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Russian First League

Football league

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Source updated September 15, 2026

The Russian First League (Russian: Первая лига, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division (Russian: Первый дивизион) and Russian Football National League (FNL) (Russian: Первенство Футбольной Национальной Лиги, Pervenstvo Futbol'noy Natsional'noy Ligi) is the second level of the Russian football league system.

The Russian Professional Football League (PFL) used to run the division. Since 2011, it has been managed by the Football National League.

The league consists of 18 clubs. After each season the two top clubs are promoted to the Premier League, and the bottom three clubs are relegated to the Second League. Third and fourth team play in home-and-away promotion play-offs against the 13th and 14th Premier League teams. Should one or more clubs not possess the required licence to participate for the upcoming season, the teams previously relegated are kept in the league instead, in the order of last season's standings.

01History

Due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, all Russian clubs of the former Soviet Top League and Soviet First League unified into the Russian Top Division, which meant that the new second tier of Russian football would remain regionalized.

On 10 June 2022, the number of teams in the league was reduced from 20 to 18 for the 2022-23 season. On the same day, the league requested Russian Football Union to rename the league to its historical name of Russian First League. RFU officially approved the name change on 23 June 2022. On the same date the league announced that the league's title sponsor would be a bookmaker Melbet.

Previous logo, 2020 to 2022.

02Current clubs

The following teams are competing in the 2024-25 season:

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity	Head coach
Alania Vladikavkaz	Vladikavkaz	Republican Spartak Stadium	10,250	Soslan Beteev
Arsenal Tula	Tula	Arsenal Stadium	19,241	Aleksandr Storozhuk
Chayka Peschanokopskoye	Peschanokopskoye	Chayka Central Stadium	3,445	Dmitri Pyatibratov
Fakel Voronezh	Voronezh	Tsentralnyi Profsoyuz Stadion	32,750	Dmitri Pyatibratov
Chernomorets Novorossiysk	Novorossiysk	Central Stadium (Trud)	12,500	Vadim Garanin
KAMAZ	Naberezhnye Chelny	KAMAZ stadium	6,248	Vladimir Klontsak
Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk	Nizhnekamsk	Neftekhimik Stadium	3,100	Kirill Novikov
Rodina Moscow	Moscow	Spartakovets Stadium	5,000	Vladimir Gazzayev
Rotor Volgograd	Volgograd	Volgograd Arena	45,316	Denis Boyarintsev
Shinnik Yaroslavl	Yaroslavl	Shinnik Stadium	22,990	Dmitri Cheryshev
SKA-Khabarovsk	Khabarovsk	Lenin Stadium	14,800	Dmitri Voyetskiy
Sokol Saratov	Saratov	Lokomotiv Stadium	15,000	Aleksey Baga
FC Orenburg	Orenburg	Gazovik Stadium	10,046	Vladimir Slišković
Tyumen	Tyumen	Geolog Stadium	13,057	Igor Menshchikov
Ufa	Ufa	BetBoom Arena	15,234	Yevgeni Kharlachyov
Ural Yekaterinburg	Yekaterinburg	Yekaterinburg Arena	35,696	Yevgeni Averyanov
Yenisey Krasnoyarsk	Krasnoyarsk	Central Stadium	15,000	Andrey Tikhonov

