The calendar was developed jointly with the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) for the second year in a row.

A specially developed algorithm was used to create the calendar, which takes into account various requirements and calculates calendar options using various mathematical methods.

The restrictions that had to be taken into account when developing the calendar include the participation of clubs in European competitions, weather conditions in different regions of Russia, and the broadcaster's wishes. In addition, the most important parameter is the balance of the calendar from a sporting point of view.

"Last season showed the effectiveness of the mathematical approach to creating a calendar, so we continued our cooperation with the HSE. The 2020/21 season will be held on a tight schedule and we had to take into account many factors to optimise the calendar. Many options were considered, and the most balanced one was chosen from the point of view of the teams, fans and broadcaster," said Yevgeny Savin, the competition director.

"Compared to the 2019/20 season, the search criteria for calendars have been refined. Now no team in the league will play more than two matches in a row against Category A clubs, and for participants in European qualifiers, it was possible to postpone key championship matches to another time. There are new conditions related to the competition being held more quickly; there will be more cold mathdays," said the Head of Laboratory Research Activities of the Faculty of Economics at HSE, Dmitry Dagaev.