Russian Women's Football Championship Explained

Pixels:150
Country:Russia
Confed:UEFA
Founded:1992
Teams:12
Relegation:Women’s 1.Division
Levels:1
Domest Cup:Russian Women's Cup
Confed Cup:UEFA Women's Champions League
Champions:Zenit Saint Petersburg
Season:2023
Most Successful Club:Zvezda-2005 Perm (6 titles)
Website:wfl.rfs.ru
Current:2024 Russian Women's Football Super League

The Russian Women's Football Championship (Russian: Чемпионат России по футболу среди женщин), also known as the Top Division and the Women's Football League, is the highest professional [1] women's football league in Russia.

The Top Division was founded in 1992.[2] Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the women's league played two seasons in 1990 and 1991.

Format

For the 2010 season the seven teams play each other four times, two times away and two games at home. In previous years the team played each other only twice. As Russia is in the top 8 leagues of Europe by UEFA Coefficient[3] the top two teams qualify for the UEFA Women's Champions League and the last team gets relegated to the Women’s 1.Division. The 2011–12 season was the first to last over the winter month. Eight teams contest the season and play each other four times for a total of 28 matches.[4] The tie-breaking rules after the season are in descending order: points, number of wins, then in matches between tied teams: points, wins, goal difference, goals scored, away goals scored, after that in all matches: goal difference, goals scored, away goal scored, better fair-play record and finally the tie is broken by drawing of a lot. One exception is, if there is a tie of points involving the first place, thus the tie-breaking would determine the champion. In this case, there is an additional match, or in case of at least a three way tie a tournament to be played.[5]

In the 2012–13 season a championship and relegation round was played after the regular season. After 14 matches each, the top four and bottom four teams played each other twice more. The winner of the championship round is the champion.

In 2013 the league returned to the spring-autumn format.[6] No championship group was played then. In 2014 a championship group followed the regular season. Points of both stages are added together.[7]

Teams in the 2022 season

Team Location Ground
Chertanovo MoscowArena Chertanovo
Dynamo Moscow
Krasnodar Academy Stadium
CSKA MoscowNovye Khimki Stadium
Zenit Saint PetersburgSmena Stadium
Ryazan-VDVCentral'nyj Sportivn'yj Kompleks
Sapsan Arena
Zvezda-2005 PermZvezda Stadium
Yenisey Krasnoyarsk

Champions and top scorers

The champions so far are:[8] [9]
YearChampionRunner-upThird placeTop scorer
1 Larisa Savina (CSK VVS Samara, 23 goals)
2 1993 Larisa Savina (CSK VVS Samara, 19 goals)
3 1994 Nadezhda Bosikova (Energiya Voronezh, 31 goals)
4 1995 Nadezhda Bosikova (Energiya Voronezh, 37 goals)
5 1996 Nadezhda Bosikova (Energiya Voronezh, 39 goals)
6 1997 Nadezhda Bosikova (Energiya Voronezh, 21 goals)
7 1998 Nadezhda Bosikova (Energiya Voronezh, 19 goals)
8 1999
9 2000 Nadezhda Bosikova (Energiya Voronezh, 30 goals)
Olga Letyushova (Ryazan-VDV, 30 goals)
10 2001 Olga Letyushova (Ryazan-VDV, 31 goals)
11 2002 Natalia Barbashina (Lada Togliatti, 29 goals)
12 2003 Natalia Barbashina (Lada Togliatti, 21 goals)
13 2004 Olga Letyushova (Rossiyanka, 18 goals)
14 2005 Olga Letyushova (Rossiyanka, 27 goals)
15 2006 Olga Letyushova (Rossiyanka, 34 goals)
16 2007 Olga Letyushova (Zvezda-2005 Perm, 19 goals)
17 2008 Emueje Ogbiagbevha (Rossiyanka, 16 goals)
18 Daryna Apanaschenko (Zvezda-2005 Perm, 12 goals)
Olesya Kurochkina (Zvezda-2005 Perm, 12 goals)
19 Emueje Ogbiagbevha (Rossiyanka, 23 goals)
20 Emueje Ogbiagbevha (Energiya Voronezh, 15 goals)
21 Olesya Kurochkina (Izmailovo Moscow, 16 goals)
22 Elena Danilova (Ryazan-VDV, 17 goals)
23 2014 Daryna Apanaschenko (Zvezda-2005 Perm, 8 goals)
24 2015 Daryna Apanaschenko (Zvezda-2005 Perm, 13 goals)
25 Margarita Chernomyrdina (Chertanovo Moscow, 8 goals)
Nadezhda Karpova (Chertanovo Moscow, 8 goals)
26 2017[10] Elena Danilova (Ryazan-VDV, 11 goals)
27 2018[11] Elena Danilova (Ryazan-VDV, 11 goals)
28 2019[12] Nelli Korovkina (Lokomotiv Moscow, 20 goals)
29 2020[13] Olesya Kurochkina (Zvezda-2005 Perm, 9 goals)
30 Nelli Korovkina (Lokomotiv Moscow, 20 goals)
31 Nelli Korovkina (Lokomotiv Moscow, 17 goals)
32 Ana Dias (Zenit Saint Petersburg, 18 goals)

Performance by club

ClubWinnersRunners-upThird placeYears won
6 2 3 2007, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2015, 2017
5 6 3 1995, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003
5 6 0 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011–12, 2016
4 4 3 1993, 1994, 1996, 2001
4 1 7 1999, 2000, 2013, 2018
2 3 0 2019, 2020
2 0 1 2022, 2023
1 3 1 2004
1 2 2 2012–13
1 2 2 2021
1 0 0 1992
Chertanovo Moscow /
SKIF Malakhovka
0 1 3
0 1 0
0 1 0
0 0 3
0 0 1
0 0 1
0 0 1
0 0 1

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Russian Women's Championship. RFS (in Russian). 2016-03-22.
  2. Web site: Womenfootball.ru. XVIII ЧЕМПИОНАТ РОССИИ ПО ФУТБОЛУ. ru. 2009-12-02.
  3. https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/competitions/WomenCup/89/50/90/895090_DOWNLOAD.pdf UEFA Women's Cup
  4. Book: 2011/12 regulations. womenfootball.ru. 6 August 2011. Chapter 4. 6–7. ru. DOC.
  5. Book: 2010/11 regulations. womenfootball.ru. 6 August 2011. Chapter 10. 14–15. ru. DOC.
  6. Web site: 2013 season review. rfs.ru. 9 December 2013. ru. 2 December 2013. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20131212051551/http://www.rfs.ru/main/interactive/blogs/tx299/17.html. 12 December 2013.
  7. http://www.womenfootball.ru/champ/2014/reg_top_Russia_vs_title_2014.pdf Top Russia title 2014
  8. Web site: Stokkermans, Karel. Russia - List of Women Champions. RSSSF. 2009-04-23.
  9. Web site: Womenfootball.ru. ???????. ru. 2009-12-02.
  10. Web site: "Звезда-2005" - чемпион России среди женщин!. Russian Football Union. 28 October 2017.
  11. Web site: Футболистки "Рязани-ВДВ" выиграли чемпионат России. 14 October 2018.
  12. News: ЖФК ЦСКА - чемпион России сезона-2019!. Russian Football Union. 20 October 2019.
  13. News: ЖФК ЦСКА – победитель Суперлиги-2020!. Russian Football Union. 16 November 2020.