Russian Premier League

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

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

1 History of the Top Division
2 Russian Premier League 2006
3 Champions and top scorers
4 All-time table
- 4.1 Players with most appearances
- 4.2 All-time top scorers
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History of the Top Division

After the break-up of the Soviet Union, starting in 1992, each former Soviet republic organized an independent national championship. In Russia, the 6 Russian teams who had played in the Soviet Top League in 1991 (CSKA Moscow, Spartak Moscow, Torpedo Moscow, Dinamo Moscow, Spartak Vladikavkaz, and Lokomotiv Moscow) 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 subsequently the Premier League) has consisted of 16 teams, except for a short-lived experiment with having two more teams in 1996 and 1997.

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

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

[edit] Russian Premier League 2006

Image:Russian Premier League map.png In season 2006 the Russian Premier League consists of the following teams:

In 2007 Torpedo and Shinnik will be replaced by FC Khimki and FC Kuban Krasnodar.

[edit] Champions and top scorers

Season	Champion	Runner-up	3rd position	Top scorer
1992*	Spartak Moscow	Spartak Vladikavkaz	Dynamo Moscow	Veli Kasumov (Dynamo, 16 goals)
1993*	Spartak Moscow	Rotor Volgograd	Dynamo Moscow	Victor 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)
2006	CSKA Moscow	Spartak Moscow	Lokomotiv Moscow	Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow, 18 goals)
* Top Division championship

[edit] All-time table

As of end of 2006 season

Rank	Club¹	Seasons	Most recent season	Played²	Won	Drawn	Lost	Goals	Points³
1	Spartak Moscow	15		459	270	113	76	926-450	923
2	Lokomotiv Moscow	15		459	241	127	91	716-393	850
3	CSKA Moscow	15		459	226	109	124	718-466	787
4	Dynamo Moscow	15		458	192	133	133	667-529	709
5	Torpedo Moscow	15	2006	462	182	131	149	597-553	677
6	Alania Vladikavkaz	14	2005	429	168	93	168	579-569	597
7	Krylya Sovetov Samara	15		462	156	120	186	508-594	588
8	Zenit Saint Petersburg	12		368	153	104	111	493-398	563
9	Rotor Volgograd	13	2004	402	151	109	142	562-506	562
10	Rostov	14		428	120	127	181	466-601	487
11	Saturn Moscow Oblast	8		240	81	81	78	271-242	324
12	Shinnik Yaroslavl	9	2006	274	80	79	115	269-355	319
13	Chernomorets Novorossiysk	8	2003	248	74	65	109	274-357	287
14	Lokomotiv Nizhny Novgorod	8	2000	248	68	63	117	233-356	267
15	Zhemchuzhina Sochi	7	1999	222	61	57	104	263-390	240
16	Moskva	6		180	55	56	69	182-215	221
17	Uralmash Yekaterinburg	5	1996	158	57	33	68	215-241	204
18	Energia-Tekstilshchik Kamyshin	5	1996	158	53	43	62	172-177	202
19	Rubin Kazan	4		120	49	36	35	164-128	183
20	KAMAZ-Chally Naberezhnye Chelny	5	1997	162	51	32	79	198-253	179⁴
21	Uralan Elista	5	2003	150	36	39	75	138-225	147
22	Baltika Kaliningrad	3	1998	98	30	37	31	114-111	127
23	Fakel Voronezh	4	2001	124	31	29	64	101-175	122
24	Anzhi Makhachkala	3	2002	90	27	28	35	94-108	109
25	Dynamo Stavropol	3	1994	94	27	23	44	94-125	104
26	Tyumen	5	1998	154	25	26	103	116-326	101
27	Amkar Perm	3		90	21	35	34	75-115	98
28	Luch-Energia Vladivostok	2		64	23	12	29	66-95	81
29	Okean Nakhodka	2	1993	64	22	14	28	65-83	80
30	Tom Tomsk	2		60	20	18	22	63-66	78
31	Asmaral Moscow	2	1993	60	19	11	30	74-102	68
32	Sokol Saratov	2	2002	60	17	13	30	55-87	64
33	Kuban Krasnodar	2		60	10	19	31	50-95	49
34	Lada Togliatti	2	1996	64	10	16	38	42-105	46
35	Spartak Nalchik	1		30	11	8	11	33-32	41
36	Terek Chechen Republic	1	2005	30	5	5	20	20-50	14⁵
37	Khimki	0		0	0	0	0	0-0	0

For clubs that have been renamed, their name at the time of their most recent season in the Premier League is given. The current members are listed in bold.
Includes championship play-offs.
For the purposes of this table, each win is worth 3 points. The three-points system was adopted in 1995.
KAMAZ-Chally were deducted 6 points in 1997.
Terek were deducted 6 points in 2005.

[edit] Players with most appearances

As of 26 November 2006 [1] [2] [3]

Rank	Player	Apps
1	Valery Yesipov	388
2	Dmitri Loskov	343
3	Sergei Semak	318
4	Igor Chugaynov	317
5	Yury Kovtun	304
6	Yury Drozdov	303
7	Aleksandr Filimonov	295
8	Sergey Ovchinnikov	290
8	Artur Pagayev	290
10	Andrey Tikhonov	289

[edit] All-time top scorers

As of 26 November 2006 [4]

Rank	Player	Goals
1	Oleg Veretennikov	143
2	Dmitri Loskov	109
3	Dmitri Kirichenko	93
4	Valery Yesipov	88
5	Andrey Tikhonov	87
6	Oleg Teryokhin	84
7	Egor Titov	80
8	Sergei Semak	76
9	Aleksandr Shirko	75
10	Vladimir Kulik	73

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Official website

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