The 2018–19 Russian Premier League was the 27th season of the premier

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

competition in Russia since the dissolution of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and the 17th under the current

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

name.

Lokomotiv Moscow FC Lokomotiv Moscow (, ) is a Russian professional association football, football club based in Moscow. Lokomotiv have won the Russian Premier League on three occasions; the Soviet Cup twice; and the Russian Cup (football), Russian Cup a record ...

came into the season as the defending champions. The new logo was presented on 24 July 2018, there was no title sponsor announced for the season.

Teams

As in the previous season, 16 teams will play in the 2018–19 season. After the 2017–18 season, Anzhi Makhachkala,

Tosno Tosno () is a town and the administrative center of Tosnensky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Tosna River, southeast of the center of St. Petersburg. Population: History The village of Tosno was first mentioned in Rus ...

and SKA-Khabarovsk were relegated to the 2018–19 Russian National Football League. They were replaced by three clubs from the 2017–18 Russian National Football League,

Orenburg Orenburg (, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies in Eastern Europe, along the banks of the Ural River, being approximately southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is close to the ...

, Krylya Sovetov Samara, and Yenisey Krasnoyarsk. Orenburg and Krylya Sovetov returned after one season of absence while Yenisey make their debut in the Premier League. On 13 June 2018,

FC Amkar Perm FC Amkar Perm ( ) is a professional association football, football club. Originally founded in 1994, it is based in the city of Perm, Russia, Perm. It was a participant in second-tier football from 1995 and in the Russian Premier League from 2004 ...

announced that the

Russian Football Union The Russian Football Union (, ''Rossiyskiy Futbolnyy Soyuz'' or RFS) is the official governing body of association football in the Russian Federation. With headquarters in Moscow, it organizes Russian amateur and professional football, includi ...

recalled their 2018–19 season license, making them ineligible for the

Russian Football National League The Russian First League (, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division () and Russian Football National League (FNL) () is the second level of the Russian football league system. The Russian Professional Football League (PFL) used t ...

FC Anzhi Makhachkala Football Club Anzhi Makhachkala (, ), known simply as FC Anji, was a Russian professional Association football, football club based in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala. Founded in 1991, the club last competed in the third-tier Russian Footb ...

, which was already licensed for the 2018–19 Premier League before losing in the 2017–18 relegation play-offs, was eligible to stay in the league ahead of the other relegation play-off losing club, FC Tambov. Anzhi re-applied for the Premier League membership on 15 June and was officially re-admitted into the Premier League on 22 June.

Venues

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes

Tournament format and regulations

Basic

The 16 teams will 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 will be played, with 30 matches played by each team.

Promotion and relegation

The teams that finish 15th and 16th will be relegated to the FNL, while the top 2 in that league will be promoted to the Premier League for the 2019–20 season. The 13th and 14th Premier League teams will play the 4th and 3rd FNL teams respectively in two playoff games with the winners securing Premier League spots for the 2019–20 season.

League table

Relegation play-offs

The draw for relegation play-offs scheduling took place on 16 May 2019. The referees (including VAR teams) were appointed on 27 May 2019.

First leg

----

Second leg

''FC Ufa won 2–1 on aggregate and retained their spot in the 2019–20 Russian Premier League; Tom Tomsk remained in the 2019–20 Russian National Football League.'' ---- ''Krylia Sovetov won 3–2 on aggregate and retained their spot in the 2019–20 Russian Premier League; Nizhny Novgorod remained in the 2019–20 Russian National Football League.''

Results

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. In order to preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included to the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards.

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Attendances

Awards

Top 33

On 26 June 2019,

named its list of 33 top players: Other awards announced on the same day included: Player of the year: Artem Dzyuba. Hope prize (under-21 players): Matvei Safonov (Krasnodar). Coach of the year:

Sergei Semak Sergei Bogdanovich Semak ( ; born 27 February 1976) is a Russian football manager and a former international midfielder who manages Russian Premier League side Zenit Saint Petersburg. Early life Semak was born in the village of Sychanske, ...

(Zenit). Team of the year:

FC Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (, ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional association football, football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, according to some Russian sources), the club p ...

. For contribution to football development:

Stanislav Cherchesov Stanislav Salamovich Cherchesov (, ; ; born 2 September 1963) is a Russian professional football manager and former goalkeeper. In August 2016, he was appointed as head coach of the Russia national team and led them to the quarter-finals of th ...

References

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2018-19 Russian Premier League Russian Premier League seasons 1 Russian Premier League, Rus