The Russian Second League (), formerly the Russian Professional Football League, are both the third (Division A) and fourth level (Division B) of Russian professional football.
History In 1998–2010, it was run by the Professional Football League. The 2011–12 season was run by the Department of Professional Football of the Russian Football Union (). From 2013 to 2021 season the league was again run by the Professional Football League and the name Second Division was no longer used, the league was just called PFL. Before the 2021–22 season, the league was merged organizationally with the second-tier First League and renamed to FNL2. Before the 2022–23 season, its short name was changed again, to a historical name "Russian Second League", even though the league's full title ("Second Division of the Football National League") remained the same.
The Second League was geographically divided into 4 zones:From 2016–17 – Zone Ural-Povolzh'e was renamed Ural-Privolzh'e and all zones began to be referred to as "groups" instead. 1 (ex-South - Southern European Russia), 2 (ex-West - Western European Russia and Eastern Siberia), 3 (ex-Centre - Northern and Eastern European Russia and Sakhalin), 4 (ex-Ural-Povolzhye - Southern Urals and Western Siberia). The number of clubs in each zone varied between years. In the 2020–21 season, there were 64 clubs in the division.Since the 2020–21 season, the Vostok group has been abolished. The teams from Vostok were scattered in groups 2, 3 and 4.
The winners of each zone were automatically promoted to the Russian First League (known before 2011 as the First Division and from 2011 to 2022 as Russian Football National League). The bottom finishers of each zone lost professional status and were relegated to the Russian Amateur Football League. The teams typically could avoid relegation as long as they still have necessary financing to stay in the FNL2. Each club plays its opponents twice home and away.
For the 2023–24 season, the league was reorganized once again and split into two tiers - third-tier Russian Second League Division A and fourth-tier Russian Second League Division B.
Division A consists of two groups of 10 teams each - Gold Group and Silver Group. In the first stage of the season (summer/autumn), each team in the Gold and Silver groups plays each other team in the same group twice, home-and-away, for 18 games in total for each team.
For the second stage of the season (spring/summer), Groups are re-constituted. Gold Group now includes the top 6 first-stage Gold Group teams and top 4 first-stage Silver Group teams. Silver Group includes bottom 4 first-stage Gold Group teams, 5th and 6th-placed first-stage Silver Group teams and four winners of the Division B groups. Bottom 2 first-stage Silver Group teams are relegated to Division B. 7th and 8th first-stage Silver Group teams play in relegation play-offs against the previous season's bottom two second-stage Silver Group teams, with the losers of the play-offs relegated to Division B and the winners remaining in Division A Silver Group for the second stage. The teams in re-constituted groups play each other twice more for 18 more games. Top 2 Gold Group teams at the end of the season are promoted to the Russian First League for the next season. The 3rd-placed Gold Group team plays in promotion play-offs (two games, home-and-away) against the team that finishes first in the Gold Group in the first stage of the season (or second-placed first-stage team if the first-place first-stage team finishes in the top 2 or the bottom 4 in the second stage, or third-placed first-stage team if the second-place first-stage team also finishes in the top 2 or the bottom 4 in the second stage), the winner of those play-offs is also promoted to the Russian First League. The bottom four teams in the Gold Group at the end of the season are moved to Silver Group for the next season, and the top four teams in the Silver Group are moved to the Gold Group.
Division B consists of four groups, mostly based on geography (1, 2, 3, 4). The winners of groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 are promoted to the Division A Silver Group for the spring/summer part of the Division A season. Division B switched to the spring-to-autumn cycle, the season is played from March to November.
The rotation between Division A and Division B happens in the winter, as described above.
