Youth Football League

Publication date: 20 Nov 2023

About the Youth Football League

The Youth Football League (YFL) is an annual football tournament in which youth teams of Russian Premier League (RPL) clubs and Junior Football League (JFL) teams take part. Athletes in this football league are aged from 19 to 21. This tournament is held in two rounds under the “each against each” system. The first eight place teams qualify for the play-offs, where they then compete for the championship. Russian Youth Football Cup is awarded to the winner of the YFL. The best players of the tournament receive individual awards.

YFL is one of the most significant events in the system of training young footballers in Russia. Further development of the tournament is expected in the future, improving its quality and raising interest in it from the fans.

YFL official website

YFL 2025

The Youth Football League (MFL) 2025 is a significant event in Russian football, providing a platform for young talents to showcase their skills. In this review, we will consider the key aspects of the tournament: dates and venues, participants and potential favorites.

The MFL 2025 season started on March 7 and will last until November 21, 2025. Matches are held at the stadiums of the participating teams throughout Russia, which allows fans from different regions to watch the games.

Format and participants

The tournament is attended by 32 clubs, divided into two divisions.

Division A: 13 youth teams of the Russian Premier League (RPL) clubs and three First League clubs.
Division B: youth teams of the First League clubs, participants of the federal Youth Football League (YFL) of the previous season, two representatives of the interregional YFL and the winner of the MFL North-West.

At the end of the season, there will be a rotation between the divisions: the two best teams in Division B will move up to Division A, replacing the teams that finished 15th and 16th. There will also be playoffs between the teams that finished 3rd and 4th in Division B and 13th and 14th in Division A.

Tournament Favorites

It is difficult to determine the favorites in advance, but based on previous seasons, several teams can be identified:

CSKA Youth: the current champion, demonstrating stable results.
Zenit Youth: a traditionally strong team with a developed youth system.
Spartak Youth: has a rich history and a talented roster.

However, youth tournaments often present surprises, and other teams can also show high results.

History of the Youth Football League creation

The YFL in Russia was created in 2008. Prior to that there was a tournament of the Premier League reserve teams, which was replaced by the YFL.

The first season of the RFPL reserve teams’ tournament was organized by the RPL and only from 2022 the tournament was taken over by the JFL.

2001-2007 – Premier League reserve teams’ tournament;
2008 – 2021 – Russian youth football championship;
2021/2022 Season – M-League;
2022/2023 Season – Youth Football League.

Many famous footballers started their careers in the YFL, including:

Aleksandr Golovin (CSKA)
Alexei Miranchuk (Lokomotiv)
Denis Cheryshev (Real Madrid)
Anton Zabolotny (Spartak)
Fyodor Smolov (Dynamo)

Winners of previous Youth Football League seasons

Year	Venue	Winning team
2024	Russia	1st place – CSKA 2nd place – Zenit 3rd place – Krasnodar
2023	Russia	1st place – Lokomotiv 2nd place – Zenit 3rd place – Rostov
2022/2023	Russia	1st place – Krasnodar 2nd place – Zenit 3rd place – CSKA