On August 11, the Bureau of the Executive Committee of the Russian Football Union (RFU) approved the system for holding the Russian Cup in the 2022/23 season. The competition will be played using the Double Elimination system. This format is a tournament system with elimination after two defeats. The Russian Cup will consist of two stages: the first stage runs from August to December 2022 and consists of the “RPL path” and the “regions path”.
At the first stage, the RPL clubs were divided into four groups. Krasnodar, Lokomotiv Moscow, Pari Nizhny Novgorod and Khimki near Moscow will play in group A, Zenit St. Petersburg, Krylya Sovetov, Spartak and Fakel Voronezh will play in quartet B, in group C included Dynamo, Grozny Akhmat, Rostov and Orenburg, the quartet D – Sochi, CSKA, Yekaterinburg Ural and Torpedo. Only Spartak and Krylya Sovetov will play the match on August 30 in the first round, other matches will be held on August 31: Ural – Sochi (15:00 Moscow time), Khimki – Krasnodar (16:30 Moscow time) , Torpedo – CSKA (17:00 Moscow time), Pari NN – Lokomotiv (18:30 Moscow time), Zenit – Fakel (19:00 Moscow time), Akhmat – Orenburg ( 20:30 Moscow time), Rostov – Dynamo (21:00 Moscow time).
16 RPL clubs will play six matches in the group stage of the RPL path. The teams that take the first two places will go to the “RPL playoffs”, the teams that become third will go to the “playoffs of the path of the regions”, and the teams that occupy the fourth places will finish their performance in the tournament. The group round of the RPL path of the Russian Cup will end on November 19.
The matches of the first round of the “path of the regions” were held from 16 to 18 August. Teams play one relegation match, with a draw in regular time, a penalty shoot-out takes place. In total, six rounds will take place in the “path of regions”, four teams will advance to the playoffs. They will also play with four clubs that took third places in the groups of RPL teams for a ticket to the final.
The playoffs of the Russian Cup will start in February 2023. The final of the tournament is planned to be held on June 11.