Moscow, Russia, July 2, 2020 – Russian Superliga 2020-2021 will feature 14 teams in each gender, according to a recent decision by the national federation, which finalised the format of the upcoming season.
With the previous season prematurely interrupted because of the coronavirus outbreak, no teams were officially relegated or promoted. However, the bottom-placed team of Nova Novokuybyshevsk withdrew from the men’s Superliga for financial reasons and will be replaced by Neftyanik Orenburg. Neftyanik finished second in the second-division national league.
A home-and-away regular season is set to take place from September 26, 2020 through March 14, 2021. The top two teams will advance directly to the Final Six tournament from April 5 through 10, while the remaining four spots will be contested in a playoff round by the teams placed from third to tenth.
The first two rounds of the Russia Cup are scheduled to take place in September; the semifinal stage from November 5 - 8, and the Final Four tournament will determine the winners on December 25 and 26.
There was one withdrawal on the women’s side as well. Sixth-placed Sakhalin Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk dropped out of the 2020-2021 Superliga to be replaced by as many as three newcomers to up the total number of top-tier teams to 14. After taking the top three positions in the final standings of the second-division league, the teams of Lipetsk, Tulitsa Tula and Sparta Nizhny Novgorod, in that order, will compete at the highest national level next season. For Sparta this will be the first ever appearance in the Superliga.
In 2020-2021, the women’s Superliga will resemble the men’s league not only by the number of participants, but also by the formula of the competition. The home-and-away regular season is scheduled to be played from September 19 through March 6, while the Final Six tournament will be held from March 29 through April 3.
Following a first round in September and a semifinal round in November, the Final Four tournament of the women’s Russia Cup is set to take place on December 19 and 20, with Dinamo Moscow’s new home arena as the venue.
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