtigaSochi Sochi Fisht 45,994 Igor OsinkinSpartak Moscow Moscow Lukoil Arena 44,897 Juan Carlos CarcedoZenit Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg Gazprom Arena 60,177 Sergei Semak
Champions