# 2009 Russian First Division

The 2009 Russian First Division was the 18th season of Russia's second-tier football league since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The season began on 28 March 2009 and ended on 4 November 2009.

## Teams

The league has been reduced from 22 to 20 teams. It features eleven clubs from 2008 Russian First Division, two clubs relegated from 2008 Russian Premier League, five zone winners from 2008 Russian Second Division and two of the third-placed clubs from 2008 Russian Second Division.

### Movement between Premier League and First Division

FC Rostov as 2008 champions and Kuban Krasnodar as runners-up have been promoted to the Premier League. They will be replaced by relegated teams Shinnik Yaroslavl and Luch-Energia Vladivostok.

### Movement between First Division and Second Division

Due to the league contraction, seven instead of the regular five teams were relegated to their respective Second Division group. These teams, ranked 16th through 22nd in 2008, were Metallurg-Kuzbass Novokuznetsk, Volga Ulyanovsk, Torpedo Moscow, Mashuk-KMV Pyatigorsk, Dinamo Barnaul, Dinamo Bryansk and Zvezda Irkutsk.
The relegated teams were replaced by the five 2008 Second Division zone winners. These were MVD Rossii Moscow (West), Metallurg Lipetsk (Center), Volgar-Gazprom-2 Astrakhan (South), Volga Nizhny Novgorod (Ural-Povolzhye) and FC Chita (East).

### Further team changes

Sportakademklub Moscow avoided relegation in 2008 by finishing 15th, but announced refusal to play in the First Division on 18 December 2008. On 15 January 2009, SKA Rostov-on-Don refused to play as well. Regulations provided that Sportakademclub and SKA should be replaced by two of the runners-up from the Second Division groups (FC Bataysk-2007, FC Torpedo Vladimir, FC Gazovik Orenburg, FC Avangard Kursk or FC Smena Komsomolsk-on-Amur). However, since all of those teams refused promotion, the places were eventually filled by third-place finishers FC Nizhny Novgorod and FC Krasnodar.

### Overview

| Team | Location | Head coach | Captain | Venue | Capacity | Position in 2008 |
| Alania | Vladikavkaz | Mircea Rednic | Kamalutdin Akhmedov | Republican Spartak | 32,464 | 10th |
| Anzhi | Makhachkala | Omari Tetradze | Rasim Tagirbekov | Dynamo | 16,800 | 6th |
| Baltika | Kaliningrad | Leonid Tkachenko | Denis Matyola | Baltika | 14,660 | 7th |
| Chernomorets | Novorossiysk | Igor Cherniy (caretaker) | | Tsentralny (Trud) | 12,500 | 9th |
| FC Chita | Chita | Oleg Kokarev | Ilya Makiyenko | Lokomotiv | 10,200 | 1st, D2 "East" |
| KAMAZ | Naberezhnye Chelny | Vitali Panov (caretaker) | Spartak Gogniyev | KAMAZ | 9,221 | 3rd |
| FC Krasnodar | Krasnodar | Nurbiy Khakunov | Maksim Demenko | Kuban | 35,200 | 3rd, D2 "South" |
| Luch-Energiya | Vladivostok | Aleksandr Pobegalov | | Dinamo | 10,200 | 16th, RPL |
| Metallurg | Lipetsk | Valeri Tretyakov (caretaker) | | Metallurg | 14,940 | 1st, D2 "Center" |
| MVD Rossii | Moscow | Vladimir Eshtrekov | | Avangard, Domodedovo | 6,000 | 1st, D2 "West" |
| FC Nizhny Novgorod | Nizhny Novgorod | Viktor Zaidenberg | Oleg Gubanov | Severny | 3,180 | 3rd, D2 "Ural-Povolzhye" |
| Nosta | Novotroitsk | Gennady Gridin | Ruslan Surodin | Metallurg | 6,060 | 5th |
| Salyut-Energiya | Belgorod | Sergei Tashuev | Sergei Kushov | Salyut | 11,500 | 12th |
| Shinnik | Yaroslavl | Yuri Bykov | Roman Monaryov | Shinnik | 18,500 (in reconstruction time) | 15th, RPL |
| Sibir | Novosibirsk | Igor Kriushenko | Aleksey Medvedev | Spartak | 12,500 | 14th |
| SKA-Energiya | Khabarovsk | Vladimir Faizulin | Andrey Konovalov | Lenin Stadium | 15,200 | 8th |
| Ural | Yekaterinburg | Vladimir Fedotov | Aleksey Katulsky | Uralmash | 13,000 | 4th |
| Vityaz | Podolsk | Andrei Novosadov (caretaker) | Andrei Smirnov | Trud | 12,000 | 11th |
| Volga | Nizhny Novgorod | Khazret Dyshekov | Vitali Astakhov | Polyot | 4,600 | 1st, D2 "Ural-Povolzhye" |
| Volgar-Gazprom-2 | Astrakhan | Aleksandr Ignatenko | Nail Magzhanov | Centralny | 18,500 | 1st, D2 "South" |
FC MVD Rossii resigned from the league on 17 July after playing 19 matches. The team was in the 19th position with 17 points.

