1998 in Russian football was marked by Spartak Moscow's sixth national title.
Contents
National team
Russia national football team began their qualification for the Euro 2000.
Leagues
The Russian league system underwent reorganization for the 1998 season. The "leagues" were renamed "divisions". The Second Division was extended to six zones with 16-22 teams (compared to three zones of the Second League), while the Third League was abolished. These changes reduced the number of levels in Russian professional football to three.
First Division
Saturn won the First Division, winning their first promotion to the Top Division. Runners-up Lokomotiv Nizhny Novgorod made their return to the top flight.
1 Lada-Togliatti-VAZ were docked 6 points for not building pitch heating system
2 KAMAZ-Chally were docked 6 points for not paying transfer fee in time
Andradina of Arsenal became the top goalscorer with 27 goals.
Second Division
Of six clubs that finished first in their respective Second Division zones, five with the best records were promoted to the First Division, and one went to a promotion/relegation playoff.
The clubs promoted automatically were
Torpedo-ZIL won the play-off and were promoted to the First Division at the expense of Neftekhimik.
Cup
The Russian Cup was won by Spartak Moscow, who beat Lokomotiv Moscow 1–0 in the final.
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1997-98
Lokomotiv Moscow reached the semifinal of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1997-98. They eliminated AEK Athens in the quarterfinal but were stopped by VfB Stuttgart in the semifinal.
UEFA Cup 1997-98
Spartak Moscow reached the semifinal of the UEFA Cup 1997-98 after beating Ajax Amsterdam in both quarterfinal matches. However, in the semifinal Internazionale Milano F.C. won both matches against Spartak 2–1.
UEFA Intertoto Cup 1998
Two Russian clubs played in the UEFA Intertoto Cup 1998, both being eliminated in the third round. Baltika Kaliningrad recorded victories over PFC Spartak Varna and OD Trencin before facing FK Vojvodina, and Shinnik Yaroslavl, who had a bye to the second round, defeated Turun Palloseura before being knocked out by Valencia CF.
UEFA Champions League 1998-99
Spartak Moscow qualified for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League 1998-99 by defeating PFC Litex Lovech with an aggregate score of 11–2. Spartak finished third in Group C with Internazionale Milano F.C., Real Madrid, and SK Sturm Graz.
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1998-99
Lokomotiv Moscow began their way to the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1998-99 semifinal by eliminating Arsenal Kyiv and SC Braga in the first two rounds.
UEFA Cup 1998-99
Rotor Volgograd were eliminated after the second qualifying round of UEFA Cup 1998-99, losing twice to Red Star Belgrade. Dynamo Moscow were more successful, winning on aggregate against Polonia Warszawa in the second qualifying round and against Skonto FC in the first round. Their campaign ended after two losses to Real Sociedad in the second round.