Rodina Moskva

Fifth place in the First League had put them into the play-offs against Nizhny Novgorod, and the tie went badly at once: 3-0 down in the first leg, then a 2-0 win in the second that settled nothing.

The academy came first, and everything else followed from it. A private football school opened in 2007; in 2015 it was renamed Rodina and registered as a club. An adult team played one season of amateur football in 2016, then the club dropped it and went back to producing players. Only on 30 June 2019 did the board decide to build a professional side, which entered the Professional Football League's western group that autumn.

Promotion out of the third tier came in 2021/22, as winners of group 3. The First League title arrived in 2025/26 — the first time Rodina finished top of the second tier, and the first time the club will start a season in the Premier League.

The money behind all this belongs to Sergey Lomakin, co-founder of the Fix Price retail chain, who has funded the academy and the professional team since the club took its present name.

Home matches are played at Arena Khimki, a ground Rodina rent rather than own, north-west of the city beyond the Moscow ring road.