#### Managerial changes

| Team | Outgoing | Manner | Date | Table | Incoming | Date | Table |
| Chernomorets | Nikolai Yuzhanin | Sacked | 1 May 2009 | 20th | Eduard Sarkisov (caretaker) | | |
| Shinnik | Sergei Pavlov | Sacked | 12 May 2009 | 10th | Ivan Lyakh | 12 May 2009 | 10th |
| Luch-Energiya | Benjaminas Zelkevičius | Sacked | 16 May 2009 | 19th | Konstantin Yemelyanov (caretaker) | | |
| Baltika | Zurab Sanaya | Sacked | 29 May 2009 | 10th | Leonid Tkachenko | 8 June 2009 | 8th |
| Nosta | Sergei Podpaly | Sacked | 3 June 2009 | 16th | Oleg Samatov (caretaker) | | |
| Volga | Sergei Petrenko | Sacked | 5 June 2009 | 19th | Sergei Perednya (caretaker) | | |
| FC Nizhny Novgorod | Mikhail Afonin | Sacked | 6 June 2009 | 17th | Viktor Zaidenberg | | |
| MVD Rossii | Yuri Kovtun | Sacked | 8 June 2009 | 16th | Vladimir Eshtrekov | | |
| Metallurg Lipetsk | Gennadi Styopushkin | Sacked | 16 June 2009 | 17th | Valeri Tretyakov (caretaker) | | |
| Luch-Energiya | Konstantin Yemelyanov (caretaker) | Finished | 23 June 2009 | 14th | Francisco Arcos | | |
| Nosta | Oleg Samatov (caretaker) | Finished | 26 June 2009 | 14th | Gennady Gridin | | |
| Ural | Aleksandr Pobegalov | Sacked | 13 July 2009 | 5th | Vladimir Fedotov | | |
| Volga | Sergei Perednya (caretaker) | Finished | 5 June 2009 | 16th | Khazret Dyshekov | | |
| Chernomorets | Eduard Sarkisov (caretaker) | Finished | 24 July 2009 | 20th | Aleksandr Irkhin | | |
| Alania | Valeriy Petrakov | Sacked | 10 August 2009 | 3rd | Aleksandr Yanovskiy (caretaker) | | |
| Luch-Energiya | Francisco Arcos | Finished | 11 August 2009 | 16th | Aleksandr Pobegalov | | |
| Alania | Aleksandr Yanovskiy (caretaker) | Finished | 19 August 2009 | 3rd | Mircea Rednic | | |
| Chernomorets | Aleksandr Irkhin | Finished | 3 September 2009 | 19th | Igor Cherniy | | |
| Vityaz | Sergei Balakhnin | Sacked | 18 September 2009 | 13th | Andrei Novosadov (caretaker) | | |
| Shinnik | Ivan Lyakh | Sacked | 1 October 2009 | 4th | Yuri Bykov | | |
| KAMAZ | Yuri Gazzaev | Finished | 13 October 2009 | 7th | Vitali Panov (caretaker) | | |