03Winners and top scorers

Season	Winners	Also promoted	Top scorer
1992	Zhemchuzhina-Amerus (West) KAMAZ Naberezhnye Chelny (Centre) Luch Vladivostok (East)	,	Gocha Gogrichiani (Zhemchuzhina-Amerus, West) , 26 Oleg Teryokhin (Sokol Saratov, Centre) , 27 Vyacheslav Kartashov (Irtysh Omsk, East) , 19
1993	Chernomorets Novorossiysk (West, not promoted) Lada Togliatti (Centre) Dinamo-Gazovik Tyumen (East)	,	Sergey Burdin (Chernomorets Novorossiysk, West) , 25 Vladimir Filimonov (Zvezda Perm, Centre) , 37 Vyacheslav Kamoltsev (Dinamo-Gazovik Tyumen, East) , 22
1994	Chernomorets Novorossiysk	Rostselmash Rostov-on-Don	Dmitri Silin (Baltika Kaliningrad) , 35
1995	Baltika Kaliningrad	Lada Togliatti Zenit Saint Petersburg	Sergei Bulatov (Baltika Kaliningrad) , 29
1996	Dinamo-Gazovik Tyumen	Shinnik Yaroslavl Fakel Voronezh	Varlam Kilasonia (Lokomotiv Saint Petersburg) , 22
1997	Uralan Elista	,	Aleksei Chernov (Lada-Grad Dimitrovgrad) , 29
1998	Saturn Moscow Region	Lokomotiv Nizhny Novgorod	Andradina (Arsenal Tula) , 27
1999	Anzhi Makhachkala	Fakel Voronezh	Konstantin Paramonov (Amkar Perm) , 23
2000	Sokol Saratov	Torpedo-ZIL Moscow	Andrei Fedkov (Sokol Saratov) , 26
2001	Shinnik Yaroslavl	Uralan Elista	Vitaly Kakunin (Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk) , 20
2002	Rubin Kazan	Chernomorets Novorossiysk	Vyacheslav Kamoltsev (Chernomorets Novorossiysk) , 20 David Chaladze (Rubin Kazan) , 20
2003	Amkar Perm	Kuban Krasnodar	Aleksandr Panov (Dynamo Saint Petersburg) , 23
2004	Terek Grozny	Tom Tomsk	Andrei Fedkov (Terek Grozny) , 38
2005	Luch-Energia Vladivostok	Spartak Nalchik	Yevgeni Alkhimov (Lokomotiv Chita) , 24
2006	Khimki	Kuban Krasnodar	Yevgeni Alkhimov (Ural Sverdlovsk Oblast) , 25
2007	Shinnik Yaroslavl	Terek Grozny	Dmitri Akimov (Sibir Novosibirsk) , 34
2008	FC Rostov	Kuban Krasnodar	Denis Popov (Torpedo Moscow/Chernomorets Novorossiysk) , 24
2009	Anzhi Makhachkala	Sibir Novosibirsk Alania Vladikavkaz	Aleksei Medvedev (Sibir Novosibirsk) , 18
2010	Kuban Krasnodar	Volga Nizhny Novgorod Krasnodar	Otar Martsvaladze (Volga Nizhny Novgorod) , 21
2011-12	Mordovia Saransk	Alania Vladikavkaz	Ruslan Mukhametshin (Mordovia Saransk) , 31
2012-13	Ural Sverdlovsk Oblast	Tom Tomsk	Spartak Gogniyev (Ural Sverdlovsk Oblast) , 17
2013-14	Mordovia Saransk	Arsenal Tula Torpedo Moscow Ufa	Aleksandr Kutyin (Arsenal Tula) , 19
2014-15	Krylia Sovetov Samara	Anzhi Makhachkala	Yannick Boli (Anzhi Makhachkala) , 15
2015-16	Gazovik Orenburg	Arsenal Tula Tom Tomsk	Artyom Delkin (Gazovik Orenburg) , 16 Khasan Mamtov (Tyumen) , 16 Maksim Zhitnev (Sibir Novosibirsk) , 16
2016-17	Dynamo Moscow	Tosno SKA-Khabarovsk	Kirill Panchenko (Dynamo Moscow) , 24
2017-18	Orenburg	Krylia Sovetov Samara Yenisey Krasnoyarsk	Artyom Kulishev (Dynamo Saint Petersburg) , 17
2018-19	Tambov	Sochi	Maksim Barsov (Sochi) , 19
2019-20	Rotor Volgograd	Khimki	Aleksandr Rudenko (Spartak-2 Moscow/Torpedo Moscow) , 14 Ivan Sergeyev (Torpedo Moscow) , 14
2020-21	Krylia Sovetov Samara	Nizhny Novgorod	Ivan Sergeyev (Krylia Sovetov Samara) , 40
2021-22	Torpedo Moscow	Fakel Voronezh Orenburg	Maksim Maksimov (Fakel Voronezh) , 22
2022-23	Rubin Kazan	Baltika Kaliningrad	Gedeon Guzina (Baltika Kaliningrad) , 14 Ivan Timoshenko (Rodina) , 14
2023-24	Khimki	Dynamo Makhachkala Akron Tolyatti	Jonathan Okoronkwo (Arsenal) , 17
2024-25	Baltika Kaliningrad	Torpedo Moscow Sochi	Martin Sekulić (Ural) , 14
2025-26	Rodina Moscow	Fakel Voronezh	Artyom Maksimenko (Rodina) , 17

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Russian First League”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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FNLeague logo.jpg by Unknown author, Fair use
Russian First League.svg by Unknown author, PD

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Russian First League

01History

02Current clubs

03Winners and top scorers

Sources and credits

Related topics

List of attendance figures at domestic professional sports leagues