The 2018–19 Russian Premier League was the 27th season of the premier football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 17th under the current Russian Premier League name. Lokomotiv Moscow came into the season as the defending champions.
The new logo was presented on 24 July 2018, there was no title sponsor announced for the season.
Teams As in the previous season, 16 teams will play in the 2018–19 season. After the 2017–18 season, Anzhi Makhachkala, Tosno and SKA-Khabarovsk were relegated to the 2018–19 Russian National Football League. They were replaced by three clubs from the 2017–18 Russian National Football League, Orenburg, Krylya Sovetov Samara, and Yenisey Krasnoyarsk. Orenburg and Krylya Sovetov returned after one season of absence while Yenisey make their debut in the Premier League.
On 13 June 2018, FC Amkar Perm announced that the Russian Football Union recalled their 2018–19 season license, making them ineligible for the Russian Premier League or Russian Football National League. FC Anzhi Makhachkala, which was already licensed for the 2018–19 Premier League before losing in the 2017–18 relegation play-offs, was eligible to stay in the league ahead of the other relegation play-off losing club, FC Tambov. Anzhi re-applied for the Premier League membership on 15 June and was officially re-admitted into the Premier League on 22 June.
Venues
Zenit Saint Petersburg Rubin Kazan Rostov Krylia Sovetov Samara Krestovsky Stadium Kazan Arena Rostov Arena Cosmos Arena Capacity: 67,800 Capacity: 45,093 Capacity: 45,000 Capacity: 44,918 Spartak Moscow Ural Yekaterinburg Otkritie Arena Central Stadium Capacity: 44,307 Capacity: 35,696 Krasnodar Akhmat Grozny Krasnodar Stadium Akhmat-Arena Capacity: 34,291 Capacity: 30,597 CSKA Moscow Lokomotiv Moscow VEB Arena RZD Arena Capacity: 30,457 Capacity: 27,320 Anzhi Makhachkala Yenisey Krasnoyarsk Anzhi Arena Central Stadium Capacity: 26,500 Capacity: 22,500 Arsenal Tula Dynamo Moscow Ufa Orenburg Arsenal Stadium Arena Khimki Neftyanik Stadium Gazovik Stadium Capacity: 20,048 Capacity: 18,636 Capacity: 15,132 Capacity: 7,520
Personnel and kits TeamLocationHead coachCaptainKit manufacturerShirt sponsorAkhmatGrozny Rizvan Utsiyev AdidasAkhmat FoundationAnzhiMakhachkala Guram Tetrashvili JakoArsenalTula Igor Cherevchenko Kirill Kombarov AdidasSPLAVCSKAMoscow Igor Akinfeev UmbroRossetiDynamoMoscow Anton Shunin NikeVTBKrasnodarKrasnodar Alyaksandr Martynovich PumaConstell GroupKrylia SovetovSamara Yevgeni Konyukhov PumaParimatchLokomotivMoscow Igor Denisov Under ArmourRZhDOrenburgOrenburg Vladimir Fedotov Dmitri Andreyev AdidasGazprom Dobycha OrenburgRostovRostov-on-Don Alexandru Gațcan JomaTNS EnergoRubinKazan César Navas JakoNizhnekamskneftekhimSpartakMoscow Denis Glushakov NikeLukoilUfaUfa Vadim Evseev Pavel Alikin JomaTerra BashkiriaUralYekaterinburg Artyom Fidler JomaRenova, TMKYeniseyKrasnoyarsk David Yurchenko NikeHOKZenitSaint Petersburg Aleksandr Anyukov NikeGazprom
Managerial changes Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position in table Replaced by Date of appointment Zenit Roberto Mancini Mutual consent 13 May 2018pre-season Sergei Semak 29 May 2018 Ural Aleksandr Tarkhanov Moved to the advisor position 21 May 2018 Dmytro Parfenov 21 May 2018 Arsenal Miodrag Božović Contract expired 21 May 2018 Oleg Kononov 1 June 2018 Ufa Sergei Semak Mutual consent 29 May 2018 Sergei Tomarov 13 June 2018 Anzhi Vadim Skripchenko Contract expired 31 May 2018 Magomed Adiyev 4 June 2018 Akhmat Igor Lediakhov Resigned 2 September 2018 10th Ruslan İdiqov (caretaker) 2 September 2018 Akhmat Ruslan İdiqov (caretaker) Caretaking spell over 5 September 2018 10th Rashid Rakhimov 5 September 2018 Krylia Sovetov Andrey Tikhonov Fired 5 October 2018 15th Miodrag Božović 5 October 2018 Spartak Moscow Massimo Carrera Fired 23 October 2018 6th Raúl Riancho (caretaker) 23 October 2018 Ufa Sergei Tomarov Resigned 7 November 2018 15th Dmitri Kirichenko 7 November 2018 Spartak Moscow Raúl Riancho Caretaking spell over 12 November 2018 9th Oleg Kononov 12 November 2018 Arsenal Tula Oleg Kononov Mutual consent 12 November 2018 11th Igor Cherevchenko 13 November 2018 Ufa Dmitri Kirichenko Mutual consent 27 March 2019 15th Vadim Evseev 27 March 2019
Tournament format and regulations
Basic The 16 teams will play 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 will be 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 2019–20 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 2019–20 season.
League table
Relegation play-offs The draw for relegation play-offs scheduling took place on 16 May 2019. The referees (including VAR teams) were appointed on 27 May 2019.
First leg
Second leg
FC Ufa won 2–1 on aggregate and retained their spot in the 2019–20 Russian Premier League; Tom Tomsk remained in the 2019–20 Russian National Football League.
Krylia Sovetov won 3–2 on aggregate and retained their spot in the 2019–20 Russian Premier League; Nizhny Novgorod remained in the 2019–20 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 Top goalscorers + Top goalscorersRankPlayerTeamGoals1 Fyodor ChalovCSKA Moscow152 Sardar AzmounRubin KazanZenit St. Petersburg133 Viktor ClaessonKrasnodar124 Sebastián DriussiZenit St. Petersburg11 Anton MiranchukLokomotiv Moscow6 Zé LuísSpartak Moscow107 Sylvester IgbounUfa98 AriKrasnodar8 Zelimkhan BakayevArsenal Tula Artem DzyubaZenit St. Petersburg Jefferson FarfánLokomotiv Moscow Magomed-Shapi SuleymanovKrasnodar Aleksei SutorminOrenburg
Attendances
Awards Top 33 On 26 June 2019, Russian Football Union named its list of 33 top players:
Other awards announced on the same day included:
Player of the year: Artem Dzyuba.
Hope prize (under-21 players): Matvei Safonov (Krasnodar).
Coach of the year: Sergei Semak (Zenit).
Team of the year: FC Zenit Saint Petersburg.
For contribution to football development: Stanislav Cherchesov.
See also Russian National Football League Russian Cup
References
Notes
External links