| Competition: | Russian Premier League |
| Season: | 2018–19 |
| Winners: | Zenit Saint Petersburg 6th title |
| Relegated: | Anzhi Yenisey |
| Continentalcup1: | Champions League |
| Continentalcup1 Qualifiers: | Zenit Saint Petersburg Lokomotiv Moscow Krasnodar |
| Continentalcup2: | Europa League |
| Continentalcup2 Qualifiers: | CSKA Moscow Spartak Moscow Arsenal |
| Matches: | 240 |
| Total Goals: | 542 |
| League Topscorer: | Fyodor Chalov (15 goals) |
| Biggest Home Win: | CSKA Moscow 6–0 Krylia Sovetov |
| Biggest Away Win: | Anzhi 0–4 Krasnodar |
| Highest Scoring: | Zenit 5–3 Lokomotiv |
| Longest Wins: | 5 matches: Zenit (29 Jul–2 Sep) |
| Longest Unbeaten: | 8 matches: Zenit (29 Jul–30 Sep) |
| Longest Winless: | 9 matches: Yenisey (27 Aug-present) |
| Longest Losses: | 6 matches: Anzhi (6 Aug–22 Sep) |
| Highest Attendance: | 61,500 Zenit 3–1 CSKA (12 May 2019) |
| Lowest Attendance: | 1,285 Yenisey 0–0 Arsenal (2 September 2018) |
| Attendance: | 4,036,196 |
| Average Attendance: | 16,817 |
| Prevseason: | 2017–18 |
| Nextseason: | 2019–20 |
The 2018–19 Russian Premier League was the 27th season of the premier football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 17th under the current Russian Premier League name. Lokomotiv Moscow came into the season as the defending champions.
The new logo was presented on 24 July 2018, there was no title sponsor announced for the season.[1]
As in the previous season, 16 teams will play in the 2018–19 season. After the 2017–18 season, Anzhi Makhachkala, Tosno and SKA-Khabarovsk were relegated to the 2018–19 Russian National Football League. They were replaced by three clubs from the 2017–18 Russian National Football League, Orenburg, Krylya Sovetov Samara, and Yenisey Krasnoyarsk. Orenburg and Krylya Sovetov returned after one season of absence while Yenisey make their debut in the Premier 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.[2] FC Anzhi Makhachkala, which was already licensed for the 2018–19 Premier League before losing in the 2017–18 relegation play-offs, was eligible to stay in the league ahead of the other relegation play-off losing club, FC Tambov. Anzhi re-applied for the Premier League membership on 15 June and was officially re-admitted into the Premier League on 22 June.[3] [4]
| Zenit Saint Petersburg | Rubin Kazan | Rostov | Krylia Sovetov Samara | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Krestovsky Stadium | Kazan Arena | Rostov Arena | Cosmos Arena | |
| Capacity: 67,800 | Capacity: 45,093 | Capacity: 45,000 | Capacity: 44,918 | |
| Spartak Moscow | Ural Yekaterinburg | |||
| Otkritie Arena | Central Stadium | |||
| Capacity: 44,307 | Capacity: 35,696 | |||
| Krasnodar | Akhmat Grozny | |||
| Krasnodar Stadium | Akhmat-Arena | |||
| Capacity: 34,291 | Capacity: 30,597 | |||
| CSKA Moscow | Lokomotiv Moscow | |||
| VEB Arena | RZD Arena | |||
| Capacity: 30,457 | Capacity: 27,320 | |||
| Anzhi Makhachkala | Yenisey Krasnoyarsk | |||
| Anzhi Arena | Central Stadium | |||
| Capacity: 26,500 | Capacity: 22,500 | |||
| Arsenal Tula | Dynamo Moscow | Ufa | Orenburg | |
| Arsenal Stadium | Arena Khimki | Neftyanik Stadium | Gazovik Stadium | |
| Capacity: 20,048 | Capacity: 18,636 | Capacity: 15,132 | Capacity: 7,520 | |
| Team | Location | Head coach | Captain | Kit manufacturer | Shirt sponsor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akhmat | Grozny |  |  Rizvan Utsiyev | Adidas | Akhmat Foundation | |
| Anzhi | Makhachkala | | Guram Tetrashvili | Jako | ||
| Arsenal | Tula | Igor Cherevchenko | Kirill Kombarov | Adidas | SPLAV | |
| CSKA | Moscow |  | Igor Akinfeev | Umbro | Rosseti | |
| Dynamo | Moscow | | Anton Shunin | Nike | VTB | |
| Krasnodar | Krasnodar | | Alyaksandr Martynovich | Puma | Constell Group | |
| Krylia Sovetov | Samara |  | Yevgeni Konyukhov | Puma | Parimatch | |
| Lokomotiv | Moscow | | Igor Denisov | Under Armour | RZhD | |
