The 2017–18 Russian Premier League was the 26th season of the premier football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 16th under the current Russian Premier League name. Spartak Moscow came into the season as the defending champions.
Teams
As in the previous season, 16 teams played in the 2017–18 season. After the 2016–17 season, FC Orenburg, FC Tom Tomsk and FC Krylia Sovetov Samara were relegated to the 2017–18 Russian National Football League. They were replaced by three clubs from the 2016–17 Russian National Football League, FC Dynamo Moscow, FC Tosno and FC SKA-Khabarovsk. Dynamo returned after one season of absence, while Tosno and SKA-Khabarovsk made their debuts in the Russian top-tier division.
Before the season, FC Terek Grozny changed its name to FC Akhmat Grozny.
Stadiums Team Stadium City Opened CapacityAkhmat GroznyAkhmat-ArenaGrozny 2011 30,597Amkar PermZvezda StadiumPerm 1969 17,000Anzhi MakhachkalaAnzhi ArenaKaspiysk 2003 26,400Arsenal TulaArsenal StadiumTula 1959 20,048CSKA MoskvaVEB ArenaMoscow 2016 30,000Dynamo MoskvaArena KhimkiKhimki 2008 18,636KrasnodarKrasnodar StadiumKrasnodar 2016 34,291Lokomotiv MoskvaLokomotiv StadiumMoscow 2002 28,800RostovRostov ArenaRostov-on-Don 2018 37,868 Rubin KazanKazan ArenaKazan 2013 45,379SKA-KhabarovskLenin StadiumKhabarovsk 1951 15,200Spartak MoskvaOtkrytiye ArenaMoscow 2014 45,360TosnoPetrovsky StadiumSaint Petersburg 1925 21,405UfaNeftyanik StadiumUfa 1967 15,234Ural YekaterinburgCentral StadiumYekaterinburg 1940 35,696Zenit Saint PetersburgKrestovsky StadiumSaint Petersburg 2017 64,287
Personnel and kits TeamLocationHead coachKit manufacturerShirt sponsorAkhmat GroznyGrozny Igor Lediakhov (caretaker)AdidasAkhmat FoundationAmkar PermPerm Vadim Evseev (caretaker)AdidasAnzhi MakhachkalaMakhachkala Vadim SkripchenkoNikeArsenal TulaTula Miodrag BožovićAdidasSPLAVCSKA MoscowMoscow Viktor GoncharenkoAdidasRossetiDynamo MoscowMoscow Dmitri KhokhlovNikeVTBKrasnodarKrasnodar Murad Musayev (caretaker)PumaConstell GroupLokomotiv MoscowMoscow Yuri SeminAdidasRZhDRostovRostov-on-Don Valeri KarpinAdidasRubin KazanKazan Kurban BerdyevJako, New BalanceNizhnekamskneftekhimSKA-KhabarovskKhabarovsk Sergei PerednyaAdidasLeonBetsSpartak MoscowMoscow Massimo CarreraNikeLUKOILTosnoTosno Dmytro ParfenovNikeFort GroupUfaUfa Sergei SemakJomaUral YekaterinburgYekaterinburg Aleksandr TarkhanovJomaRenova, TMKZenit Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg Roberto ManciniNikeGazprom
Managerial changes Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position in table Replaced by Date of appointment Akhmat Rashid Rakhimov Mutual consent 22 May 2017pre-season Oleg Kononov 22 May 2017 Zenit Mircea Lucescu Fired 28 May 2017 Roberto Mancini 1 June 2017 Arsenal Sergei KiriakovContract expired 31 May 2017 Miodrag Božović 18 June 2017 Rostov Ivan Daniliants 1 June 2017 Leonid Kuchuk 9 June 2017 Rubin Javi Gracia Mutual consent 8 June 2017 Kurban Berdyev 9 June 2017 Anzhi Aleksandr Grigoryan Resigned 13 August 2017 15th Vadim Skripchenko 14 August 2017 Dynamo Yuriy Kalitvintsev Mutual consent 7 October 2017 15th Dmitri Khokhlov 7 October 2017 Akhmat Oleg Kononov Resigned 30 October 2017 9th Mikhail Galaktionov (caretaker)(permanent) 30 October 201714 December 2017 Rostov Leonid Kuchuk Resigned 6 December 2017 10th Dmitri Kirichenko (caretaker) 6 December 2017 Rostov Dmitri Kirichenko (caretaker) Caretaking spell over 19 December 2017 10th Valeri Karpin 19 December 2017 SKA-Khabarovsk Aleksei Poddubskiy Moved to the director of sports position 20 December 2017 16th Rinat Bilyaletdinov 12 January 2018 Amkar Gadzhi Gadzhiyev Resigned 2 March 2018 13th Vadim Evseev (caretaker) 2 March 2018 SKA-Khabarovsk Rinat Bilyaletdinov Mutual consent 31 March 2018 16th Sergei Perednya 3 April 2018 Krasnodar Igor Shalimov Fired 2 April 2018 5th Murad Musayev (caretaker) 3 April 2018 Akhmat Mikhail Galaktionov Resigned 7 April 2018 11th Igor Lediakhov (caretaker) 7 April 2018
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 2018–19 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 2018–19 season.
League table
Relegation play-offs The draw for relegation play-offs scheduling took place on 4 May 2018. The kick-off times were announced on 14 May 2018.
First leg
Second leg
Amkar Perm won 3–0 on aggregate and retained their spot in the 2018–19 Russian Premier League; FC Tambov remained in the 2018–19 Russian National Football League.
Yenisey Krasnoyarsk won 6–4 on aggregate and were promoted to the 2018–19 Russian Premier League; Anzhi Makhachkala were relegated to the 2018–19 Russian National Football League.
On 13 June 2018, FC Amkar Perm announced that the Russian Football Union recalled their 2018–19 season license, making them ineligible for the Russian Premier League or Russian Football National League. The final decision on the club's future will be made on 18 June 2018 at the club's board meeting. As a consequence, Anzhi Makhachkala will not be relegated.
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
Scoring
Top goalscorers
RankPlayerTeamGoals1 Quincy PromesSpartak152 Fyodor SmolovKrasnodar143 Viktor ClaessonKrasnodar10 Jefferson FarfánLokomotiv Aleksandr KokorinZenit Luiz AdrianoSpartak VitinhoCSKA8 Yevgeni MarkovTosnoDynamo99 Eric BicfalviUral810 Luka ĐorđevićArsenal7 Artem DzyubaZenitArsenal Manuel FernandesLokomotiv Sylvester IgbounUfa Aleksei MiranchukLokomotiv Aleksandr TashayevDynamo Aleksandr YerokhinZenit Last updated: 13 May 2018
Attendances
Awards Top 33 On 29 June 2018, the Russian Football Union approved its list of 33 top players for the 2017–18 Russian Premier League season:
References
Notes
External links
2017–18 Russian Premier League at Soccerway