## Standings

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion or relegation |
| 1 | Anzhi Makhachkala (P) | 38 | 21 | 12 | 5 | 61 | 31 | +30 | 75 | Promotion to Premier League |
| 2 | Sibir Novosibirsk (P) | 38 | 22 | 7 | 9 | 60 | 21 | +39 | 73 | Promotion to Premier League |
| 3 | Alania Vladikavkaz (P) | 38 | 21 | 7 | 10 | 57 | 30 | +27 | 70 | Promotion to Premier League |
| 4 | Volga Nizhny Novgorod | 38 | 17 | 14 | 7 | 54 | 32 | +22 | 65 | |
| 5 | KAMAZ Naberezhnye Chelny | 38 | 18 | 10 | 10 | 50 | 31 | +19 | 64 | |
| 6 | Shinnik Yaroslavl | 38 | 18 | 7 | 13 | 46 | 35 | +11 | 61 | |
| 7 | Salyut-Energia Belgorod | 38 | 17 | 10 | 11 | 54 | 41 | +13 | 61 | |
| 8 | Ural Sverdlovsk Oblast | 38 | 15 | 15 | 8 | 40 | 32 | +8 | 60 | |
| 9 | Baltika Kaliningrad | 38 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 41 | 42 | −1 | 52 | |
| 10 | Krasnodar | 38 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 50 | 47 | +3 | 52 | |
| 11 | Vityaz Podolsk | 38 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 46 | 39 | +7 | 51 | |
| 12 | Volgar-Gazprom-2 Astrakhan | 38 | 12 | 15 | 11 | 40 | 41 | −1 | 51 | |
| 13 | Nizhny Novgorod | 38 | 14 | 8 | 16 | 37 | 47 | −10 | 50 | |
| 14 | Luch-Energiya Vladivostok | 38 | 13 | 11 | 14 | 42 | 43 | −1 | 50 | |
| 15 | SKA-Khabarovsk | 38 | 12 | 11 | 15 | 43 | 42 | +1 | 47 | |
| 16 | Nosta Novotroitsk (R) | 38 | 9 | 13 | 16 | 47 | 59 | −12 | 40 | Relegation to Second Division |
| 17 | Chita (R) | 38 | 10 | 5 | 23 | 27 | 65 | −38 | 35 | Relegation to Second Division |
| 18 | Chernomorets Novorossiysk (R) | 38 | 8 | 10 | 20 | 31 | 51 | −20 | 34 | Relegation to Second Division |
| 19 | Metallurg Lipetsk (R) | 38 | 8 | 7 | 23 | 30 | 62 | −32 | 31 | Relegation to Second Division |
| 20 | MVD Rossii Moscow (R) | 38 | 3 | 8 | 27 | 10 | 75 | −65 | 17 | Relegation to Second Division |
* ↑ Alania Vladikavkaz accepted promotion to the 2010 Russian Premier League upon the withdrawal of FC Moscow.