| Orenburg | Orenburg | Vladimir Fedotov | Dmitri Andreyev | Adidas | Gazprom Dobycha Orenburg | |
| Rostov | Rostov-on-Don | |  Alexandru Gațcan | Joma | TNS Energo | |
| Rubin | Kazan |  |  César Navas | Jako | Nizhnekamskneftekhim | |
| Spartak | Moscow | | Denis Glushakov | Nike | Lukoil | |
| Ufa | Ufa | Vadim Evseev | Pavel Alikin | Joma | Terra Bashkiria | |
| Ural | Yekaterinburg |  | Artyom Fidler | Joma | Renova, TMK | |
| Yenisey | Krasnoyarsk | | David Yurchenko | Nike | HOK | |
| Zenit | Saint Petersburg | | Aleksandr Anyukov | Nike | Gazprom |
| Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Position in table | Replaced by | Date of appointment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zenit |  Roberto Mancini | Mutual consent | 13 May 2018[5] | pre-season | Sergei Semak | 29 May 2018[6] | |
| Ural | Aleksandr Tarkhanov | Moved to the advisor position | 21 May 2018[7] | Dmytro Parfenov | 21 May 2018 | ||
| Arsenal | Miodrag Božović | Contract expired | 21 May 2018[8] | Oleg Kononov | 1 June 2018[9] | ||
| Ufa | Sergei Semak | Mutual consent | 29 May 2018[10] | Sergei Tomarov | 13 June 2018[11] | ||
| Anzhi | Vadim Skripchenko | Contract expired | 31 May 2018[12] | Magomed Adiyev | 4 June 2018[13] | ||
| Akhmat | Igor Lediakhov | Resigned | 2 September 2018[14] | 10th |  Ruslan İdiqov (caretaker) | 2 September 2018 | |
| Akhmat | Ruslan İdiqov (caretaker) | Caretaking spell over | 5 September 2018 | 10th | Rashid Rakhimov | 5 September 2018[15] | |
| Krylia Sovetov | Andrey Tikhonov | Fired | 5 October 2018[16] | 15th | Miodrag Božović | 5 October 2018[17] | |
| Spartak Moscow | Massimo Carrera | Fired | 23 October 2018[18] | 6th | Raúl Riancho (caretaker) | 23 October 2018 | |
| Ufa | Sergei Tomarov | Resigned | 7 November 2018[19] | 15th | 7 November 2018 | ||
| Spartak Moscow | Raúl Riancho | Caretaking spell over | 12 November 2018 | 9th | Oleg Kononov | 12 November 2018[20] | |
| Arsenal Tula | Oleg Kononov | Mutual consent | 12 November 2018[21] | 11th | Igor Cherevchenko | 13 November 2018[22] | |
| Ufa | Dmitri Kirichenko | Mutual consent | 27 March 2019[23] | 15th | Vadim Evseev | 27 March 2019[24] |
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.
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 2019–20 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 2019–20 season.
The draw for relegation play-offs scheduling took place on 16 May 2019.[25] The referees (including VAR teams) were appointed on 27 May 2019.[26]
----
FC Ufa won 2–1 on aggregate and retained their spot in the 2019–20 Russian Premier League; Tom Tomsk remained in the 2019–20 Russian National Football League.----Krylia Sovetov won 3–2 on aggregate and retained their spot in the 2019–20 Russian Premier League; Nizhny Novgorod remained in the 2019–20 Russian National Football League.
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.
| Rank | Player | Team | Goals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fyodor Chalov | CSKA Moscow | 15 | |
| 2 |  Sardar Azmoun | Rubin Kazan Zenit St. Petersburg | 13 | |
| 3 |  Viktor Claesson | Krasnodar | 12 | |
| 4 |  Sebastián Driussi | Zenit St. Petersburg | align=center rowspan=2 | 11 |
| Anton Miranchuk | Lokomotiv Moscow | |||
| 6 |  Zé Luís | Spartak Moscow | 10 | |
| 7 |  Sylvester Igboun | Ufa | 9 | |
| 8 | Ari | Krasnodar | align=center rowspan=6 | 8 |
| Zelimkhan Bakayev | Arsenal Tula | |||
| Artem Dzyuba | Zenit St. Petersburg | |||
 Jefferson Farfán | Lokomotiv Moscow | |||
| Magomed-Shapi Suleymanov | Krasnodar | |||
| Aleksei Sutormin | Orenburg |
On 26 June 2019, Russian Football Union named its list of 33 top players:[28]
Other awards announced on the same day included:
Player of the year: Artem Dzyuba.
Hope prize (under-21 players): Matvei Safonov (Krasnodar).
Coach of the year: Sergei Semak (Zenit).
Team of the year: FC Zenit Saint Petersburg.
For contribution to football development: Stanislav Cherchesov.