The 2016–17 Russian Premier League was the 25th season of the premier league football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 15th under the current Russian Premier League name. CSKA Moscow came into the season as the defending champions of the 2015-16 season. Fixtures for the 2016–17 season were announced on 20 June 2016.
Teams
As in the previous season, 16 teams played in the 2016–17 season. After the 2015–16 season, FC Kuban Krasnodar, FC Dynamo Moscow and FC Mordovia Saransk were relegated to the 2016–17 Russian National Football League. They were replaced by three clubs from the 2015–16 Russian National Football League, FC Arsenal Tula, FC Orenburg and FC Tom Tomsk.
Stadiums Team Stadium City Opened CapacityAmkarZvezda StadiumPerm 1969 17,000AnzhiAnzhi ArenaKaspiysk 2003 26,400ArsenalArsenal StadiumTula 1959 20,048CSKAArena CSKAMoscow 2016 30,000KrasnodarKrasnodar StadiumKrasnodar 2016 34,291Krylia SovetovMetallurg StadiumSamara 1957 33,001LokomotivLokomotiv StadiumMoscow 2002 28,800OrenburgGazovik StadiumOrenburg 2002 7,500RostovOlimp-2Rostov-on-Don 1930 15,840RubinKazan ArenaKazan 2013 45,379SpartakOtkrytiye ArenaMoscow 2014 45,360TerekAkhmat-ArenaGrozny 2011 30,597TomTrud StadiumTomsk 1929 10,028UfaNeftyanik StadiumUfa 1967 15,234UralSKB-Bank ArenaYekaterinburg 1940 10,000ZenitPetrovskySaint Petersburg 1925 21,405
Personnel and sponsorship TeamLocationHead coachAmkar PermPerm Gadzhi GadzhiyevAnzhi MakhachkalaMakhachkala Aleksandr GrigoryanArsenal TulaTula Sergei KiriakovCSKA MoscowMoscow Viktor GoncharenkoKrasnodarKrasnodar Igor ShalimovKrylia Sovetov SamaraSamara Vadim SkripchenkoLokomotiv MoscowMoscow Yuri SeminOrenburgOrenburg Robert YevdokimovRostovRostov-on-Don Ivan DaniliantsRubin KazanKazan Javi GraciaSpartak MoscowMoscow Massimo CarreraTerek GroznyGrozny Rashid RakhimovTom TomskTomsk Valery PetrakovUfaUfa Sergei SemakUral Sverdlovsk OblastYekaterinburg Aleksandr TarkhanovZenit Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg Mircea Lucescu
Managerial changes TeamOutgoingMannerDateTableIncomingDateTableZenit André Villas-BoasContract expired24 May 2016pre-season Mircea Lucescu24 May 2016pre-seasonRubin Valeriy ChalyContract expired21 May 2016pre-season Javi Gracia27 May 2016pre-seasonUfa Sergei Tomarov (caretaker)Caretaking spell over6 June 2016pre-season Viktor Goncharenko6 June 2016pre-seasonAnzhi Ruslan AgalarovContract expired31 May 2016pre-season Pavel Vrba30 June 2016pre-seasonSpartak Dmitri AlenichevResigned5 August 20161st Massimo Carrera (caretaker) Massimo Carrera 5 August 20161st2ndRostov Kurban BerdyevResigned6 August 20164th Dmitri Kirichenko (caretaker)6 August 20164thLokomotiv Igor CherevchenkoResigned10 August 20169th Oleg Pashinin (caretaker)10 August 20169thLokomotiv Oleg Pashinin (caretaker)Caretaking spell over26 August 201612th Yuri Semin26 August 201612thRostov Dmitri Kirichenko (caretaker)Caretaking spell over9 September 20167th Ivan Daniliants9 September 20167thKrasnodar Oleg KononovResigned13 September 20167th Igor Shalimov (caretaker) Igor Shalimov13 September 20167th6thArsenal Tula Sergei PavlovMutual consent5 October 201614th Andrei Kozlov (caretaker)5 October 201614thArsenal Tula Andrei Kozlov (caretaker)Caretaking spell over6 October 201614th Sergei Kiriakov6 October 201614thUral Sverdlovsk Oblast Vadim SkripchenkoResigned1 November 201613th Yuri Matveyev (caretaker)1 November 201613thKrylia Sovetov Franky VercauterenMutual consent1 November 201616th Hans Visser (caretaker)1 November 201616thKrylia Sovetov Hans Visser (caretaker)Caretaking spell over3 November 201616th Vadim Skripchenko3 November 201616thUral Sverdlovsk Oblast Yuri Matveyev (caretaker)Caretaking spell over3 November 201613th Aleksandr Tarkhanov3 November 201613thCSKA Moscow Leonid SlutskyResigned7 December 20163rd Viktor Goncharenko12 December 20163rdUfa Viktor GoncharenkoMutual consent12 December 20168th Sergei Semak30 December 20168thAnzhi Makhachkala Pavel VrbaMutual consent30 December 201611th Aleksandr Grigoryan5 January 201711th
Tournament format and regulations
Basic The 16 teams played a round-robin tournament whereby each team plays each one of the other teams twice, once at home and once away. Thus, a total of 240 matches was played, with 30 matches played by each team.
