The Russian Second League (russian: Первенство России II дивизиона ФНЛ), formerly Russian Professional Football League is the third level of Russian professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

History

In 1998–2010, it was run by the Professional Football League. The 2011–12 season was run by the Department of Professional Football of the

Russian Football Union The Russian Football Union (russian: Российский Футбольный Союз, ''Rossiyskiy Futbolnyy Soyuz'' or RFS) is the official governing body of association football in the Russian Federation. With headquarters in Moscow, it org ...

(russian: Департамент профессионального футбола Российского футбольного союза (ДПФ РФС), Departament professional'nogo futbola Rossijskogo futbol'nogo soyuza (DPF RFS)). From 2013 to 2021 season the league was again run by the Professional Football League and the name Second Division was no longer used, the league was just called PFL. Before the 2021–22 season, the league was merged organizationally with the second-tier First League and renamed to FNL2. Before the 2022–23 season, its short name was changed again, to a historical name "Russian Second League", even though the league's full title ("Second Division of the Football National League") remained the same. The Second League is geographically divided into 4 zones:From 2016–17 – Zone Ural-Povolzh'e was renamed Ural-Privolzh'e and all zones began to be referred to as "groups" instead. ''1'' (ex-''South'' - Southern European Russia), ''2'' (ex-''West'' - Western

European Russia European Russia (russian: Европейская Россия, russian: европейская часть России, label=none) is the western and most populated part of Russia. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the cou ...

and Eastern Siberia), ''3'' (ex-''Centre'' - Northern and Eastern European Russia and Sakhalin), ''4'' (ex-''Ural-Povolzhye'' - Southern

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

and Western

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...

). The number of clubs in each zone varies between years. In the 2020–21 season, there were 64 clubs in the division.Since the 2020–21 season, the Vostok group has been abolished. The teams from Vostok are scattered in groups 2, 3 and 4. The winners of each zone are automatically promoted to the Russian First League (known before 2011 as the First Division and from 2011 to 2022 as Russian Football National League). The bottom finishers of each zone lose professional status and are relegated to the Russian Amateur Football League. The teams typically can avoid relegation as long as they still have necessary financing to stay in the FNL2. Each club plays its opponents twice home and away.

Winners

References

External links

*
Professional Football League official website
*
Department of professional football of the Russian Football Union

Russian Professional Football League summary
SOCCERWAY) {{UEFA third leagues 3 Rus Professional sports leagues in Russia