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2011-12 Russian Premier League

Russian Premier League
Season 2011–12
Champions Zenit St. Petersburg
Relegated Spartak Nalchik
Tom Tomsk
Champions League Zenit St. Petersburg
Spartak Moscow
Europa League CSKA Moscow
Dynamo Moscow
Anzhi Makhachkala
Rubin Kazan
Matches played 232
Goals scored 567 (2.44 per match)
Top goalscorer Seydou Doumbia (28)
Biggest home win Kuban 5–0 Volga
Zenit 5–0 Krasnodar
Biggest away win CSKA 0–4 Dynamo
Terek 0–4 Lokomotiv
Tom 0–4 Krasnodar
Dynamo 1–5 Zenit
Highest scoring Dynamo 6–2 Terek
Anzhi 3–5 CSKA
2010

The 2011–12 Russian Premier League is the 20th season of the Russian football championship since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and 10th under the current Russian Premier League name. The season began on 12 March 2011. The last matches were played on 22 May 2012, as the league switched to an autumn-spring rhythm. Zenit were the defending champions, and managed to successfully defend their title.

The 2011–12 season is a transitional season, as it will stretch over 18 months instead of the conventional 12 months. The unusual length of the season is the result of the decision to adapt the playing year to an autumn-spring rhythm similar to most of the other UEFA leagues.

The season will comprise two phases. The first phase will consist of a regular home-and-away schedule, meaning that each team will play the other teams twice for a total of 30 matches per team. The league will then be split into two groups for the second phase, where each team plays another home-and-away schedule against every other team of its respective group.

The top eight teams of the first phase will compete for the championship and the spots for both the 2012–13 Champions League and Europa League. Accordingly, the bottom eight teams will have to avoid relegation. The bottom two teams of this group will be directly relegated, while the 13th- and 14-placed teams will compete in a relegation/promotion playoff with the third- and fourth-placed teams of the 2011–12 National League Championship.

Alania Vladikavkaz and Sibir Novosibirsk were relegated at the end of the 2010 season after finishing the season in the bottom two places. Both teams returned to the First Division, rechristened the National League Championship starting with the 2011–12 season, after just one year.


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