and
Dynamo (the last Zenit match at the
Kirov Stadium, stadium had been already partially demolished.) Teams in the Russian Premier League play each other twice, once at home and once away, for a total of 30 matches. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss. If teams are level on points, the tie-breakers are the number of wins, then the goal difference, followed by several other factors. If the teams are tied for the first position, the tie-breakers are the number of wins, then head-to-head results. If the teams tied for the first place cannot be separated by these tie-breakers, a championship play-off is ordered. and
Spartak at the
RZD Arena As of
2020–21 season, the champions qualify for the
UEFA Champions League group stage. The runners-up qualifies for the Champions League third qualifying round. The third and fourth-place teams qualify for the
UEFA Europa Conference League. If the winner of
Russian Cup ends in first or second on the championship in same season, then the third-place team qualifies to
UEFA Europa League group stage, while fourth and fifth-place teams qualify for the
UEFA Europa Conference League instead. The bottom two teams are relegated to the
First League. Starting on the
2020–21 season the teams ranked in 13th and 14th-place play a two legs relegation play-off against 4th and 3rd-place team from National League. The two winners of this play-off secures the right to play in Premier League in following season. Unlike most other European football leagues, the league traditionally used to run in summer, from March to November, to avoid playing games in the cold and snowy weather in winter. This was altered ahead of the 2012–13 season, with the league planning to run the season from autumn to spring. The transitional season of the competition began in early 2011 and continued until summer of 2012. After the 16 Premier League teams played each other twice over the course of the 2011 calendar year, they were split into two groups of eight, and the teams played other teams in their groups two more times for a total of 44 games (30 in 2011 and 14 in 2012). Those two groups were contested in spring 2012, with the top eight clubs playing for the title and European places. The other sides vied to avoid relegation: the bottom two went down while the next two played off against the sides third and fourth in the National Football League, with the two losers being relegated (or denied promotion). Under the current autumn-spring calendar, the league takes a three-month winter break from mid-December until mid-March. Merging the calendar with other UEFA leagues however, has increased numbers of games in winter. This has resulted in the
Russian Far East and
Siberian teams being forced to play more home games in hostile weather conditions which affected the Premier League when
SKA Khabarovsk took part. ==Youth championship==