Scottish Premiership

The top flight of Scottish football has contained 12 clubs since the 2000–01 season, the longest period without change in the history of the Scottish football league system.[4] During this period the Scottish Premier League, and now the Scottish Premiership, has operated a "split" format. This is used to prevent the need for a 44-game schedule, based on playing each other four times. That format was used in the Scottish Premier Division in the mid-1980s and early 1990s but is now too high a number of games in a league season.

A season, which runs from August until May, is divided into two phases. During the first phase, each club plays three games against every other team, either once at home and twice away or vice versa. After this first phase of matches, by which time all clubs have played 33 games, the league splits into two halves - a 'top six' section and a 'bottom six' section. Each club proceeds to play a further five matches, one against each of the other five teams in their own section. Points achieved during the first phase of 33 matches are carried forward to the second phase, but the teams compete only within their own sections during the second phase. After the first phase is completed, clubs cannot move out of their own half in the league, even if they achieve more or fewer points than a higher or lower ranked team, respectively.

At the beginning of each season, the SPFL 'predicts' the likely positions of each club in order to produce a fixture schedule that ensures the best possible chance of all clubs playing each other twice at home and twice away. This is known as the league seeding and is based on clubs' performance in the previous season.[5] If the clubs do not finish in the half where they are predicted to finish, then anomalies can be created in the fixture list. Clubs sometimes play another three times at home and once away (or vice versa),[5][6] or a club can end up playing 20 home (or away) games in a season.[7]

The bottom placed Premiership club at the end of the season is relegated, and swaps places with the winner of the Scottish Championship, provided that the winner satisfies Premiership entry criteria. With the creation of the SPFL, promotion and relegation play-offs involving the top flight were introduced for the first time in seventeen years.[4][8] The Premiership club in eleventh place plays the Championship play-off winners over two legs, with the winner earning the right to play in the Scottish Premiership the following season.[9] This enables two clubs to be relegated from the Premiership each season, with two being promoted. Prior to the creation of the Scottish Premiership, only a single club could be relegated each season - with only the second tier champions being promoted. The Scottish Football League had used playoffs amongst its three divisions since 2007.[10]

UEFA country coefficient 2018–19

Rank	Association	Coefficient
18	Cyprus	24.925
19	Serbia	22.250
20	Scotland	22.125
21	Belarus	21.875
22	Sweden	20.900

UEFA grants European places to the Scottish Football Association, determined by the Scotland's position in the UEFA country coefficient rankings. The Scottish Football Association in turn allocate a number of these European places to final Scottish Premiership positions. At the end of the 2018–19 season, Scotland was ranked 20th in Europe – granting them a single side in the UEFA Champions League and three sides in the UEFA Europa League.

For the 2019–20 season, the top placed team in the Scottish Premiership gains qualification to the Champions League first qualifying round, whilst the second and third placed teams enter the Europa League at the first qualifying round stage.[11][12] An additional place in the Europa League first qualifying round is awarded to the winners of the Scottish Cup. Should the winners of that competition have already qualified for European competition, then the fourth placed team also enters the first qualifying round.

The 2017 'Global Sports Salaries Survey' report found a large variation between the wages offered by teams in the Scottish Premiership, with champions Celtic paying an average annual salary of £735,040, per player, whilst traditional rivals Rangers could only pay £329,600 and league runners-up Aberdeen offered £136,382.[13] The lowest salary offered by any of the twelve member clubs was Hamilton's £41,488 – 17 times less than Celtic, whose wages were close to the sum of the other eleven clubs combined.[13]

The report stated that this disparity was the third-greatest from the 18 leagues surveyed, and that the Scottish Premiership offered the third-lowest salaries of those leagues; by contrast, Celtic's opponents in the Champions League that year paid average wages of £6.5m (Paris Saint-Germain) and £5.2m (Bayern Munich), seven times higher than the Scottish club.[13]

As of 2020, Scotland's top-flight league championship has been won 54 times by Rangers and 51 times by Celtic. Nine other clubs have won the remaining 19 championships, with three clubs tied for third place with 4 apiece. The last time the championship was won by a club other than Rangers or Celtic was in 1984–85, by Aberdeen.

Biggest home win

Celtic 8–1 Hamilton Academical, 19 January 2016[27]

Biggest away win

Dundee 0–7 Aberdeen, 31 March 2017

Most goals in a game

Hibernian 5–5 Rangers, 13 May 2018

Most points in a season

106; Celtic, 2016–17[28]

Fewest points in a season

21; Dundee, 2018–19

Most wins in a season

34; Celtic, 2016–17[28]

Fewest wins in a season

5; Dundee, 2018–19[note 2]

Most draws in a season

15, Dundee, 2015–16

Fewest draws in a season

3, St Mirren, 2014–15

Most defeats in a season

27, Dundee, 2018–19

Fewest defeats in a season

0; Celtic, 2016–17[28]

Most goals scored in a season

106; Celtic, 2016–17[28]

Fewest goals scored in a season

28; Hamilton Academical, 2018–19[note 3]

Most goals conceded in a season

78, Dundee, 2018–19

Fewest goals conceded in a season

17; Celtic, 2014–15

Fastest goal

Kris Boyd, for Kilmarnock against Ross County, 10 seconds, 28 January 2017 [29]

Highest transfer fee paid

Odsonne Édouard, from Paris Saint-Germain to Celtic, £9 million, 15 June 2018[30]

Highest transfer fee received

Kieran Tierney, from Celtic to Arsenal, £25 million, 8 August 2019[31]

Most hat-tricks

Liam Boyce and Leigh Griffiths, 4 each

Youngest player

Dean Campbell, for Aberdeen v Celtic, 16 years and 54 days[32]

Youngest goalscorer

Jack Aitchison, for Celtic v Motherwell, 16 years and 71 days[33]

As of matches played on 5 February 2020

Leigh Griffiths, the Scottish Premiership's all-time top goalscorer

Scotland international Leigh Griffiths is the top goalscorer in the Scottish Premiership era with 80 goals, all for Celtic, followed by Aberdeen's Adam Rooney with 66. Kris Doolan, Kris Boyd and Liam Boyce are the only other players to reach 50 goals since the establishment of the Scottish Premiership.

Rank	Player	Club(s)[note 4]	Apps.	Goals
1	Leigh Griffiths[note 5]	Celtic (2014–)	146	80
2	Adam Rooney[note 5]	Aberdeen (2014–2018)	151	66
3	Kris Boyd[note 5]	Kilmarnock (2013–2014; 2015–2019)	145	55
4	Kris Doolan	Partick Thistle (2013–2018)	176	54
5	Liam Boyce	Ross County (2014–2017) Heart of Midlothian (2020–)	102	50
=	Billy Mckay[note 5]	Inverness Caledonian Thistle (2013–2015; 2016–2017) Dundee United (2015–2016) Ross County (2017–2018; 2019–)	150	50
7	Niall McGinn[note 5]	Aberdeen (2013–2017; 2018–)	204	49
8	Steve MacLean[note 5]	St Johnstone (2013–2018) Heart of Midlothian (2018–2020)	176	46
9	Alfredo Morelos	Rangers (2017–)	86	44
=	James Forrest[note 5]	Celtic (2013–)	174	44
=	Odsonne Édouard	Celtic (2017–)	76	44