The 2023 Russian Second League Division B was the first season of Russia's fourth-tier football league. The season began on 16 July 2023 and ended on 25 November 2023.
Overview Before the season, the Russian Second League was reorganized and split into two tiers - third-tier Russian Second League Division A and fourth-tier Russian Second League Division B. Division B also switched to the spring-to-autumn, March-to-November schedule. 2023 was a transitional half-year season. The teams that finished in 6th place or below in their groups in the 2022–23 Russian Second League were included into Division B.
The fourth tier of Russian football was semi-professional before from 1994 to 1997 as Russian Third League, and since then the fourth tier was taken by the Russian Amateur Football League until 2023.
Division B was split into 4 groups, mostly based on geographical location. At the end of the year, four winners of their groups were promoted into the Division A Second Stage Silver Group. Four bottom teams from the Division A First Stage Silver Group were relegated to 2024 Division B.
81 clubs were originally licensed for Division B. FC Zenit-Izhevsk dropped out of the division after receiving the license. FC Balashikha and FC Yadro Saint Petersburg did not receive the license, FC Yessentuki was excluded from the league during the 2022–23 season. FC Kuban-Holding Pavlovskaya, which was eligible for Division A, decided to enter Division B; FC Metallurg Lipetsk took their Division A spot.
New clubs entering the league were FC Akron-2 Tolyatti, FC Rubin-2 Kazan, FC Dynamo-2 Makhachkala (reserve teams of Russian Premier League and Russian First League clubs), SC Astrakhan, FC Dynamo Kirov, FC Irkutsk, FC Kompozit Pavlovsky Posad, FC Pobeda Khasavyurt, FC Uralets-TS Nizhny Tagil (promoted from the Russian Amateur Football League), FC Rubin Yalta and FC Sevastopol (from the Crimean Premier League).
Group 1 Group 1 was initially split into two subgroups 1.1 and 1.2 of 7 teams each; each team in subgroup played each other twice from 16 July to 14 October. New subgroups were organized then, 1A (which includes top 3 teams from 1.1 and 1.2) and 1B (which includes the remaining 8 teams). Only results between the teams that qualified for a particular second-stage subgroup counted for the second-stage standings (i.e., only results of the 6 games played between top 3 teams of subgroup 1.1 were included in the standings of subgroup 1A and so on). Then, from October to November, the teams in these new subgroups played the teams that were in a different subgroup in the first stage, twice (for 6 additional games in 1A and 8 additional games in 1B for each team). The winner of subgroup 1A was promoted to Division A Silver Group. The bottom two teams of subgroup 1B were relegated from Division B.
First stage Subgroup 1.1
Subgroup 1.2
Second stage Subgroup 1A
Top goalscorers Rank Player Club Goals 1Gadzhimurad AbdullayevLegion Makhachkala 8 2Aleksandr ButenkoMashuk-KMV Pyatigorsk 7Mikhail BersnevAstrakhanRuslan SuanovMashuk-KMV PyatigorskPatchoAstrakhan
Subgroup 1B
Top goalscorers Rank Player Club Goals 1Zalimkhan MaysultanovPobeda Khasavyurt 9 2Pavel SolomatinSKA Rostov-on-Don 8Alan KhachirovSpartak Nalchik 4Grigory MinosyanBiolog-Novokubansk 7
Group 2 Group 2 included 18 teams that played each other once, from 22 July to 12 November, with the host team in each pair determined by the league. The group winner was promoted to the Division A Second Stage Silver Group, the bottom two teams were relegated from Division B.
Top goalscorers Rank Player Club Goals 1Ilya YurchenkoDynamo Kirov 16 2Igor BugayenkoZenit-2 St. Petersburg 11 3Arsen DzhioyevZnamya Truda Orekhovo-Zuyevo 10 4Aleksandr ChupayovDynamo-2 Moscow 9Nikita TankovDynamo St. Petersburg
Group 3 Group 3 included 18 teams that played each other once, from 21 July to 12 November, with the host team in each pair determined by the league. The group winner was promoted to the Division A Second Stage Silver Group, the bottom two teams were relegated from Division B.
Top goalscorers Rank Player Club Goals 1Dmitri KamenshchikovKaluga 16 2Nikolay SukhanovKaluga 11 3Renat GaynullinSakhalinets Moscow 10 4Timur MelekestsevLeon Saturn Ramenskoye 8Denis BeskorovaynyKrasnoye Znamya NoginskNikita NikiforovStrogino Moscow
Group 4 Group 4 included 9 teams that played each other twice, home and away, from 16 July to 12 November. The group winner was promoted to the Division A Second Stage Silver Group, the bottom two teams were relegated from Division B.
Top goalscorers Rank Player Club Goals 1Oleg LeonovNosta Novotroitsk 7Vladimir ZavyalovDynamo Barnaul 3Mark AkvazbaTorpedo Miass 6 4Vladislav ShpitalnyTorpedo Miass 5Mekhron MadaminovTorpedo Miass
References