About Russian Football National League
The Russian Football National League (FNL) (Russian: Первенство Футбольной Национальной Лиги, Pervenstvo Futbol'noy Natsional'noy Ligi; sometimes named as Second Russian Premier League; complete official name FONBET-Russian Football Championship among the club teams of FNL, Russian: ФОНБЕТ-Первенство России по футболу среди команд клубов ФНЛ for sponsorship reasons), formerly called Russian First Division (Russian: Первый дивизион) is the second level of Russian professional football.
The Professional Football League used to run the division. Since 2011, it has been managed by the Football National League.
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 (such as FC Spartak-2 Moscow) are not eligible for promotion, only for relegation.
Official Website
