2024–25 Russian Premier League

The 2024–25 Russian Premier League (known as the Mir Russian Premier League, also written as Mir Russian Premier Liga for sponsorship reasons) is the 33rd season of the premier football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 23rd under the current Russian Premier League name.

Teams
As in the previous season, 16 teams play in the 2024–25 season. After the 2023–24 season, Ural Yekaterinburg, Baltika Kaliningrad and Sochi were relegated to the 2024–25 Russian First League after eleven, one and five years respectively. They were replaced by Khimki return to top tier after one year absence, Dynamo Makhachkala and Akron Tolyatti will play in top tier for the first time in history from this season.

Tournament format and regulations
The 16 teams play a round-robin tournament whereby each team plays each one of the other teams twice, once at home and once away, for a total of 240 matches with each team playing 30.

The season started on 21 July. The last games before the winter break were played on 10 December; the spring part of the season began on 1 March and the last games will be played on 25 May.

Promotion and relegation
For the purpose of determining First League positions for the following season, the teams that do not pass 2025–26 RPL licensing or drop out of 2025–26 season for any other reason, or the second teams of RPL clubs, or the teams that finished lower than 6th place in First League standings will not be considered. For example, if the teams that finished 1st, 3rd and 4th in the First League standings failed licensing, the team that finished 2nd would be considered the 1st-placed team, the team that finished 5th will be considered the 2nd-placed team, and the team that finished 6th will be considered the 3rd-placed team. There would be no designated 4th-placed team in this scenario.

The teams that finish 15th and 16th will be relegated to the 2025–26 First League, while the top two in that league will be promoted to the Premier League for the 2025–26 season.

The 13th and 14th Premier League teams will play the 4th and 3rd 2024–25 First League teams respectively in two (home-and-away) playoff games, with penalty shootout in effect if necessary. The winners will secure Premier League spots for the 2025–26 season. If both of the teams that finish RPL in 13th and 14th place fail licensing for the 2025–26 season or drop out for any other reason, play-offs will not be held, and the 3rd and 4th First League teams will be promoted automatically. If one of the teams that place 13th and 14th in the Premier League fails licensing for 2025–26 season or drops out for other reasons, 3rd First League team will be promoted automatically and the 13th or 14th-placed team that passes licensing will play 4th First League team in playoffs, with the winners securing the Premier League spot. If only one First League team is eligible for the play-offs (as in the example scenario above), that team will play the 14th-placed RPL team in playoffs, with the winners securing the Premier League spot, and the 13th RPL team will remain in the league. If none of the First League teams are eligible for the play-offs, they will not be held and 13th and 14th-placed RPL teams will remain in the league. If any of the teams are unable to participate in the season after the play-offs have been concluded, or there are not enough teams that pass licensing to follow the above procedures, the replacement will be chosen by the Russian Football Union in consultation with RPL and FNL.

Exclusion from the league
Any team can be excluded from the Premier League during the season for the following reasons: a) using counterfeit documents or providing inaccurate information to the league; b) not arriving to the game on more than one occasion; c) match fixing. Such a team is automatically relegated and is not replaced during the season, and only one additional team (that gains the least amount of points at the end of the season) is directly relegated. If the excluded team had played fewer than 15 games at the time of exclusion, all its results would be annulled and would not count for the standings. If the excluded team had played at least 15 games at the time of exclusion, all their remaining opponents would be awarded a victory without effect on their goal difference.