2017–18 Russian Premier League

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.

Russian Premier League

Season	2017–18
Champions	Lokomotiv Moscow 3rd title
Relegated	Amkar Perm Tosno SKA-Khabarovsk
Champions League	Lokomotiv Moscow CSKA Moscow Spartak Moscow
Europa League	Krasnodar Zenit St. Petersburg Ufa
Matches played	240
Goals scored	541 (2.25 per match)
Top goalscorer	Quincy Promes (15 goals)
Biggest home win	Rubin 6–0 Anzhi CSKA Moscow 6–0 Tosno CSKA Moscow 6–0 Arsenal Tula Zenit St. Petersburg 6–0 SKA-Khabarovsk
Biggest away win	Anzhi 1–5 Krasnodar Dynamo Moscow 0–4 Lokomotiv Moscow
Highest scoring	Spartak Moscow 3–4 Lokomotiv Moscow
Longest winning run	5 matches: Spartak Moscow (5 Nov–10 Dec)
Longest unbeaten run	18 matches: Spartak Moscow (27 Aug–8 Apr)
Longest winless run	18 matches: SKA-Khabarovsk (14 Oct–13 May)
Longest losing run	9 matches: SKA-Khabarovsk (29 Oct–17 Mar)
Highest attendance	53,359 Zenit St. Petersburg 5–1 Spartak Moscow (6 August 2017)
Lowest attendance	1,089 Amkar 0–2 Arsenal (9 March 2018)[note 1]
Total attendance	3,353,024[1]
Average attendance	13,971[1]
← 2016–17 2018–19 →

Teams

Krasnodar

Rostov

Akhmat

Tosno

Zenit

Anzhi

Arsenal

CSKA

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Dynamo

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Lokomotiv

---

Spartak

Rubin

Ufa

Amkar

Ural

Khabarovsk
(see below)

Locations of teams in 2017–18 Russian Premier League

Moscow

SKA-Khabarovsk

Locations of teams in 2017–18 Russian Premier League (Khabarovsk)

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	Capacity
Akhmat Grozny	Akhmat-Arena	Grozny	2011	30,597
Amkar Perm	Zvezda Stadium	Perm	1969	17,000
Anzhi Makhachkala	Anzhi Arena	Kaspiysk	2003	26,400
Arsenal Tula	Arsenal Stadium	Tula	1959	20,048
CSKA Moskva	VEB Arena	Moscow	2016	30,000
Dynamo Moskva	Arena Khimki	Khimki	2008	18,636
Krasnodar	Krasnodar Stadium	Krasnodar	2016	34,291
Lokomotiv Moskva	Lokomotiv Stadium	Moscow	2002	28,800
Rostov	Rostov Arena	Rostov-on-Don	2018	37,868
Rubin Kazan	Kazan Arena	Kazan	2013	45,379
SKA-Khabarovsk	Lenin Stadium	Khabarovsk	1951	15,200
Spartak Moskva	Otkrytiye Arena	Moscow	2014	45,360
Tosno	Petrovsky Stadium	Saint Petersburg	1925	21,405
Ufa	Neftyanik Stadium	Ufa	1967	15,234
Ural Yekaterinburg	Central Stadium	Yekaterinburg	1940	35,696
Zenit Saint Petersburg	Krestovsky Stadium	Saint Petersburg	2017	64,287

