2024–25 Russian Premier League

The 2024–25 Russian Premier League (known as the Mir Russian Premier League, also written as Mir Russian Premier Liga for sponsorship reasons) was the 33rd season of the premier football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 23rd under the current Russian Premier League name.

Teams

As in the previous season, 16 teams play in the 2024–25 season. After the 2023–24 season, Ural Yekaterinburg, Baltika Kaliningrad and Sochi were relegated to the 2024–25 Russian First League after eleven, one and five years respectively. They were replaced by Khimki return to top tier after one year absence, Dynamo Makhachkala and Akron Tolyatti play in top tier for the first time in history this season.

Venues

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes

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, for a total of 240 matches with each team playing 30.

The season started on 21 July. The last games before the winter break were played on 10 December; the spring part of the season began on 1 March and the last games will be played on 25 May.

Promotion and relegation

For the purpose of determining First League positions for the following considerations, the teams that do not pass 2025–26 RPL licensing or drop out of 2025–26 season for any other reason, or the second teams of RPL clubs, 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 failed licensing, the team that finished 2nd would be considered the 1st-placed team, the team that finished 5th will be considered the 2nd-placed team, and the team that finished 6th will be considered the 3rd-placed team. There would be no designated 4th-placed team in this scenario.

The teams that finish 15th and 16th will be relegated to the 2025–26 First League, while the top two in that league will be promoted to the Premier League for the 2025–26 season.

The 13th and 14th Premier League teams will play the 4th and 3rd 2024–25 First League teams respectively in two (home-and-away) playoff games, with penalty shootout in effect if necessary. The winners will secure Premier League spots for the 2025–26 season. If both of the teams that finish RPL in 13th and 14th place fail licensing for the 2025–26 season or drop out for any other reason, play-offs will not be held, and the 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 2025–26 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.

On 24 May 2025, Russian Football Union announced that Khimki (12th in the RPL), Chernomorets Novorossiysk (3rd in the First League) and SKA-Khabarovsk (6th in the First League) were not issued a Premier League license for next season. Therefore 4th-placed First League team ( Ural Yekaterinburg) played Akhmat and 5th-placed First League team (Sochi) played Pari NN in the RPL play-offs.

As Khimki finished the season outside of relegation zone, they would be replaced following the play-offs, according to the RPL regulations, priority for replacement was the highest-placed 2024–25 RPL team which did not otherwise qualify for 2025–26 RPL. Therefore, if both Akhmat and Pari won in the play-offs, Orenburg would have remained in the league to replace Khimki. If Pari won and Akhmat lost, Akhmat would have remained in the league to replace Khimki. Pari lost their matchup, and they were widely expected to remain in the league to replace Khimki. On 3 June 2025, the league recommended that Pari is kept in the league, as per the vote by most of the league clubs, with the final decision to be made by the Russian Football Union. On 4 June 2025, majority of the First League clubs also voted for keeping Pari in the Premier League. On 16 June 2025, Russian Football Union confirmed that Pari will remain in the league.

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 least amount of points at the end of the season) is directly relegated. If the excluded team had played fewer than 15 games at the time of exclusion, all its results would be annulled and would not count for the standings. If the excluded team had played at least 15 games at the time of exclusion, all their remaining opponents would be awarded a victory without effect on their goal difference.

Season events

Last match day

For the second consecutive season, the champion was determined on the last matchday on 24 May 2025, with all the games played simultaneously with common kick-off time of 16:30 Moscow Time. Krasnodar entered the day with 64 points, and the defending champions Zenit St. Petersburg with 63. Krasnodar hosted Dynamo Moscow and Zenit hosted Akhmat Grozny. Krasnodar defeated Dynamo on the last day of the previous season, preventing Dynamo from winning the title. Head-to-head results are the first tiebreaker in case the teams are tied on points. Zenit had head-to-head advantage over Krasnodar after beating them with the score of 4–1 at home and losing 0–2 away. Krasnodar would win the title if they defeated Dynamo, or if they tied against Dynamo and Zenit did not beat Akhmat, or if Krasnodar and Zenit both lost their respective games. Zenit would win the title in all other scenarios. Krasnodar defeated Dynamo with the score of 3–0 and won the title.

League table

Relegation play-offs

The draw to determine the hosts in each leg was held on 14 May 2025. Third-placed First League club Chernomorets Novorossiysk was not issued the RPL license and was replaced in the play-offs by fifth-placed Sochi. As Khimki, which finished 12th in the RPL, was also not issued a license, it would be replaced by the highest-placed RPL team that did not otherwise qualify for the 2025–26 RPL.

First leg

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Second leg

''Sochi won 4–3 on aggregate and was promoted to the Russian Premier League, Pari Nizhny Novgorod remained in the league as replacement for FC Khimki.''
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''Akhmat won 3–2 on aggregate and remained in the Russian Premier League, Ural remained in the Russian First League.''

Results

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Hat-tricks

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Clean sheets

;Notes
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Awards

Monthly awards

References

External links

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*https://www.championat.com/football/_russiapl.html

{{DEFAULTSORT:2024-2025 Russian Premier League

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