FC Akron Tolyatti

In June 2019, it was confirmed that the club will enter the Russian Professional Football League in the 2019–20 season. On 15 May 2020, the 2019–20 PFL season was abandoned due to COVID-19 pandemic in Russia. As Akron was leading in their PFL zone at the time, they were promoted to the second-tier FNL for the 2020–21 season. Akron finished their first FNL season in 17th place, which would normally mean relegation. On 15 May 2021, FNL confirmed that FC Tambov, which placed last in the Premier League and was expected to be relegated to FNL, did not apply for the FNL license for the 2021–22 season and therefore Akron would not be relegated. In June 2022, Akron became the backer of Konoplyov football academy. In the 2022–23 season, Akron had an impressive run in the Russian Cup. Here, they consecutively eliminated four Moscow-based Russian Premier League clubs (Torpedo, Lokomotiv, Dynamo and Spartak, including two penalty-shoots) and reached the Regions Path final of the competition, where they lost, also in a shootout, to FC Krasnodar. The cup competition structure was changed to double-elimination for RPL teams that season as Russia was banned from the European competitions due to the Russo-Ukrainian War, in the traditional cup structure, eliminating four RPL teams would have been sufficient for Akron to qualify for the final. In the 2023–24 season, Akron qualified for the Russian Premier League promotion play-offs. They defeated Ural Yekaterinburg 3–2 on aggregate and…