Personnel and kits

Team	Location	Head coach	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Akhmat Grozny	Grozny	Igor Lediakhov (caretaker)	Adidas	Akhmat Foundation
Amkar Perm	Perm	Vadim Evseev (caretaker)	Adidas
Anzhi Makhachkala	Makhachkala	Vadim Skripchenko	Nike
Arsenal Tula	Tula	Miodrag Božović	Adidas	SPLAV
CSKA Moscow	Moscow	Viktor Goncharenko	Adidas	Rosseti
Dynamo Moscow	Moscow	Dmitri Khokhlov	Nike	VTB
Krasnodar	Krasnodar	Murad Musayev (caretaker)	Puma	Constell Group
Lokomotiv Moscow	Moscow	Yuri Semin	Adidas	RZhD
Rostov	Rostov-on-Don	Valeri Karpin	Adidas
Rubin Kazan	Kazan	Kurban Berdyev	Jako, New Balance	Nizhnekamskneftekhim
SKA-Khabarovsk	Khabarovsk	Sergei Perednya	Adidas	LeonBets
Spartak Moscow	Moscow	Massimo Carrera	Nike	LUKOIL
Tosno	Tosno	Dmytro Parfenov	Nike	Fort Group
Ufa	Ufa	Sergei Semak	Joma
Ural Yekaterinburg	Yekaterinburg	Aleksandr Tarkhanov	Joma	Renova, TMK
Zenit Saint Petersburg	Saint Petersburg	Roberto Mancini	Nike	Gazprom

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 2017	pre-season	Oleg Kononov	22 May 2017[2]
Zenit	Mircea Lucescu	Fired	28 May 2017[3]		Roberto Mancini	1 June 2017[4]
Arsenal	Sergei Kiriakov	Contract expired	31 May 2017[5]		Miodrag Božović	18 June 2017[6]
Rostov	Ivan Daniliants		1 June 2017		Leonid Kuchuk	9 June 2017[7]
Rubin	Javi Gracia	Mutual consent	8 June 2017[8]		Kurban Berdyev	9 June 2017[9]
Anzhi	Aleksandr Grigoryan	Resigned	13 August 2017[10]	15th	Vadim Skripchenko	14 August 2017[11]
Dynamo	Yuriy Kalitvintsev	Mutual consent	7 October 2017[12]	15th	Dmitri Khokhlov	7 October 2017
Akhmat	Oleg Kononov	Resigned	30 October 2017[13]	9th	Mikhail Galaktionov (caretaker) (permanent)	30 October 2017 14 December 2017[14]
Rostov	Leonid Kuchuk	Resigned	6 December 2017[15]	10th	Dmitri Kirichenko (caretaker)	6 December 2017[16]
Rostov	Dmitri Kirichenko (caretaker)	Caretaking spell over	19 December 2017	10th	Valeri Karpin	19 December 2017[17]
SKA-Khabarovsk	Aleksei Poddubskiy	Moved to the director of sports position	20 December 2017[18]	16th	Rinat Bilyaletdinov	12 January 2018[19]
Amkar	Gadzhi Gadzhiyev	Resigned	2 March 2018[20]	13th	Vadim Evseev (caretaker)	2 March 2018[21]
SKA-Khabarovsk	Rinat Bilyaletdinov	Mutual consent	31 March 2018[22]	16th	Sergei Perednya	3 April 2018[23]
Krasnodar	Igor Shalimov	Fired	2 April 2018[24]	5th	Murad Musayev (caretaker)	3 April 2018[25]
Akhmat	Mikhail Galaktionov	Resigned	7 April 2018[26]	11th	Igor Lediakhov (caretaker)	7 April 2018[27]

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

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Lokomotiv Moscow (C)	30	18	6	6	41	21	+20	60	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	CSKA Moscow	30	17	7	6	49	23	+26	58
3	Spartak Moscow	30	16	8	6	51	32	+19	56	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
4	Krasnodar	30	16	6	8	46	30	+16	54	Qualification for the Europa League group stage[a]
5	Zenit Saint Petersburg	30	14	11	5	46	21	+25	53	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round[a]
6	Ufa	30	11	10	9	34	30	+4	43	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round[a]
7	Arsenal Tula	30	12	6	12	35	41	−6	42
8	Dynamo Moscow	30	10	10	10	29	30	−1	40
9	Akhmat Grozny	30	10	9	11	30	34	−4	39
10	Rubin Kazan	30	9	11	10	32	25	+7	38
11	Rostov	30	9	10	11	27	28	−1	37[b]
12	Ural Yekaterinburg	30	8	13	9	31	32	−1	37[b]
13	Amkar Perm (D)	30	9	8	13	20	30	−10	35	Dissolved after the season[c]
14	Anzhi Makhachkala	30	6	6	18	31	55	−24	24[d]	Qualification for the Relegation play-offs
15	Tosno (D)	30	6	6	18	23	54	−31	24[d]	Dissolved after the season[e]
16	SKA-Khabarovsk (R)	30	2	7	21	16	55	−39	13	Relegation to Football National League

