2023–24 Russian Second League Division A

Russian Second League Division A
Season	2023–24
Dates	16 July 2023 – 16 June 2024
Promoted	Ufa; Chayka; Rotor Volgograd
Relegated	Forte Taganrog; Amkar Perm; Chertanovo Moscow; Salyut Belgorod; relegation happens mid-season
	← 2022–23 2024–25 Division A; 2024 Division B →

The 2023–24 Russian Second League Division A is the 32nd season of Russia's third-tier football league since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The season began on 16 July 2023 and will end on 16 June 2024.

Overview

Before the season, the Russian Second League was reorganized and split into two tiers - third-tier Russian Second League Division A and fourth-tier Russian Second League Division B.^[1]

Division A consists of two groups of 10 teams each. The Gold Group initially included:

4 teams relegated from the 2022–23 Russian First League (FC Veles Moscow, FC Ufa, FC Krasnodar-2 and FC Volga Ulyanovsk)
4 teams that came in 2nd place in their zones of the 2022–23 Russian Second League (FC Chayka Peschanokopskoye, FC Murom, FC Dynamo Bryansk and FC Irtysh Omsk)
2 best 3rd-placed 2022–23 Second League teams (FC Rotor Volgograd and FC Spartak Kostroma);

The Silver Group included:

2 worst 3rd-placed 2022–23 teams (FC Rodina-2 Moscow and FC Amkar Perm)
7 4th- and 5th-placed 2022–23 teams (FC Avangard Kursk, FC Chelyabinsk, FC Chertanovo Moscow, FC Forte Taganrog, FC Novosibirsk, FC Salyut Belgorod, FC Tekstilshchik Ivanovo).

FC Kuban-Holding Pavlovskaya (which came in 5th place in Group 1 in 2022–23 and was thus eligible for the Silver Group) chose to enter Second League Division B instead. FC Biolog-Novokubansk, which came in 6th place in Group 1, made the same decision. The vacant Silver Group spot was taken by FC Metallurg Lipetsk which came in 6th place in their group in 2022–23.^[2]

In the first part of the season (summer/autumn 2023), each team in the Gold and Silver groups played each other team in the same group twice, home-and-away, for 18 games in total for each team. For the second part of the season (spring/summer 2024), groups were re-constituted. The Gold Group now includes top 6 first-stage Gold Group teams and top 4 first-stage Silver Group teams. Silver Group includes bottom 4 first-stage Gold Group teams, 5th and 6th-placed first-stage Silver Group teams and four winners of the Division B groups (FC Mashuk-KMV Pyatigorsk, FC Khimik Dzerzhinsk, FC Kaluga and FC Torpedo Miass). Bottom 4 first-stage Silver Group teams were relegated to Division B for 2024. The teams in re-constituted groups will play each other twice more for 18 more games. Top 2 Gold Group teams at the end of the season will be promoted to the Russian First League for the 2024–25 season.

The 3rd-placed second-stage Gold Group team played in promotion play-offs (two games, home-and-away). Their potential opponents were:

The 1st-placed first-stage Gold Group team (FC Krasnodar-2), unless Krasnodar-2 finished in the Top 2 or in the bottom 4 in the second stage (Krasnodar-2 finished in the bottom 4 in the second stage); otherwise
The 2nd-placed first-stage Gold Group team (FC Ufa), unless Ufa finished in the Top 2 or in the bottom 4 in the second stage (Ufa finished 1st in the second stage); otherwise
The 3rd-placed first-stage Gold Group team (FC Rotor Volgograd), unless Rotor Volgograd finished in the Top 2 or in the bottom 4 in the second stage.

The winner of those play-offs was also promoted to the Russian First League.^[3]

If none of the top-3 first-stage Gold Group teams qualified for the promotion play-offs under the conditions described above, the play-offs would not be held and the 3rd-place second-stage Gold Group team would be promoted to the Russian First League automatically.