Current teams Second League A +TeamHome cityStadiumCapacityHead coachFK Dinamo BryanskBryanskStadion Dinamo10,100 Konstantin SineokovFK Irtysh OmskOmskStadion Krasnaya Zvezda4,655 Maksim MishatkinFK Khimik DzerzhinskDzerzhinskStadion Khimik5,266 Sergey PerednyaFK Krasnodar IIKrasnodarStadion Akademii FK Krasnodar4,371 Ilya ValievFK Mashuk-KMV PyatigorskPyatigorskCentral'nyj Stadion Mashuk10,365 Artur SadirovFK Metallurg LipetskLipetskStadion Metallurg14,940 Maksim RomashchenkoFK MuromMuromStadion Park 503,000 Aleksandr KulchiyFK Rodina Moskva IIMoscowStadion Rodina10,033 Filipp SokolinskiyFK Torpedo MiassMiassStadion Trud5,000 Vladimir FedorovFK Volga UlyanovskUlyanovskStadion Trud15,000 Mikhail Belov
Second League B Group 1 +TeamHome cityStadiumCapacityHead coachAlaniya Vladikavkaz IIGroznyRepublican Spartak Stadium32,364 Aslan ZaseevAngusht NazranNazranStadion Central'nyj im. Rashida Ausheva3,200 Umar MarkhievFK AstrakhanAstrakhanStadion imeni Kolosova5,000 Artem KulikovFC Biolog-NovokubanskProgressStadion Biolog2,300 -Dinamo DagestanMakhachkala - - Artem KashubaDinamo GTS StavropolStavropolStadion Dinamo15,982 Ashamaz ShakovDruzhba MaikopMaykopAdygeyskiy Respublikanskiy Stadion Druzhba15,000 Sergey MiroshnichenkoForte TaganrogTaganrogForte Arena Taganrog16,500 Eduard SarkisovKuban KholdingPavlovskayaStadion Urozhay3,500 Dmitri FominLegion MakhachkalaMakhachkalaStadion Dinamo16,100 Akhmad MagomedkamilovNark CherkesskCherkessk - - Arslan KhalimbekovFK PobedaKhasavyurt - - -FK Rostov IIRostov-na-Donu - - Aleksandr AbroskinFC Rubin YaltaYaltaStadion Avanhard4,000 Aleksey GrachevFC SevastopolSevastopolSKS Arena5,864 Stanislav GudzikevichStroitel Kamensk-ShakhtinskiyKamensk-Shakhtinskiy - - Aleksey KorobchenkoSpartak Nal'chikNal'chikStadion Spartak14,384 Timur Bitokov
Second League B Group 2 +TeamHome cityStadiumCapacityHead coachLuki-Energiya Velikiye LukiVelikiye LukiStadion Ekspress3,500 Sergey OsadchukBaltika BFU imeni Immanuila KantaKaliningrad - - Anver KoneevChertanovo MoskvaMoscowArena Chertanovo4,000 Sergey ChikishevDinamo Moskva IIMoscowUTB Novogorsk-Dynamo1,500 Pavel AlpatovDinamo St. PetersburgSt. PetersburgMalaya Sportivnaya Arena3,018 Aleksandr FomichevDinamo VologdaVologdaStadion Dinamo8,460 Rudolf ChesalovFK IrkutskIrkutsk - - Konstantin DzutsevFK Rodina-mMoscow - - Aleskandr PavlenkoSaturn Moskovskaya OblastRamenskoeLeon Arena16,726 Vladimir KorytkoFK Spartak Moskva IIMoscowFutbol'noe pole 4 Akademiya Spartak im. F. Cherenkova4,000 Dmitri KombarovTorpedo VladimirVladimirStadion Torpedo19,700 Denis EvsikovFK TverTverStadion Junost'650 Vladislav TernavskiyFK Yenisey KrasnoyarskKrasnoyarskCentral'nyj Stadion32,500 Aleskandr KishinevskiyZenit St. Petersburg IISt. PetersburgMalaya Sportivnaya Arena3,018 Andrey PocheptsovZnamya Truda Orekhovo-ZuyevoOrekhovo-ZuyevoSportkompleks Znamja Truda5,500 Vyacheslav LugovkinZvezda St. PetersburgSt. PetersburgStadion Nova Arena2,000 -
Second League B Group 3 +TeamHome cityStadiumCapacityHead coachArsenal-2 TulaKosaya GoraDYuSSh Arsenal Stadium1,000 Andrey KozlovDynamo VladivostokVladivostok - - Mikhail SalnikovSpartak TambovTambovStadion Spartak8,000 Mikhail PilipkoFK Khimki IIKhimkiStadion Novye Khimki3,066 Branimir PetrovićFK KolomnaKolomnaStadion Trud3,200 Aleksandr KuranovKompozit Pavlovsky PosadPavlovsky Posad - - Igor RudoyKosmos DolgoprudnyDolgoprudny - - Andrey ProshinKvant ObninskObninskStadion Trud4,000 Oleg MorozovFK OrelOrelStadion Central'nyj im. V.I. Lenina15,292 Evgeni PolyakovFK RyazanRyazanCentral'nyj Sportivn'yj Kompleks20,000 Yuri KuleshovSakhalin SakhalinskYuzhno-SakhalinskStadion Spartak4,200 Yuri DrozdovSalyut BelgorodBelgorodStadion Salyut Belgorod11,456 Viktor NavochenkoSKA-Khabarovsk IIKhabarovskStadion imeni V.I. Lenina zapasnoe pole1,000 Marat KhozievStrogino MoskvaMoscowStadion Rublevo2,000 Sergey ZagidullinZenit PenzaPenzaStadion Pervomayskiy4,000 -
Second League B Group 4 +TeamHome cityStadiumCapacityHead coachDinamo BarnaulBarnaulStadion Dinamo16,000 Vitali VikhlyanovAkron Togliatti IITogliatti - - Renat MiftakhovAmkar PermPermStadion Zvezda17,000 Andrey BlazhkoDinamo KirovNovovyatskStadion Rossiya3,000 Viktor BulatovKrylya Sovetov Samara IISamaraStadion Metallurg zapasnoe pole1,500 Dmitri ShukovLada TolyattiTolyattiStadion Torpedo18,500 Vladimir ShcherbakNosta NovotroitskNovotroitskStadion Metallurg6,060 Maksim GerasinFK Orenburg IIRostoshiStadion Gazovik10,046 Maksim GroshevRubin Kazan IIKazanStadion Rubin10,000 Gökdeniz KaradenizSokol KazanKazan - - Sergey RyzhikovUral-D EkaterinburgEkaterinburgStadion Central'nyj27,000 Aleksandr DantsevUralets TS Nizhnyi TagilNizhnyi TagilStadion Uralets10,000 Igor BakhtinVolna Nizhegorodskaya OblastKovernino - - Oleg MakeevRTsPF NN ElektrikaNizhny Novgorod - - Valeri Burlachenko
Winners