## Results

| Home \ Away | ALA | ANZ | BAL | CHM | CHI | KAM | KRA | LUE | MLI | MVD | NN | NOS | SAL | SHI | SIB | SKA | URA | VIT | VNN | VGA |
| Alania Vladikavkaz | | 0–1 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 2–3 | 2–2 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 4–0 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 3–1 |
| Anzhi Makhachkala | 0–0 | | 2–0 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 4–0 | 4–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 2–2 | 1–0 |
| Baltika Kaliningrad | 3–1 | 0–0 | | 1–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 3–0 | 3–0 | 2–2 | 3–0 | 2–2 | 0–2 | 0–3 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 |
| Chernomorets Novorossiysk | 0–1 | 1–2 | 0–3 | | 3–0 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 3–0 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 4–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 |
| Chita | 0–2 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 2–0 | | 1–0 | 1–2 | 1–6 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 1–3 | 1–0 | 0–4 | 0–4 | 0–1 | 3–3 | 3–2 | 1–2 |
| KAMAZ Naberezhnye Chelny | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 3–0 | 3–0 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 |
| Krasnodar | 5–1 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | | 3–1 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 1–3 | 2–3 | 3–1 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 1–3 | 2–2 |
| Luch-Energiya Vladivostok | 1–1 | 3–2 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 2–2 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 2–2 | 2–2 |
| Metallurg Lipetsk | 1–5 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 1–3 | 1–2 | | 3–0 | 3–0 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–6 | 2–1 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 1–2 |
| MVD Rossii Moscow | 0–3 | 0–3 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 1–3 | 0–1 | 0–3 | 0–2 | | 0–3 | 0–3 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–3 | 0–3 | 0–3 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 0–3 |
| Nizhny Novgorod | 0–2 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 | | 2–0 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 3–2 | 0–1 | 0–0 |
| Nosta Novotroitsk | 2–2 | 2–2 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 4–0 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 2–2 | 2–3 | | 2–2 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 1–3 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 3–1 |
| Salyut-Energia Belgorod | 2–0 | 3–0 | 3–2 | 1–0 | 5–2 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 5–1 | 3–0 | 0–2 | 2–0 | | 1–2 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 |
| Shinnik Yaroslavl | 1–2 | 3–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 1–3 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 3–0 | 2–1 | 4–2 | | 3–1 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 0–0 |
| Sibir Novosibirsk | 1–0 | 2–1 | 6–0 | 4–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 3–0 | 4–0 | 1–0 | | 0–0 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 4–0 |
| SKA-Khabarovsk | 0–0 | 2–3 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 0–1 | | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 0–2 |
| Ural Sverdlovsk Oblast | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–3 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 2–1 | | 2–1 | 2–2 | 2–0 |
| Vityaz Podolsk | 0–1 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 4–1 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 0–0 | | 0–2 | 2–0 |
| Volga Nizhny Novgorod | 0–3 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 4–0 | 3–0 | 4–1 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 1–2 | 4–2 | 2–1 | 4–1 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | | 0–3 |
| Volgar-Gazprom-2 Astrakhan | 1–0 | 1–3 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 2–3 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 | |

## Top scorers

Last updated: 4 November 2009; Source: PFL (in Russian)
| Rank | Player | Team | Goals |
| 1 | Aleksei Medvedev | Sibir | 18 |
| 2 | Spartak Gogniyev | KAMAZ | 17 |
| 3 | Vladimir Shishelov | Ural | 16 |
| 4 | Roman Grigoryan | Vityaz | 15 |
| 5 | Otar Martsvaladze | Anzhi | 13 |
| 6 | Nikita Burmistrov | Shinnik | 12 |
| 6 | Serghei Dadu | Alania | 12 |
| 8 | Anton Khazov | Volga | 10 |
| 9 | Sergei Davydov | Volgar-Gazprom-2 | 9 |
| 9 | Denys Dedechko | Luch-Energiya | 9 |
| 9 | Nicolae Josan | Anzhi | 9 |
| 9 | Vasili Karmazinenko | SKA-Energiya | 9 |

## Awards

On 25 November 2009, Professional Football League announced the award winners for the season.
* Best player: Aleksei Medvedev (FC Sibir Novosibirsk).
* Best goalkeeper: Sergei Chepchugov (FC Sibir Novosibirsk).
* Best defender: Rasim Tagirbekov (FC Anzhi Makhachkala).
* Best midfielder: Nicolae Josan (FC Anzhi Makhachkala).
* Best striker: Aleksei Medvedev.
* Best manager: Omari Tetradze (FC Anzhi Makhachkala).