The bottom four teams in the Gold Group at the end of the season were moved to Silver Group for the 2024–25 season, and the top four teams in the Silver Group were moved to Gold Group.^[4]

The rotation between Division A and Division B will be happening in the winter going forward, as Division B switched to spring-to-autumn, March-to-November cycle for their seasons. For example, in November 2024, bottom 2 teams of Division A Silver Group standings at the time would be relegated to 2025 Division B directly, 7th and 8th-placed teams in Division A Silver Group will play in relegation play-offs against the bottom two teams of the 2023–24 Division A Silver Group season, with 2 losers of the playoffs also relegated to Division B. Winners of the 2024 Division B groups will be promoted to Division A Silver Group at that time. Therefore, there was no relegation from Division A or promotion to it immediately at the end of the 2023–24 season.

First stage

Gold Group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Krasnodar-2	18	9	6	3	27	20	+7	33	Qualification for the Second Stage Gold Group
2	Ufa	18	9	4	5	23	10	+13	31
3	Rotor Volgograd	18	7	7	4	21	17	+4	28
4	Murom	18	6	6	6	24	26	−2	24
5	Veles Moscow	18	6	6	6	16	21	−5	24
6	Chayka Peschanokopskoye	18	6	5	7	23	21	+2	23
7	Volga Ulyanovsk	18	6	5	7	15	18	−3	23	Qualification for the Second Stage Silver Group
8	Irtysh Omsk	18	6	5	7	15	15	0	23
9	Dynamo Bryansk	18	6	4	8	18	22	−4	22
10	Spartak Kostroma	18	3	4	11	13	25	−12	13

Source: Second League Division A (in Russian), Soccerway

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[5]
1	Ilya Azyavin	Murom	9
2	Pavel Dolgov	Chayka Peschanokopskoye	7
2	Daniil Agureyev	Murom	7
4	Daniil Arsentyev	Rotor Volgograd	5
	Dmitry Kuptsov	Dynamo Bryansk
	Kamil Mullin	Krasnodar-2
	Migran Ageyan	Ufa
	Gevork Sarkisyan	Veles Moscow
	Andrei Razborov	Irtysh Omsk
	Danil Karpov	Krasnodar-2

Silver Group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Novosibirsk	18	10	5	3	22	13	+9	35	Qualification for the Second Stage Gold Group
2	Rodina-2 Moscow	18	9	5	4	17	13	+4	32
3	Metallurg Lipetsk	18	7	6	5	19	20	−1	27
4	Chelyabinsk	18	7	5	6	19	16	+3	26
5	Tekstilshchik Ivanovo	18	6	7	5	25	18	+7	25	Qualification for the Second Stage Silver Group
6	Avangard Kursk	18	7	4	7	27	19	+8	25	Qualification for the Second Stage Silver Group
7	Forte Taganrog	18	7	3	8	24	27	−3	24	Relegation to the 2024 Division B
8	Amkar Perm	18	6	6	6	19	17	+2	24
9	Chertanovo Moscow	18	5	7	6	21	18	+3	22
10	Salyut Belgorod	18	1	2	15	14	46	−32	5

Source: Second League Division A (in Russian), Soccerway

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[5]
1	Denis Syomin	Metallurg Lipetsk	7
	Dmitri Lavrishchev	Rotor Volgograd
	Yevgeny Mukhin	Rotor Volgograd
4	Aleksey Yevseyev	Tekstilshchik Ivanovo	6
4	Aleksei Skvortsov	Tekstilshchik Ivanovo	6
6	Artur Maksimchuk	Metallurg Lipetsk	5
6	Igor Gershun	Avangard Kursk	5
8	Artur Arustamyan	Metallurg Lipetsk	4
	Pyotr Volodkin	Forte Taganrog
	Pavel Popov	Chertanovo Moscow

