Competition
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.
As of 2010, the champions and the runners-up qualify for the UEFA Champions League group stage. The third-placed team qualifies for the Champions League second qualifying round. The fourth- and fifth-place teams qualify for the UEFA Europa League. The bottom two teams are relegated to the First Division (renamed the National League Championship starting in 2011).
Unlike most other European football leagues, the league traditionally ran in summer, from March to November, to avoid playing games in the cold and snowy weather in winter. This will be 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 will continue until summer of 2012. After the 16 Premier League teams have played each other twice over the course of the year 2011, they will be split into two groups of eight, and the teams will play other teams in their groups two more times for a total of 44 games (30 in 2011 and 14 in 2012). Those two groups will be contested in spring 2012, with the top eight clubs playing for the title and European places. The other sides will vie to avoid relegation: the bottom two will go down while the next two play-off against the sides third and fourth in the National League Championship, with the two losers being relegated (or denied promotion).
Read more about this topic: Russian Premier League
Famous quotes containing the word competition:
“The praise of ancient authors proceeds not from the reverence of the dead, but from the competition and mutual envy of the living.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)
“All adults who care about a baby will naturally be in competition for that baby.... Each adult wishes that he or she could do each job a bit more skillfully for the infant or small child than the other.”
—T. Berry Brazelton (20th century)
“Sisters define their rivalry in terms of competition for the gold cup of parental love. It is never perceived as a cup which runneth over, rather a finite vessel from which the more one sister drinks, the less is left for the others.”
—Elizabeth Fishel (20th century)