Russian Premier League

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

The Russian Premier League was organized in 2001 and succeeds the Top Division. The difference is that the Top Division was run by Professional Football League of Russia, and the creation of 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.

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History of the Top Division

After the breakdown of Soviet Union, starting from the season of 1992, each former Soviet republic organized an independent national championship. In Russia 6 Russian teams 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 Premier League) has consisted of 16 teams, except for experiment with having two more teams in 1996 and 1997.

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

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

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Russian Premier League 2006

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

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Champions and top scorers

Season Champions Runners-up 3rd position Top scorer
1992* Spartak Moscow Spartak Vladikavkaz Dynamo Moscow Veli Kasumov (Dynamo, 16 goals)
1993* Spartak Moscow Rotor Volgograd Dynamo Moscow Valeri 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
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See also

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External links


 
Russian Premier League 2006 clubs 		Flag of Russia
Amkar Perm | CSKA Moscow | Dynamo Moscow | Krylya Sovetov Samara | Lokomotiv Moscow | Luch-Energia Vladivostok | FC Moskva | FC Rostov | Rubin Kazan | Saturn Ramenskoe | Shinnik Yaroslavl | Spartak Moscow | Spartak Nalchik | Tom' Tomsk | Torpedo Moscow | Zenit Saint Petersburg