Updated to match(es) played on 13 May 2018. Source: Russian Premier League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head matches won; 4) Head-to-head goal difference; 5) Head-to-head goals scored; 6) Head-to-head away goals; 7) Matches won; 8) Goal difference; 9) Goals scored; 10) Away goals scored.^[32]
(C) Champions; (D) Dissolved after the season; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Tosno qualified for the Europa League group stage by winning the 2017–18 Russian Cup. However, since they failed to obtain a UEFA licence, the spot awarded to the cup winners was passed to fourth-placed team, the spot awarded to the fourth-placed team was passed to fifth-placed team, and the spot awarded to the fifth-placed team was passed to sixth-placed team.
2. Head-to-head: Rostov 1–0 Ural, Ural 1–1 Rostov
3. 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.^[28] On 18 June 2018, club president Gennadi Shilov announced that the club will not register for the third-tier Russian Professional Football League and will be dissolved.^[29] As a consequence, Anzhi Makhachkala was not relegated.
4. Head-to-head: Anzhi 2–0 Tosno, Tosno 2–2 Anzhi
5. On 30 May 2018, Russian Football National League announced that FC Tosno failed in its appeal to obtain the FNL license for the 2018–19 season.^[30] On 9 June 2018, the founder of FORT Group (the company that owned the team), Maxim Levchenko, announced that the team is officially dissolved.^[31]

Relegation play-offs

The draw for relegation play-offs scheduling took place on 4 May 2018.^[33] The kick-off times were announced on 14 May 2018.^[34]

First leg

17 May 2018 (2018-05-17)

19:00 UTC+7

Yenisey Krasnoyarsk	3–0	Anzhi Makhachkala
Kutyin 25' (pen.), 58' Sarkisov 32'	Report

Football Arena Yenisey, Krasnoyarsk

Attendance: 3,000

Referee: Mikhail Vilkov (Nizhny Novgorod)

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17 May 2018 (2018-05-17)

19:30 UTC+5

Amkar Perm	2–0	Tambov
Gol 60' Balanovich 79'	Report

Zvezda Stadium, Perm

Attendance: 13,478

Referee: Sergey Lapochkin (Saint Petersburg)

Second leg

20 May 2018 (2018-05-20)

18:00 UTC+3

Tambov	0–1	Amkar Perm
	Report	Kostyukov 39'

STC Tambov, Tambov

Attendance: 1,500

Referee: Roman Galimov (Ulan-Ude)

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.

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20 May 2018 (2018-05-20)

21:00 UTC+3

Anzhi Makhachkala	4–3	Yenisey Krasnoyarsk
Poku 45' Kalmykov 73' Poluyakhtov 74' 90'	Report	Obradović 15' Semakin 16' Serderov 84' (pen.)

