The 2021–22 Russian Premier League (known as the Tinkoff Russian Premier League, also written as Tinkoff Russian Premier Liga for sponsorship reason) was the 30th season of the premier football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 20th under the current Russian Premier League name.
Teams As in the previous season, 16 teams played in the 2021–22 season. After the 2020–21 season, Rotor Volgograd were relegated to the 2021–22 Russian Football National League after one season in Premier League while Tambov were dissolved. They were replaced by Krylia Sovetov Samara and Nizhny Novgorod, the winners and third place of the 2020–21 Russian Football National League. FC Orenburg, the runner-up of 2020–21 Russian Football National League, didn't get the RFS 1 licence.
Venues Zenit Saint Petersburg Ural Yekaterinburg Khimki Rostov Krestovsky Stadium Central Stadium Arena Khimki Rostov Arena Capacity: 67,800 Capacity: 35,696 Capacity: 18,636 Capacity: 45,000 Spartak Moscow Krylia Sovetov Samara Otkritie Arena Solidarnost Arena Capacity: 44,307 Capacity: 44,918 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 Sochi Nizhny Novgorod Fisht Olympic Stadium Nizhny Novgorod Stadium Capacity: 47,659 Capacity: 44,899 Arsenal Tula Dynamo Moscow Ufa Rubin Kazan Arsenal Stadium VTB Arena BetBoom Arena Ak Bars Arena Capacity: 20,048 Capacity: 26,319 Capacity: 15,132 Capacity: 45,093
Personnel and kits TeamLocationHead coachCaptainKit manufacturerShirt sponsorAkhmatGrozny Andrei Talalayev Rizvan Utsiyev MacronAkhmat Foundation/ParimatchArsenalTula Miodrag Božović Igor Smolnikov AdidasRostecCSKAMoscow Aleksei Berezutski Igor Akinfeev JomaX-Holding/VEB.RF/Wildberries/FonbetDynamoMoscow Sandro Schwarz Anton Shunin PumaVTBKhimkiKhimki Sergei Yuran Dmitry Tikhy PumaParimatchKrasnodarKrasnodar Aleksandr Storozhuk Matvei Safonov PumaWinlineKrylia SovetovSamara Igor Osinkin Aleksandr Soldatenkov PumaBETTERY/SogazLokomotivMoscow Zaur Khapov Guilherme AdidasRZhDNizhny NovgorodNizhny Novgorod Aleksandr Kerzhakov Kirill Gotsuk JakoParimatchRostovRostov-on-Don Valeri Karpin Danil Glebov PumaTNS EnergoRubinKazan Leonid Slutsky Vladislav Ignatyev JakoTAIFSochiSochi Vladimir Fedotov Soslan Dzhanayev PumaSpartakMoscow Paolo Vanoli Georgi Dzhikiya NikeLukoilUfaUfa Aleksei Stukalov Bojan Jokić JomaBetBoomUralYekaterinburg Igor Shalimov Eric Bicfalvi NikeTMK/Akademichesky/BetBoomZenitSaint Petersburg Sergei Semak Dejan Lovren NikeGazprom
Managerial changes Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position in table Replaced by Date of appointment Position in table Spartak Moscow Domenico Tedesco Contract expired 31 May 2021 Off-season Rui Vitória 31 May 2021 Off-season CSKA Moscow Ivica Olić Mutual consent 15 June 2021 Off-season Aleksei Berezutski 15 June 2021 (caretaker)19 July 2021 (permanent) Off-season Nizhny Novgorod Anton Khazov End of caretaker spell 17 June 2021 Off-season Aleksandr Kerzhakov 17 June 2021 Off-season Rostov Valeri Karpin Mutual consent after appointment as manager of the national team 2 August 2021 15th Yury Syomin 4 August 2021 15th Ural Yekaterinburg Yuri Matveyev Mutual consent 10 August 2021 15th Igor Shalimov 10 August 2021 15th Arsenal Tula Dmytro Parfenov Mutual consent 3 September 2021 15th Miodrag Božović 3 September 2021 15th Rostov Yury Syomin Resigned 25 September 2021 14th Zaur Tedeyev (caretaker) 25 September 2021 14th Lokomotiv Moscow Marko Nikolić Mutual consent 5 October 2021 4th Markus Gisdol 10 October 2021 4th Khimki Igor Cherevchenko Mutual consent 25 October 2021 14th Igor Yushchenko (caretaker) 25 October 2021 14th Rostov Zaur Tedeyev (caretaker) End of caretaker spell 26 October 2021 12th Vitaly Kafanov 26 October 2021 12th Khimki Igor Yushchenko (caretaker) Caretaking spell over 19 November 2021 15th Igor Cherevchenko 19 November 2021 15th Spartak Moscow Rui Vitória Mutual consent 15 December 2021 9th Paolo Vanoli 17 December 2021 9th Krasnodar Viktor Goncharenko Sacked 5 January 2022 5th Daniel Farke 13 January 2022 5th Khimki Igor Cherevchenko Mutual consent 22 February 2022 16th Sergei Yuran 23 February 2022 16th Lokomotiv Moscow Markus Gisdol Resigned 1 March 2022 7th Dmitri Loskov (caretaker) 3 March 2022 7th Krasnodar Daniel Farke Mutual consent 2 March 2022 6th Aleksandr Storozhuk 7 March 2022 (caretaker)5 April 2022 (permanent) 6th Rostov Vitaly Kafanov Return to assistant coach position 10 March 2022 14th Valeri Karpin 10 March 2022 14th Lokomotiv Moscow Dmitri Loskov (caretaker) Caretaking spell over 4 April 2022 5th Zaur Khapov 4 April 2022 5th
Tournament format and regulations 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 played, with 30 matches played by each team.
