National Football League Championship

The structure of the first division has repeatedly changed. In 1992, the First League consisted of three zones (“West”, “Center” - 18 teams each, “East” - 16), the winners of which directly fell into the Premier League. In 1993, the number of teams in the zones (“West” - 22, “Center” - 20, “East” - 16) and the rules of the draw (zone winners received the right to participate in the transition tournament with teams that took 14-16 places in the Major League) changed ) In the future, a single tournament was held, only the number of teams changed (1994-1999 - 22, 2000 - 20, 2001-2002 - 18, 2003-2008 - 22, from 2009 - 20, in the season 2012/2013 - 17). In 1994-1995, and since 1998, the two best teams have moved to the top division (due to the expansion of the major league and the subsequent return to the previous number of teams, in the 1995 and 1996 seasons 3 teams entered the major league, and in the 1997 season - one). Starting season 2011/12, butt matches for entering the Premier League have been introduced: at the end of the regular season, teams that take 3rd and 4th places play at home and away against the 14th and 13th teams of the Premier League, respectively. There were 3 cases when the Premier League clubs (FC Moscow, Saturn and Amkar) stopped playing in the top division not according to the sporting principle, and they were replaced by Alania (2010, 3rd place in the first division - 2009), Krasnodar (2011, 5th place in the first division-2010) and Anji (2018, did not play in FNL-2017/2018).

Leaves the tournament, moving to the lower division of 5 teams. In previous years, this number varied: in 2001-2002 - 3 teams, in 2008 - 7 teams, and at the end of the 1998 season 5 teams left the league, and another played butt games with one of the winners of the Second Division zones. In 2013-2015, due to the shortage of clubs and the removal of some teams due to financial problems, 3 teams flew out during the course and the end of the championship.

In 2016, the rules were amended, according to which, in case of refusal (or non-compliance with the requirements of the league) of the winner of the PFL Championship zone to upgrade in the class, as well as in the case of a club not applying for participation in the championship, the priority right to speak in the FNL get teams finishing in the relegation zone of the FNL Championship in the order of taking places in the final standings. And only if they (or one of them) refuse and if there is a vacancy, other PFL Championship teams (not zone winners) can apply for transfer to the FNL. So, at the end of the 2017/18 season, none of the teams participating in the FNL Championship 2017/18 flew to the PFL Championship.

A sarcastic slogan was attached to the tournament - the meme “The Best League of the World”. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]}

Winners

All participants of the championship of Russia among the teams of the first division

In total, from 1992 to 2019, 126 teams took part in the competitions of the first division (FNL).

Club Achievements

• The most visited match in the history of the FNL and the Russian first division took place on May 6, 2018 in Nizhny Novgorod . The game of the 37th round between the Nizhny Novgorod Olympian and the Vladivostok Luch Energia at the Nizhny Novgorod stadium attracted 42,100 spectators ^[9] .
• The most visited tour in the entire history of the FNL was the 37th round of the FONBET Championship of Russia, a total of 98,118 spectators (10,811.8 on average per match) visited 10 games ^[9] .

In the 1990s, some matches of the first league from St. Petersburg were shown by Petersburg - Channel Five .

On May 12, 2000, the NTV Plus Soccer satellite TV channel showed the Torpedo-ZIL - Spartak-Chukotka match. Later on, NTV-Plus sports TV channels organized live broadcasts of the most important games ^[10] , regular reviews of matches were also published - once a week and once a month (2000s), and in the fall of 2010 NTV Plus live broadcasts of 7 matches “ Pearls-Sochi ” ^{[11] [12]} .

In 2003, the federal Sport TC showed several matches of the first division. He selectively organized live broadcasts of some games on his air in 2007-2008 ^[13] . The program " Football of Russia " occasionally appeared reviews of games in 2005 and 2007, on a more permanent basis - in 2008-2009 ^[14] .

In 2010-2011, live broadcasts of matches were carried out by the Onedivision.ru online portal, there were also brief reviews of games with comments, matches of the second stage of the 2011/12 season were broadcast by the SportLive portal ^{[15] [16]} . Also, in the 2011/12 and 2012/13 seasons, in accordance with the contract concluded between the National Football League and the All - Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company , on average, one match from each round was broadcast live by Russia-2 TC ^{[17] [18] [19] [20 ] ]} .

In the 2012/13 season, all the championship matches were shown on the Sport 2 TV channel (from August 2012 it became known as Sport) ^{[21] [19]} , and in the 2011/12 season it broadcast some matches besides those shown on Russia -2 ” ^[22] , and in 2013, the FNL Geography program was broadcast on the cities and participating teams of the tournament (in parallel, they were also posted on the FNL YouTube channel ) ^[23] .

Since the 2013/14 season, FNL media rights have been acquired by TeleSport ^[24] . The number of matches whose broadcasting was temporarily suspended due to roughness for agreements with the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company ^{[25] [26]} was reduced on the Sport TV channel, giving priority to online broadcasts and regional television companies broadcasting the matches of their teams ^[27] . Since the 2016/17 season, matches began to be shown on the Match! Our Sport ”(two matches from the round) ^[28] , also for two years there were reviews of every two rounds -“ diaries ”(originally laid out on the FNL YouTube channel).

Since the second half of 2012, broadcasts have passed the media portal Sportbox.ru , which from the 14th round of the 2013/14 season began to show all the championship matches ^[29] . In the 2017/18 season, the picture was also duplicated (displayed with a slightly different quality ^{[ specify ]} ) on the FNL website, and the matches that were shown on the Match! Our Sport "- on the site" Match TV ".

In 2018, FNL entered into an agreement with Yandex and InStat ^{[30] [31]} - since the 2018/19 season, all matches are broadcast on Yandex.Enter . In July 2019, it became known about the extension of the agreement with Yandex for 3 years ^[32] .

The choice of matches (cities) for television broadcasts was often determined by technical issues, so the matches of leaders were sometimes preferred to show other games ^[33] .

Occasionally, the central events of the FNL are covered in the news releases of federal television channels.

• FNL official website
• Russian Football Championship - First Division