The 2022–23 Russian Premier League (known as the Mir Russian Premier League, also written as Mir Russian Premier Liga for sponsorship reasons) was the 31st season of the premier football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 21st under the current Russian Premier League name.
Teams As in the previous season, 16 teams played in the 2022–23 season. After the 2021–22 season, Arsenal Tula, Rubin Kazan and Ufa were all relegated to the 2022–23 Russian Football National League. They were replaced by Torpedo Moscow, Fakel Voronezh and Orenburg. FC Nizhny Novgorod was renamed to FC Pari Nizhny Novgorod for sponsorship reason.
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 Pari Nizhny Novgorod Fisht Olympic Stadium Nizhny Novgorod Stadium Capacity: 47,659 Capacity: 44,899 Fakel Voronezh Dynamo Moscow Orenburg Torpedo Moscow Tsentralnyi Profsoyuz Stadion VTB Arena Gazovik Stadium Luzhniki Stadium (set to change) Capacity: 31,793 Capacity: 26,319 Capacity: 10,046 Capacity: 81,000
Personnel and kits TeamLocationHead coachCaptainKit manufacturerShirt sponsorAkhmatGrozny Sergei Tashuyev Rizvan Utsiyev JomaAkhmat FoundationCSKAMoscow Vladimir Fedotov Igor Akinfeev JomaX-HoldingWildberriesFonbetDynamoMoscow Pavel Alpatov (caretaker) Daniil Fomin PumaBetBoomFakel VoronezhVoronezh Vadim Evseev Ruslan Magal PumaOlimpbetKhimkiKhimki Andrei Talalaev Butta Magomedov PumaFonbetSamoletKrasnodarKrasnodar Vladimir Ivić Matvei Safonov PumaWinlineKrylia SovetovSamara Igor Osinkin Aleksandr Soldatenkov PumaFonbetLokomotivMoscow Mikhail Galaktionov Dmitri Barinov AdidasRZhDOrenburgOrenburg Marcel Lička Andrei Malykh AdidasPari Nizhny NovgorodNizhny Novgorod Sergei Yuran Kirill Gotsuk JakoPariRostovRostov-on-Don Valery Karpin Danil Glebov PumaTNS EnergoBetBoomSochiSochi Dmitri Khokhlov Soslan Dzhanayev PumaSpartakMoscow Guille Abascal Georgi Dzhikiya NikeLukoilTorpedo MoscowMoscow Pep Clotet Aleksandr Ryazantsev PumaPariUralYekaterinburg Viktor Goncharenko Eric Bicfalvi NikeTMKBetBoomZenitSaint Petersburg Sergei Semak Douglas Santos JomaGazprom
Managerial changes Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position in table Replaced by Date of appointment Position in table CSKA Moscow Aleksei Berezutski Mutual consent 15 June 2022Off-season Vladimir Fedotov 15 June 2022Off-season Dynamo Moscow Sandro Schwarz Resigned 29 May 2022 Slaviša Jokanović 17 June 2022 Pari Nizhny Novgorod Aleksandr Kerzhakov Mutual consent 16 June 2022 Mikhail Galaktionov 16 June 2022 Sochi Vladimir Fedotov Signed by CSKA Moscow 15 June 2022 Vadim Garanin 20 June 2022 Spartak Moscow Paolo Vanoli Resigned 9 June 2022 Guille Abascal 10 June 2022 Lokomotiv Moscow Zaur Khapov Moved to coaching staff 30 June 2022 Josef Zinnbauer 30 June 2022 Ural Yekaterinburg Igor Shalimov Sacked 8 August 2022 16th Yevgeni Averyanov 8 August 2022 16th Khimki Sergei Yuran Mutual consent 10 August 2022 7th Nikolai Pisarev 10 August 2022 7th Ural Yekaterinburg Yevgeni Averyanov Caretaking spell over 15 August 2022 16th Viktor Goncharenko 15 August 2022 16th Torpedo Moscow Aleksandr Borodyuk Mutual consent 18 August 2022 15th Nikolai Kovardayev 18 August 2022 16th Khimki Nikolai Pisarev Sacked 2 September 2022 11th Spartak Gogniyev 2 September 2022 11th Fakel Voronezh Oleg Vasilenko Mutual consent 6 September 2022 14th Dmitri Pyatibratov 6 September 2022 18 September 2022 14th14th Akhmat Grozny Andrei Talalaev Sacked 11 September 2022 9th Yury Nagaytsev 11 September 2022 9th Akhmat Grozny Yury Nagaytsev Caretaking spell over 22 September 2022 8th Sergei Tashuyev 22 September 2022 8thLokomotiv Moscow Josef Zinnbauer Sacked 8 October 2022 14th Andrei Fyodorov 13 October 2022 14th Torpedo Moscow Nikolai Kovardayev Return to FC Torpedo-2 13 October 2022 16th Andrei Talalaev 13 October 2022 16th Pari NN Mikhail Galaktionov Resigned 11 November 2022 11th Anton Khazov 11 November 2022 11thLokomotiv Moscow Andrei Fyodorov Caretaking spell over 13 November 2022 14th Mikhail Galaktionov 13 November 2022 14thSochi Vadim Garanin Sacked 25 December 2022 9th Kurban Berdyev 25 December 2022 9th Pari NN Anton Khazov Caretaking spell over 31 December 2022 12th Artyom Gorlov 31 December 2022 12thKrasnodar Aleksandr Storozhuk Moved to Krasnodar-2 4 January 2023 8th Vladimir Ivić 4 January 2023 8thTorpedo Moscow Andrei Talalaev Mutual consent 22 March 2023 16th Pep Clotet 28 March 2023 16thKhimki Spartak Gogniyev Mutual consent 3 April 2023 15th Rinat Bilyaletdinov 3 April 2023 15thPari Nizhny Novgorod Artyom Gorlov Mutual consent 4 April 2023 13th Sergei Yuran 4 April 2023 13thSochi Kurban Berdyev Sacked 10 April 2023 9th Dmitri Khokhlov 10 April 2023 9thKhimki Rinat Bilyaletdinov Caretaking spell over 11 April 2023 15th Andrei Talalaev 11 April 2023 15th Fakel Voronezh Dmitri Pyatibratov Mutual consent 30 April 2023 14th Vadim Evseev 1 May 2023 14th Dynamo Moscow Slaviša Jokanović Sacked 14 May 2023 7th Pavel Alpatov (caretaker) 15 May 2023 7th
Tournament format and regulations The 16 teams 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 played, with 30 matches played by each team.