Promotion and relegation For the purpose of determining FNL positions for the following, the teams that will not pass 2022–23 RPL licensing or drop out of 2022–23 season for any other reason, or the second teams of RPL clubs (such as FC Krasnodar-2), or the teams that finished lower than 6th place in FNL standings will not be considered. For example, if the teams that finished 1st, 3rd and 4th in the FNL standings fail licensing, the team that finished 2nd will be considered 1st-placed team, the team that finished 5th will be considered 2nd-placed team and the team that finished 6th will be considered 3rd-placed team. There will be no designated 4th-placed team in this scenario.
The teams that finish 15th and 16th relegated to the FNL 2022–23, while the top 2 in that league promoted to the 2022–23 season.
The 13th and 14th Premier League teams will play the 4th and 3rd FNL 2021–22 teams respectively in two (home-and-away) playoff games, with away goals rule (including extra time of the return leg) and penalty shootout in effect, if necessary, the winners will secure Premier League spots for the 2022–23 season. If both of the teams that finish RPL in 13th and 14th place fail licensing for the 2022–23 season or drop out for any other reason, play-offs will not be held, and 3rd and 4th FNL teams will be promoted automatically. If one of the teams that place 13th and 14th in the Premier League fails licensing for 2022–23 season or drops out for other reasons, 3rd FNL team will be promoted automatically and the 13th or 14th-placed team that passes licensing will play 4th FNL team in playoffs, with the winners securing the Premier League spot. If only one FNL team is eligible for the play-offs (as in the example scenario above), that team will play the 14th-placed RPL team in playoffs, with the winners securing the Premier League spot, and the 13th RPL team will remain in the league. If none of the FNL teams are eligible for the play-offs, they will not be held and 13th and 14th-placed RPL teams will remain in the league. If any of the teams are unable to participate in the season after the play-offs have been concluded, or there are not enough teams that pass licensing to follow the above procedures, the replacement will be chosen by the Russian Football Union in consultation with RPL and FNL.
Season events COVID-19 pandemic Due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic in Russia, attendance for the games was limited. The specific restrictions are set by the appropriate local office of Rospotrebnadzor and therefore are not consistent between all clubs. FC Rostov played their initial home games without any fans in the stands, Moscow clubs were limited to 3,000 fans (with negative tests or proof of vaccination), Tatarstan office restricted FC Rubin Kazan attendance to 30% of stadium's capacity (approximately 15,000 fans) and most other games were limited to 500 fans. By late September, the limits were raised to 30% of capacity (with proof of vaccination) in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, while in some other locations the regulations remained more strict (such as 1,000 limit for home games of FC Ural Yekaterinburg). In December, the limit was raised to 70% of capacity (with proof of vaccination) in Moscow. All COVID-19-related restrictions were lifted on 3 March 2022 in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
Issues related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. The airports based in the provinces that are close to Ukraine were ordered closed until 2 March, including Platov International Airport in Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar International Airport. For that reason, the games between FC Rostov and PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara and between FC Krasnodar and FC Lokomotiv Moscow, originally scheduled for 27 February, were postponed, with the other six games scheduled for the weekend going ahead. Ukrainian players, such as Ivan Ordets of Dynamo Moscow and Denys Kulakov of Ural Yekaterinburg, as well as Dynamo's assistant coach Andriy Voronin were not with their teams for the weekend's games. Voronin officially terminated his contract with Dynamo on 1 March, and Yaroslav Hodzyur of FC Ural Yekaterinburg was the first Ukrainian player to terminate his contract. In the following days, several more Ukrainian players terminated their contracts, and the ones who did not were not training with their clubs. The only Ukrainian player to appear in the early post-winter-break games was the new FC Lokomotiv Moscow signing Mark Mampassi, who also possesses Russian citizenship and was registered with the league as a domestic player. Several other players with dual Ukrainian-Russian citizenship (such as Daniil Khlusevich, Daniil Lesovoy or Ihor Kalinin) appeared for their clubs in later games, but none of the players who were registered with the league as Ukrainian citizens appeared on the field for the remainder of the season. On 11 March 2022, Ukrainian Association of Football stripped FC Zenit Saint Petersburg assistant coach Anatoliy Tymoshchuk of his coaching license and banned him from any football activity in Ukraine for not leaving Zenit and not making a public statement condemning Russia.
On 28 February 2022, FIFA and UEFA suspended Russian clubs from international competition until further notice.
On 1 March 2022, the airport closures were extended to 7 March. On the same day, FC Rostov confirmed that their game against PFC Sochi scheduled for 7 March will go ahead as scheduled. The game between FC Krasnodar and FC Ural Yekaterinburg was also not postponed, Ural flew into the Sochi International Airport and then took a 6.5-hour train ride into Krasnodar.
On 3 March 2022, FC Krasnodar announced that the contracts of 8 foreign players are suspended, but not terminated. The players would train on their own, but remain under contract.