The Cup was held in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, from February 2 to February 11, 2023. Four Russian teams took part in the competition: Spartak, Krasnodar, Sochi and Rostov. The organizers of the competition are the bookmaker Winline and the Russian Premier League.
At the 2023 RPL Winter Cup, an experiment was conducted with the work of referees. Teams could ask the referee to review a key episode once every half: a goal, a penalty, or a straight red card. The head referee explained the decisions in detail live on air.
The highlight of the Abu Dhabi tournament was the challenges. The participating teams competed in special contests with the techniques, in which the players showed their best qualities.
Goal-kicking accuracy competition (players received different numbers of points for hitting different goal zones), goalkeeping competition (goalkeepers tried to score into the opponent's goal with their hands or feet without crossing the middle of the field), pass accuracy (hitting different targets from the central circle), a competition for speed and technique, where the player must run through all obstacles with the ball, make passes with their teammates and score a goal to the opponent's goalkeeper.
FC Sochi's players Denis Adamov, Joaozinho and Zakhar Fedorov won the overall standings with 22 points.
In the meantime, in a more traditional format, a one—round tournament of four RPL teams, Spartak had no equal — they won with three victories and did not concede a single goal. The hero of the first match of the red and white was Alexander Selikhov, who deflected three penalties in the post-match series - from Golenkov, Poloz and Spartak's pupil Melnikov.
All matches of the new tournament were shown live on Match TV. The Sport Producers team was responsible for on-site TV production, the development and implementation of challenges, the production of all decorations, the branding of the stadium and the award ceremony.