Scottish Premiership

The Scottish Premiership (also known as the William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is the top tier of Scottish football. While it is best known for being home to the iconic Glasgow-based clubs Celtic and Rangers, the league also features many proud and historic football teams including Heart of Midlothian, Aberdeen, and Hibernian.

📜 Scottish Premiership History

The Scottish Premiership was established in 2013, after the Scottish Premier League (SPL) remerged with the Scottish Football League (SFL). The SPL had broken away from the SFL in 1998, following in the footsteps of the English Premier League which had made a similar move in 1992.

Clubs in both bodies voted in favour of the merger – and a more equitable distribution of income throughout the pyramid – resulting in the formation of the Scottish Professional Football League, of which the newly renamed Scottish Premiership became the top flight.

With Rangers relegated to the 4th tier of Scottish football in 2012 following the club’s liquidation, their bitter rivals Celtic have enjoyed a dominant spell for much of the Scottish Premiership’s existence, even after Rangers returned to the top flight in 2016.

💯 Scottish Premiership Format & Scoring

Seasons typically run from July or August through to May. There are 12 teams in the league, each playing a total of 38 matches across the season. Each team plays every opponent 3 times – at least once at home – until every club has played a total of 33 games. For the remaining 5 matches of the campaign, the league is split in half based on the standings and teams will only face the opponents in their half, once apiece. A team in the bottom half cannot move into the top half after the split is made, even if they finish the campaign on more points than a team in the top half.

The team that tops the standings at the end of the season are crowned champions, while the bottom team is relegated from the division and replaced with a promoted team for the following campaign. The team who finishes 2nd from bottom will play a team from the Scottish Championship in the Premiership play-off final for the right to remain in the top flight. The top 2 clubs qualify for the UEFA Champions League, while UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League positions are also up for grabs.

The league operates using the standard system of 3 points awarded for a win, 1 for a draw, and 0 for a defeat. Teams are ranked on points, with goal difference and then goals scored used as tiebreakers.