Premier League

Russia's 16-club top flight, contested since 1992 and known as the Premier League since 2001. Zenit St Petersburg are the record champions and the reigning title holders.

The Russian Premier League is the top tier of professional football in Russia and the country's flagship domestic competition. A national championship has been contested since 1992, following the break-up of the Soviet top flight, and the competition has carried the Premier League name since a restructuring in 2001. Sixteen clubs take part, each playing 30 matches across an autumn-to-spring calendar built around a long winter break. The league table decides everything. The champions are crowned on the final matchday, the bottom two clubs are relegated directly to the First League, and the two sides immediately above them contest two-legged play-offs against First League opposition, which is why you will see two distinct danger zones shaded in the standings on OneLightScore. Zenit St Petersburg are the defining force of the modern era. They sealed the 2025-26 title with a 1-0 win away at Rostov on the final matchday, an 11th Russian championship that took them clear of Spartak Moscow's ten as the outright record holders. Krasnodar's breakthrough win in 2024-25, the first major trophy in that club's history, showed the race can still be prised open. Spartak Moscow, CSKA Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow and Dynamo Moscow give the division a deep-rooted capital rivalry, while Krasnodar, Rubin Kazan, Akhmat Grozny, Krylya Sovetov and Dynamo Makhachkala carry the regional banner. OneLightScore follows the Russian Premier League all season with live scores, full fixture lists, final results, a continuously updated table with the relegation and play-off zones marked, form guides and where-to-watch information for every round.