| Competition: | Russian Second League Division A |
| Season: | 2023–24 |
| Dates: | 16 July 2023 – 16 June 2024 |
| Promoted: | Ufa Chayka Rotor Volgograd |
| Relegated: | Forte Taganrog Amkar Perm Chertanovo Moscow Salyut Belgorod |
| Prevseason: | 2022–23 |
| Nextseason: | 2024–25 Division A 2024 Division B |
The 2023–24 Russian Second League Division A is the 32nd season of Russia's third-tier football league since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The season began on 16 July 2023 and will end on 16 June 2024.
Before the season, the Russian Second League was reorganized and split into two tiers - third-tier Russian Second League Division A and fourth-tier Russian Second League Division B.[1]
Division A consists of two groups of 10 teams each. The Gold Group initially included:
The Silver Group included:
FC Kuban-Holding Pavlovskaya (which came in 5th place in Group 1 in 2022–23 and was thus eligible for the Silver Group) chose to enter Second League Division B instead. FC Biolog-Novokubansk, which came in 6th place in Group 1, made the same decision. The vacant Silver Group spot was taken by FC Metallurg Lipetsk which came in 6th place in their group in 2022–23.[2]
In the first part of the season (summer/autumn 2023), each team in the Gold and Silver groups played each other team in the same group twice, home-and-away, for 18 games in total for each team. For the second part of the season (spring/summer 2024), groups were re-constituted. The Gold Group now includes top 6 first-stage Gold Group teams and top 4 first-stage Silver Group teams. Silver Group includes bottom 4 first-stage Gold Group teams, 5th and 6th-placed first-stage Silver Group teams and four winners of the Division B groups (FC Mashuk-KMV Pyatigorsk, FC Khimik Dzerzhinsk, FC Kaluga and FC Torpedo Miass). Bottom 4 first-stage Silver Group teams were relegated to Division B for 2024. The teams in re-constituted groups will play each other twice more for 18 more games. Top 2 Gold Group teams at the end of the season will be promoted to the Russian First League for the 2024–25 season.
The 3rd-placed second-stage Gold Group team played in promotion play-offs (two games, home-and-away). Their potential opponents were:
The winner of those play-offs was also promoted to the Russian First League.[3]
If none of the top-3 first-stage Gold Group teams qualified for the promotion play-offs under the conditions described above, the play-offs would not be held and the 3rd-place second-stage Gold Group team would be promoted to the Russian First League automatically.
The bottom four teams in the Gold Group at the end of the season were moved to Silver Group for the 2024–25 season, and the top four teams in the Silver Group were moved to Gold Group.[4]
The rotation between Division A and Division B will be happening in the winter going forward, as Division B switched to spring-to-autumn, March-to-November cycle for their seasons. For example, in November 2024, bottom 2 teams of Division A Silver Group standings at the time would be relegated to 2025 Division B directly, 7th and 8th-placed teams in Division A Silver Group will play in relegation play-offs against the bottom two teams of the 2023–24 Division A Silver Group season, with 2 losers of the playoffs also relegated to Division B. Winners of the 2024 Division B groups will be promoted to Division A Silver Group at that time. Therefore, there was no relegation from Division A or promotion to it immediately at the end of the 2023–24 season.
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals[5] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ilya Azyavin | Murom | 9 |
| 2 | Pavel Dolgov | Chayka Peschanokopskoye | 7 |
| Daniil Agureyev | Murom | ||
| 4 | Daniil Arsentyev | Rotor Volgograd | 5 |
| Dmitry Kuptsov | Dynamo Bryansk | ||
| Kamil Mullin | Krasnodar-2 | ||
| Migran Ageyan | Ufa | ||
| Gevork Sarkisyan | Veles Moscow | ||
| Andrei Razborov | Irtysh Omsk | ||
| Danil Karpov | Krasnodar-2 | ||
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aleksei Skvortsov | Tekstilshchik Ivanovo | 7 |
| 2 | Dmitri Zakharov | Kaluga | 6 |
| Vladislav Shpitalny | Torpedo Miass | ||
| Vladislav Ignatenko | Avangard Kursk | ||
| Timur Abdrashitov | Kaluga | ||
| 6 | Yevgeni Voronin | Volga Ulyanovsk | 5 |
| 7 | Ivan Kozlov | Kaluga | 4 |
| Mikhail Markin | Spartak Kostroma | ||
| Aleksandr Saplinov | Spartak Kostroma | ||
| Anzor Khutov | Mashuk-KMV Pyatigorsk | ||
Rotor Volgograd won 4–2 on aggregate and was promoted to the First League, Novosibirsk remained in the Second League Division A Gold Group.