Russian Premier League

The Russian Premier League is the top division of Russian football. There are 16 teams in the competition. At the end of the season two teams get relegated to the Russian First Division and get replaced with the two top First Division teams.

The Russian Premier League was organized in 2001 and succeeded the Top Division, the difference being that the Top Division was run by the Professional Football League of Russia, and the creation of the Premier League gave the clubs a greater degree of independence. The Top Division had existed from 1992 to 2001.

PFC CSKA Moscow are the current Russian Premier League champions.

History of the Top Division

After the break-up of the Soviet Union, starting in 1992, each former Soviet republic organized an independent national championship. In Russia, the 6 Russian teams who had played in the Soviet Top Division in 1991 (CSKA Moskow, Spartak Moskow, Torpedo Moskow, Dinamo Moskow, Spartak Vladikavkaz, and Lokomotiv Moskow) were supplemented with 14 teams from lower divisions to organize 20-team Russian Top Division. The Top Division was further divided into two groups to reduce the total number of matches. The number of teams in the Top Division was gradually reduced to 18 in 1993 and 16 in 1994. Since then, the Russian Top Division (and subsequently the Premier League) has consisted of 16 teams, except for a short-lived experiment with having two more teams in 1996 and 1997.

Spartak Moscow was the dominant force in the Top Division, winning 9 of the first 10 titles. Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz was the only team which managed to break Spartak's dominance, winning the Top Division title in 1995.

Recently, Lokomotiv Moscow and CSKA Moscow climbed to the top, and both won the title twice.

Russian Premier League 2006

In season 2006 the Russian Premier League consists of the following teams:

* FC Amkar Perm * PFC CSKA Moscow * FC Dynamo Moscow * FC Krylya Sovetov Samara * FC Lokomotiv Moscow * FC Luch-Energia Vladivostok * FC Moskva * FC Rostov

* FC Rubin Kazan * FC Saturn Ramenskoe * FC Shinnik Yaroslavl * FC Spartak Moscow * FC Spartak Nalchik * FC Tom' Tomsk * FC Torpedo Moscow * FC Zenit Saint Petersburg

Champions and top scorers

Season	Champion	Runner-up	3rd position!Top scorer
1992*	Spartak Moscow	Spartak Vladikavkaz	Dynamo Moscow	Veli Kasumov (Dynamo, 16 goals)
1993*	Spartak Moscow	Rotor Volgograd	Dynamo Moscow	Victor Panchenko (KamAZ, 21 goals)
1994*	Spartak Moscow	Dynamo Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow	Igor Simutenkov (Dynamo, 21 goals)
1995*	Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz	Lokomotiv Moscow	Spartak Moscow	Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor, 25 goals)
1996*	Spartak Moscow	Alania Vladikavkaz	Rotor Volgograd	Aleksandr Maslov (Rostselmash, 23 goals)
1997*	Spartak Moscow	Rotor Volgograd	Dynamo Moscow	Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor, 22 goals)
1998*	Spartak Moscow	CSKA Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow	Oleg Veretennikov (Rotor, 22 goals)
1999*	Spartak Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow	CSKA Moscow	Georgi Demetradze (Alania, 21 goals)
2000*	Spartak Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow	Torpedo Moscow	Dmitri Loskov (Lokomotiv, 15 goals)
2001*	Spartak Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow	Zenit Saint Petersburg	Dmitri Vyazmikin (Torpedo, 18 goals)
2002	Lokomotiv Moscow	CSKA Moscow	Spartak Moscow	Rolan Gusev (CSKA, 15 goals) Dmitri Kirichenko (CSKA, 15 goals)
2003	CSKA Moscow	Zenit Saint Petersburg	Rubin Kazan	Dmitri Loskov (Lokomotiv, 14 goals)
2004	Lokomotiv Moscow	CSKA Moscow	Krylya Sovetov Samara	Aleksandr Kerzhakov (Zenit, 18 goals)
2005	CSKA Moscow	Spartak Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow	Dmitri Kirichenko (Moskva, 14 goals)
* Top Division championship

All-time table

As of end of 2005 season

Rank	Club	Seasons	Most recent season	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Goals	Points
1	Spartak Moscow	14		429	255	100	74	866-414	865
2	Lokomotiv Moscow	14		429	226	119	84	669-359	797
3	CSKA Moscow	14		429	209	102	118	671-438	729
4	Dynamo Moscow	14		428	184	123	121	636-489	675
5	Torpedo Moscow	14		432	179	118	135	575-513	655
6	Alania Vladikavkaz	14	2005	429	168	93	168	579-569	597
7	Rotor Volgograd	13	2004	402	151	109	142	562-506	562
8	Krylya Sovetov Samara	14		432	146	112	174	471-559	550
9	Zenit Saint Petersburg	11		338	140	93	105	451-368	513
10	Rostov	13		398	110	121	167	424-553	451
11	Shinnik Yaroslavl	8		244	79	71	94	252-299	308
12	Saturn Moscow Oblast	7		210	74	65	71	242-218	287
13	Chernomorets Novorossiysk	8	2003	248	74	65	109	274-357	287
14	Lokomotiv Nizhny Novgorod	8	2000	248	68	63	117	233-356	267
15	Zhemchuzhina Sochi	7	1999	222	61	57	104	263-390	240
16	Uralmash Yekaterinburg	5	1996	158	57	33	68	215-241	204
17	Energia-Tekstilshchik Kamyshin	5	1996	158	53	43	62	172-177	202
18	KAMAZ-Chally Naberezhnye Chelny	5	1997	162	51	32	79	198-253	179
19	Moskva	5		150	45	43	62	141-178	178
20	Uralan Elista	5	2003	150	36	39	75	138-225	147
21	Rubin Kazan	3		90	36	29	25	121-91	137
22	Baltika Kaliningrad	3	1998	98	30	37	31	114-111	127
23	Fakel Voronezh	4	2001	124	31	29	64	101-175	122
24	Anzhi Makhachkala	3	2002	90	27	28	35	94-108	109
25	Dynamo Stavropol	3	1994	94	27	23	44	94-125	104
26	Tyumen	5	1998	154	25	26	103	116-326	101
27	Okean Nakhodka	2	1993	64	22	14	28	65-83	80
28	Asmaral Moscow	2	1993	60	19	11	30	74-102	68
29	Sokol Saratov	2	2002	60	17	13	30	55-87	64
30	Amkar Perm	2		60	13	24	23	53-79	63
31	Kuban Krasnodar	2	2004	60	10	19	31	50-95	49
32	Lada Togliatti	2	1996	64	10	16	38	42-105	46
33	Luch-Energia Vladivostok	1		34	11	7	16	29-56	40
34	Tom' Tomsk	1		30	9	10	11	28-33	37
35	Terek Chechen Republic	1	2005	30	5	5	20	20-50	14
36	Spartak Nalchik	0		0	0	0	0	0-0	0

See also

*Football in Russia
*Russian Cup
*Soviet Top League
*Sports league attendances

External links

* Official website