Promotion and relegation The teams that finish 15th and 16th will be relegated to the FNL, while the top 2 in that league will be promoted to the Premier League for the 2016–17 season.
The 13th and 14th Premier League teams will play the 4th and 3rd FNL teams respectively in two playoff games with the winners securing Premier League spots for the 2017–18 season.
League table
Relegation play-offs The draw for relegation play-offs scheduling took place on 24 April 2017.
First leg
Second leg
0–0 on aggregate. SKA-Khabarovsk won 5–3 on penalties and were promoted to the 2017–18 Russian Premier League; Orenburg were relegated to the 2017–18 Russian National Football League.
2–2 on aggregate. Arsenal Tula won on away goals and retained their spot in the 2017–18 Russian Premier League; Yenisey Krasnoyarsk remained in the 2017–18 Russian National Football League.
Results
Positions by round The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. In order to preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included to the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards.
Season statistics
Scoring First goal of the season: Ivan Novoseltsev for Rostov against Orenburg (30 July 2016) First double: Jano Ananidze for Spartak Moscow against Arsenal Tula (31 July 2016) First hat-trick: Pavel Nyakhaychyk for Orenburg against Tom Tomsk (16 October 2016)
Top goalscorers RankPlayerTeamGoals1 Fyodor SmolovKrasnodar182 Artem DzyubaZenit133 Quincy PromesSpartak124 AriKrasnodar/Lokomotiv105 JonathasRubin9 Bekim BalajTerek7 Denis GlushakovSpartak8 Sergei KornilenkoKrylia Sovetov Victor GiulianoZenit10 Ablaye MbengueTerek7 Manuel FernandesLokomotiv Maksim KanunnikovRubin Aleksandr SamedovLokomotiv/Spartak Dmitry PolozRostov Sardar AzmounRostov Last updated: 28 May 2017
Season events
Transfer bans On 3 November 2016, FC Tom Tomsk was banned from registering new players for debts to PFC CSKA Moscow for Pyotr Ten's transfer fee. On 27 December 2016, the ban was re-confirmed for debts to a former player Andrei Lyakh. On 19 January 2017, the ban was re-confirmed for debts to player Sergey Kuznetsov and former players Maksim Tishkin, Artyom Yarmolitsky, Aslan Dudiyev, Aleksandr Zhirov, Sergey Samodin, Vitali Dyakov, Anton Kochenkov and Pyotr Ten. On 31 January 2017, the ban was re-confirmed for debts to former players Oleksandr Kasyan and Pavel Golyshev. On 10 February 2017, the ban was re-confirmed for debts to former players Pavel Golyshev and Kirill Pogrebnyak. On 20 February 2017, the ban was re-confirmed for debts to players Aleksei Pugin, Artyom Popov and Kirill Kombarov. By the time the winter player registration window closed on 24 February 2017, the ban remained as place. Most of the players who represented Tom in games played in 2016 left the club as free agents due to non-payment of wages, and as a result, Tom were forced to play out the 2017 games remaining on their schedule with the players registered for their Under-21 squad.
On 16 November 2016, FC Rubin Kazan was banned from registering new players for debts to former player Shota Bibilov. On 23 December 2016, the ban was re-confirmed for debts to player Ruslan Kambolov. On 17 February 2017, the ban was removed.
On 19 December 2016, FC Krylia Sovetov Samara, FC Tom Tomsk, FC Amkar Perm and FC Rubin Kazan were banned from registering new players by the licensing committee of the Russian Football Union for unspecified debts. Krylia Sovetov's ban was removed on 30 January 2017.
Attendances
Awards Top 33 On 22 May 2017, Russian Football Union named its list of 33 top players:
Other awards announced on the same day included:
Player of the year: Denis Glushakov.
Hope prize (under-21 players): Fyodor Chalov (CSKA).
Coach of the year: Massimo Carrera (Spartak).
Referee of the year: Vladislav Bezborodov.
Team of the year: FC Spartak Moscow.
For contribution to football development: Nikita Simonyan.
References
External links
2016–17 Russian Premier League at Soccerway