Anzhi Arena, Kaspiysk

Attendance: 6,100

Referee: Kirill Levnikov (Saint Petersburg)

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.^[35] As a consequence, Anzhi Makhachkala will not be relegated.^[36]

Results

Home \ Away	AKH	AMK	ANZ	ARS	CSK	DYN	KRA	LOK	ROS	RUB	SKA	SPA	TOS	UFA	URA	ZEN
Akhmat Grozny	—	1–0	1–1	1–2	0–3	2–0	2–3	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–0	1–2	1–0	2–1	0–0	0–0
Amkar Perm	0–0	—	1–2	0–2	0–1	2–1	1–3	2–1	0–1	0–3	3–0	0–2	0–0	0–0	1–1	0–1
Anzhi Makhachkala	0–2	1–0	—	3–2	1–3	1–3	1–5	0–1	0–1	1–1	4–0	1–4	2–0	1–0	0–1	2–2
Arsenal Tula	1–0	0–1	2–1	—	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	2–2	0–0	1–0	0–1	1–2	2–1	2–2	3–3
CSKA Moscow	0–1	3–0	2–1	6–0	—	1–2	2–1	1–3	2–0	1–2	2–0	2–1	6–0	0–0	1–0	0–0
Dynamo Moscow	1–1	3–0	2–0	2–1	0–0	—	0–0	0–4	2–0	0–0	2–0	2–2	0–1	1–1	0–1	0–0
Krasnodar	3–2	1–1	1–1	3–0	0–1	2–0	—	2–0	3–1	1–1	4–1	1–4	2–0	0–1	1–1	0–2
Lokomotiv Moscow	0–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	2–2	3–0	2–0	—	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	0–2	0–0	2–1	1–0
Rostov	0–1	0–0	2–0	2–2	1–2	1–0	0–0	0–1	—	0–1	2–0	2–2	2–0	1–0	1–0	0–0
Rubin Kazan	3–2	0–1	6–0	2–1	0–1	0–0	1–2	1–1	1–1	—	3–1	1–2	1–0	0–0	0–1	0–0
SKA-Khabarovsk	2–2	0–2	2–0	1–2	2–4	0–1	0–1	1–2	2–1	1–1	—	0–0	0–1	2–2	0–3	0–2
Spartak Moscow	1–3	0–0	2–2	2–0	3–0	0–1	2–0	3–4	2–0	1–0	1–0	—	2–1	3–1	2–0	3–1
Tosno	1–0	0–2	2–2	3–2	1–2	1–2	1–3	1–3	1–1	0–1	0–0	2–2	—	0–1	2–2	0–1
Ufa	3–2	3–0	3–2	1–0	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–0	1–4	2–1	1–0	0–0	5–0	—	2–0	1–2
Ural Yekaterinburg	2–0	0–2	2–1	1–1	0–0	2–2	0–1	0–2	1–1	1–1	1–1	2–1	3–1	1–1	—	1–1
Zenit Saint Petersburg	4–0	0–0	1–0	0–1	0–0	2–1	1–2	0–3	0–0	2–1	6–0	5–1	5–0	3–0	2–1	—

Updated to match(es) played on 13 May 2018. Source: Russian Premier League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

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.

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Lokomotiv Moscow	6	1	1	2	2	3	2	2	2	3	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
CSKA Moscow	1	7	4	8	5	4	4	6	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	4	3	3	3	5	5	3	3	3	3	3	2	3	3	2
Spartak Moscow	7	10	7	10	8	10	11	9	8	8	8	6	5	5	6	5	4	4	4	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	3	2	2	3
Krasnodar	3	2	5	5	3	5	5	4	3	2	3	3	4	6	4	3	5	5	5	4	2	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	4	4
Zenit St. Petersburg	2	3	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	4	5	4	4	4	4	4	4	5	5
Ufa	4	6	6	4	7	6	7	8	9	11	10	10	7	8	7	8	6	7	6	6	6	6	6	6	7	6	6	6	6	6
Arsenal Tula	14	9	11	14	13	13	13	13	13	10	12	12	10	9	8	7	8	9	9	8	7	7	7	7	6	7	7	7	7	7
Dynamo Moscow	9	11	13	11	11	11	10	11	11	12	13	15	13	13	14	15	14	14	14	12	13	12	10	8	11	11	11	11	10	8
Akhmat Grozny	5	4	3	3	6	7	8	7	7	7	5	5	9	10	9	9	9	6	7	7	8	9	9	12	10	10	10	10	8	9
Rubin Kazan	11	13	10	7	9	9	6	5	6	6	9	11	8	7	10	10	10	12	12	11	11	8	11	11	8	8	9	9	11	10
Rostov	8	12	9	6	4	2	3	3	5	5	6	7	11	11	11	11	11	10	10	10	9	10	12	13	13	12	12	12	12	11
Ural Yekaterinburg	10	5	8	9	10	8	9	10	10	9	7	8	6	4	5	6	7	8	8	9	10	11	8	9	9	9	8	8	9	12
Amkar Perm	13	14	14	15	16	16	16	16	16	14	11	9	12	12	12	12	12	11	11	13	14	14	13	10	12	13	13	13	13	13
Anzhi Makhachkala	12	8	12	13	15	15	15	14	15	16	16	16	16	16	15	14	15	15	15	15	15	15	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14
Tosno	15	16	15	12	12	12	12	12	12	13	14	13	14	14	13	13	13	13	13	14	12	13	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15
SKA-Khabarovsk	16	15	16	16	14	14	14	15	14	15	15	14	15	15	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16