The season started 15 July, with the first half of the season ending on 13 November, allowing for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The second half of the season began the weekend of 4–5 March with the final round of matches scheduled for 3 June 2023.
Promotion and relegation For the purpose of determining First League positions for the following, the teams that will not pass 2023–24 RPL licensing or drop out of 2023–24 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 First League standings will not be considered. For example, if the teams that finished 1st, 3rd and 4th in the First League 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 will be relegated to the 2023–24 First League, while the top 2 in that league will be promoted to the Premier League for the 2023–24 season.
The 13th and 14th Premier League teams will play the 4th and 3rd 2022–23 First League teams respectively in two (home-and-away) playoff games, with penalty shootout in effect, if necessary (away goals rule for these games has been abolished beginning from this season), the winners will secure Premier League spots for the 2023–24 season. If both of the teams that finish RPL in 13th and 14th place fail licensing for the 2023–24 season or drop out for any other reason, play-offs will not be held, and 3rd and 4th First League teams will be promoted automatically. If one of the teams that place 13th and 14th in the Premier League fails licensing for 2023–24 season or drops out for other reasons, 3rd First League team will be promoted automatically and the 13th or 14th-placed team that passes licensing will play 4th First League team in playoffs, with the winners securing the Premier League spot. If only one First League 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 First League 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.
Russian Football Union announced their initial licensing decision for the 2023–24 season on 23 May 2023. Rubin Kazan and Baltika Kaliningrad, which secured the top two First League spots at that time, were licensed for the RPL and will receive a direct promotion. Out of the teams that could potentially finish in a Top 6 First League spot at that time (with two games remaining in the season), 3rd-placed Alania, Volgar, Arsenal Tula and SKA-Khabarovsk were all denied the RPL license, those clubs could appeal that decision. Some other teams who could finish in the Top 6, like Dynamo Makhachkala, which was 6th in the standings at the time, did not apply for the RPL license at all. Yenisey Krasnoyarsk and Rodina Moscow were the only teams out of the potential Top-6 finishers to receive the license. On 27 May 2023, Yenisey secured 4th-place finish and participation in the promotion play-offs. Rodina secured 5th First League spot and participated in the play-offs in the 4th-placed team spot. Alania's appeal was denied on 29 May 2023 (the appeal by Volgar was successful, but that was moot as Rodina secured a higher table position than Volgar by that time).
Exclusion from the league Any team can be excluded from the Premier League during the season for the following reasons: a) using counterfeit documents or providing inaccurate information to the league; b) not arriving to the game on more than one occasion; c) match fixing. Such a team is automatically relegated and is not replaced during the season, and only one additional team (that gains the fewest points at the end of the season) is directly relegated. If the excluded team plays fewer than 15 games at the time of exclusion, all its results would be annulled and will not count for the standings. If the excluded team plays at least 15 games at the time of exclusion, all their remaining opponents are awarded a victory, without effect on their goal difference.
Season events
Issues related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine On 21 June 2022, FIFA extended their ruling that would allow foreign players in Russia to unilaterally suspend their contracts with their clubs, and sign with a club outside of Russia until 30 June 2023.
Players who suspended their contracts
Fan ID introduction and related issues A new mandatory government-issued electronic identification document officially called "fan card" () and colloquially referred to as "Fan ID" was introduced before the season. Similar ID cards were used during the 2018 FIFA World Cup and Russia-hosted UEFA Euro 2020 games. The ID is a QR code issued after an application online and a visit to a government office to confirm identity. The ID was mandatory from the beginning of the season to attend games at the home stadiums of PFC Sochi, FC Rostov, FC Ural Yekaterinburg, PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara and FC Pari Nizhny Novgorod, and was expanded for all the remaining stadiums in December 2022. It would not be issued to fans who were banned from attending games by court due to committing violations at previous games such as launching firecrackers or fighting other fans.
In June 2022, Communist Party of the Russian Federation introduced a draft of a new law to reverse the introduction of Fan ID.
Ultras for most Premier League clubs (with the exception of FC Akhmat Grozny) boycotted the games in protest against Fan ID, considering it a privacy and rights violation. Ultras for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg boycotted the games where Fan ID was mandatory, but attended the games where it was not yet introduced.