Second stage

Gold Group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Ufa^[a] (P)	18	9	6	3	26	9	+17	33	Promotion to the Russian First League
2	Chayka Peschanokopskoye (P)	18	8	7	3	25	17	+8	31	Promotion to the Russian First League
3	Novosibirsk (Q)	18	6	9	3	18	13	+5	27	Qualification for the promotion play-offs
4	Chelyabinsk	18	6	7	5	23	19	+4	25^[b]
5	Rotor Volgograd^[c] (Q)	18	7	4	7	20	20	0	25^[b]	Qualification for the promotion play-offs
6	Veles Moscow	18	7	4	7	15	16	−1	25^[b]
7	Krasnodar-2 (Q)	18	5	6	7	15	24	−9	21	Qualification for the 2024–25 First Stage Silver Group
8	Rodina-2 Moscow (Q)	18	5	5	8	25	23	+2	20^[d]
9	Murom (Q)	18	5	5	8	20	27	−7	20^[d]
10	Metallurg Lipetsk (Q)	18	3	5	10	9	28	−19	14

Source: Second League Division A (in Russian), Soccerway
(P) Promoted; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated
Notes:

^ Ufa has been denied the 2024–25 First League license by the Russian Football Union initially, but received it on appeal on 4 June 2024.^[6]^[7]
^ ^a ^b ^c Points in head-to-head games: Chelyabinsk 7, Rotor Volgograd 6, Veles Moscow 3.
^ Since Krasnodar-2 (1st in the first stage) finished in bottom 4 in the second stage, and Ufa (2nd in the first stage), was directly promoted, the spot for promotion play-offs was given to 3rd team of the first stage, Rotor Volgograd.
^ ^a ^b Goals difference in head-to-head games: Rodina-2 5-2 Murom, Murom 1-0 Rodina-2

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[5]
1	Ilya Azyavin	Murom	10
2	Pavel Dolgov	Chayka Peschanokopskoye	9
3	Roman Pasevich	Ufa	6
4	Valery Gorbachik	Chelyabinsk	5
	Danila Shilov	Rodina-2 Moscow
	Aleksandr Konev	Novosibirsk
	Aleksandr Khokhlachyov	Chayka Peschanokopskoye
	Ramazan Gadzhimuradov	Rotor Volgograd
9	Valery Solomakha	Rodina-2 Moscow	4
9	Stanislav Biblyk	Chelyabinsk	4

Silver Group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Spartak Kostroma	18	10	5	3	24	9	+15	35	Qualification for the 2024–25 First Stage Gold Group
2	Tekstilshchik Ivanovo	18	6	10	2	17	13	+4	28
3	Kaluga	18	7	6	5	30	26	+4	27
4	Avangard Kursk	18	8	3	7	18	19	−1	27
5	Irtysh Omsk	18	6	8	4	18	16	+2	26
6	Volga Ulyanovsk	18	6	5	7	24	15	+9	23
7	Mashuk-KMV Pyatigorsk	18	6	4	8	14	20	−6	22
8	Khimik Dzerzhinsk	18	5	6	7	17	23	−6	21
9	Torpedo Miass	18	4	5	9	16	26	−10	17	Qualification for the 2024 relegation play-offs
10	Dynamo Bryansk	18	3	6	9	18	29	−11	15	Qualification for the 2024 relegation play-offs

Source: Second League Division A (in Russian), Soccerway

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[5]
1	Aleksei Skvortsov	Tekstilshchik Ivanovo	7
2	Dmitri Zakharov	Kaluga	6
	Vladislav Shpitalny	Torpedo Miass
	Vladislav Ignatenko	Avangard Kursk
	Timur Abdrashitov	Kaluga
6	Yevgeni Voronin	Volga Ulyanovsk	5
7	Ivan Kozlov	Kaluga	4
	Mikhail Markin	Spartak Kostroma
	Aleksandr Saplinov	Spartak Kostroma
	Anzor Khutov	Mashuk-KMV Pyatigorsk