Russian National Football League

The Russian Football National League, formerly called Russian First Division, is the second level of Russian professional football.The league consists of 20 clubs. After each season the two top clubs are promoted to the Premier League, and the bottom five clubs are relegated to the Russian Professional Football League. Third and fourth team play in home-and-away promotion play-offs against the 13th and 14th Premier League teams. In case one or more clubs are not licensed to participate for the upcoming season, the teams previously relegated are kept in the league instead, in the order of last season’s standings. The reserve squads of the Premier League teams are not eligible for promotion, only for relegation.The Russian National Football League is played in a double round-robin tournament. The winner gets 3 points and the loser has no points. If there is a tie, each gets 1 point. The final ranking is determined by the points and the win times if same point occurs. If the win times are the same, the order will be determined by the record, goal difference, and number of goals. The top 2 teams will be promoted to the Russia Premier League; the third and fourth teams will participate in the promotion playoffs; the last 3 teams will be relegated.