Source: soccerway.com

Season statistics

Scoring

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Quincy Promes	Spartak	15
2	Fyodor Smolov	Krasnodar	14
3	Viktor Claesson	Krasnodar	10
	Jefferson Farfán	Lokomotiv
	Aleksandr Kokorin	Zenit
	Luiz Adriano	Spartak
	Vitinho	CSKA
8	Yevgeni Markov	Tosno Dynamo	9
9	Eric Bicfalvi	Ural	8
10	Luka Đorđević	Arsenal	7
	Artem Dzyuba	Zenit Arsenal
	Manuel Fernandes	Lokomotiv
	Sylvester Igboun	Ufa
	Aleksei Miranchuk	Lokomotiv
	Aleksandr Tashayev	Dynamo
	Aleksandr Yerokhin	Zenit

Last updated: 13 May 2018^[37]

Season events

Attendances

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Zenit	659,438	53,359	30,158	43,963	+136.9%1
2	Spartak Moscow	452,836	44,062	21,445	30,189	−7.8%†
3	Krasnodar	375,481	34,055	17,250	25,032	+44.5%†
4	CSKA Moscow	234,080	25,916	8,016	15,605	+8.0%†
5	Akhmat Grozny	227,572	29,450	8,345	15,171	−0.4%†
6	Rostov	190,947	37,483	4,252	12,730	+24.2%2
7	Lokomotiv Moscow	190,613	26,109	6,166	12,708	+20.6%†
8	Arsenal Tula	178,897	18,175	7,080	11,926	+9.2%†
9	Rubin Kazan	145,593	25,440	3,099	9,706	+0.6%3
10	Ural Yekaterinburg	121,727	26,868	1,345	8,115	+52.6%4
11	Ufa	103,742	12,571	3,827	6,916	+1.5%†
12	Dynamo Moscow	101,929	17,133	3,250	6,795	+66.2%5
13	SKA-Khabarovsk	99,680	14,524	2,049	6,645	+78.3%5
14	Anzhi Makhachkala	95,835	10,990	3,100	6,389	−5.7%†
15	Tosno	84,805	13,665	1,310	5,654	+197.1%6
16	Amkar Perm	84,499	11,345	1,089	5,633	−21.3%7
	League total	3,347,674	53,359	1,089	13,949	+14.6%†

Source:
Notes:
1: Zenit played most of last season at Petrovsky Stadium.
2: Rostov played its final three home games of the season at Rostov Arena.
3: Rubin Kazan played part of last season at Central Stadium.
4: Ural played its final three home games of the season at Central Stadium.
5: Team played last season in the Russian Football National League.
6: Tosno played one of its home matches at a neutral venue and played last season in the Russian Football National League at Stadion im. Aleksandra Nevskogo.
7: Amkar Perm played two of its home matches at the away team's stadium.