2020–21 Scottish Premiership

Scottish Premiership 2020-21
Season information
Dates	1 August 2020 – 16 May 2021
Winners	Rangers 1st Premiership title 55th Scottish title
Relegated	Kilmarnock Hamilton Academical
Domestic cup winners
Scottish Cup	St Johnstone
Scottish League Cup	St Johnstone
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	Rangers Celtic
Europa League	St Johnstone
Europa Conference League	Aberdeen Hibernian
Season statistics
Matches played	228
Goals scored	552
Top goalscorer	Odsonne Édouard (18 goals)
Biggest home win	Rangers 8–0 Hamilton Academical
Biggest away win	Ross County 0–5 Celtic
Highest scoring	Hamilton Academical 3–5 St Johnstone
← 2019–20	2021–22 →

The 2020–21 Scottish Premiership was the eighth season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 6 July 2020, with the season beginning on 1 August, following Scottish Government approval due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland. Celtic were the defending champions.

On 7 March, Rangers clinched the Premiership title, their 55th Scottish Championship, after Celtic drew 0–0 away to Dundee United with 6 games remaining. This is the earliest date the title has been won, with Rangers also completing an unbeaten season on 15 May 2021 after a 4–0 win against Aberdeen.

Twelve teams are contesting the league: Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee United, Hamilton Academical, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Livingston, Motherwell, Rangers, Ross County, St Johnstone and St Mirren.

Celtic were the defending champions, seeking a record-breaking |tenth successive title.

On 7 March, Rangers clinched the Premiership title, their 55th Scottish Championship, after Celtic drew 0–0 away to Dundee United with 6 games remaining.This is the earliest date the Premiership has been won, with Rangers also completing an unbeaten season on 15 May 2021 after a 4–0 win against Aberdeen.

Teams

The following teams have changed division since the 2019–20 season.

Promoted from Scottish Championship

• Dundee United

Relegated to Scottish Championship

• Heart of Midlothian

Stadia and locations

Aberdeen	Celtic	Dundee United	Hamilton Academical
Pittodrie Stadium	Celtic Park	Tannadice Park	New Douglas Park
Capacity: 20,866	Capacity: 60,411	Capacity: 14,223	Capacity: 6,018
Hibernian	Kilmarnock	Livingston	Motherwell
Easter Road	Rugby Park	Almondvale Stadium	Fir Park
Capacity: 20,421	Capacity: 17,889	Capacity: 9,512	Capacity: 13,677
Rangers	Ross County	St Johnstone	St Mirren
Ibrox Stadium	Victoria Park	McDiarmid Park	St Mirren Park
Capacity: 50,817	Capacity: 6,541	Capacity: 10,696	Capacity: 7,937

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Aberdeen	McInnes, DerekDerek McInnes	Lewis, JoeJoe Lewis	Adidas	Saltire Energy
Celtic	Lennon, NeilNeil Lennon	Brown, ScottScott Brown	Adidas	Dafabet
Dundee United	Mellon, MickyMicky Mellon	Reynolds, MarkMark Reynolds	Macron	Utilita
Hamilton Academical	Rice, BrianBrian Rice	Easton, BrianBrian Easton	Adidas	Euro Mechanical Handling
Hibernian	Ross, JackJack Ross	Gray, DavidDavid Gray	Macron	"Thank You NHS"
Kilmarnock	Dyer, AlexAlex Dyer	Dicker, GaryGary Dicker	Hummel	Brownings The Bakers
Livingston	Holt, GaryGary Holt	Lithgow, AlanAlan Lithgow	Nike	Phoenix Drilling Ltd
Motherwell	Robinson, StephenStephen Robinson	Gallagher, DeclanDeclan Gallagher	Macron	TBC
Rangers	Gerrard, StevenSteven Gerrard	Tavernier, JamesJames Tavernier	Castore	32Red
Ross County	Kettlewell, StuartStuart Kettlewell	Vigurs, IainIain Vigurs	Macron	Ross-shire Engineering
St Johnstone	Davidson, CallumCallum Davidson	Kerr, JasonJason Kerr	Macron	Binn Group
St Mirren	Goodwin, JimJim Goodwin	Magennis, KyleKyle Magennis	Joma	Skyview Capital

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Ross County	Steven Ferguson (co-manager)	Internal restructuring	10 June 2020	Pre-season	Stuart Kettlewell (manager)	10 June 2020
St Johnstone	Alec Cleland	End of caretaker spell	18 June 2020		Callum Davidson	18 June 2020
Dundee United	Robbie Neilson	Signed by Heart of Midlothian	21 June 2020		Micky Mellon	6 July 2020
Livingston	Gary Holt	Resigned	26 November 2020	10th	David Martindale	21 December 2020
Ross County	Stuart Kettlewell	Sacked	19 December 2020	12th	John Hughes	21 December 2020
Motherwell	Stephen Robinson	Resigned	31 December 2020	10th	Graham Alexander	7 January 2021
Kilmarnock	Alex Dyer	Mutual consent	30 January 2021	9th	Tommy Wright	8 February 2021
Celtic	Neil Lennon	Resigned	24 February 2021	2nd	John Kennedy (Interim)	24 February 2021
Aberdeen	Derek McInnes	Mutual consent	8 March 2021	4th	Stephen Glass	23 March 2021

Format

In the initial phase of the season, the 12 teams will play a round-robin tournament whereby each team plays each one of the other teams three times. After 33 games, the league splits into two sections of six teams, with each team playing each other in that section. The league attempts to balance the fixture list so that teams in the same section play each other twice at home and twice away, but sometimes this is impossible. A total of 228 matches will be played, with 38 matches played by each team.

League summary

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

After the 12 Premiership clubs were given permission to restart full-contact training by the Scottish Government from 29 June 2020, it was announced that an Aberdeen player had tested positive for COVID-19 two days later. The identity of the player was not disclosed but the club said that he was asymptomatic and self-isolating.

Nine days prior to the start of the season on 1 August, it was reported on 23 July that seven members of St Mirren's coaching staff had tested positive. As a result, a pre-season friendly between St Mirren and St Johnstone on 25 July was cancelled and Hamilton Academical, who had played St Mirren in a friendly on 18 July, confirmed that all of their players and coaching staff had subsequently tested negative. The following day, St Mirren announced that after the seven positive tests were retested, only one came back as positive with the other six negative.

On the opening day of the season Rangers defeated Aberdeen 1–0 at Pittodrie Stadium and after the game, eight members of the Aberdeen squad went out to a pub in the city. Later in the week, the pub was linked to an outbreak of COVID-19 in Aberdeen which led to a lockdown of the city. Two of the group subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 and the eight players were put into self-isolation. Initially, the Scottish Government said Aberdeen's match against St Johnstone, scheduled for 8 August, wouldn't be affected by the lockdown of the city but the match was postponed after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was "pretty furious" about the situation. Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes was critical of the group of players - namely Bruce Anderson, Craig Bryson, Sam Cosgrove, Michael Devlin, Jonny Hayes, Matty Kennedy, Dylan McGeouch and Scott McKenna - who apologised for a "huge error of judgement".

The following weekend, defending champions Celtic drew 1–1 with Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on 9 August. Defender Boli Bolingoli was in the Celtic match squad and came off the bench during the match, but was found to have travelled back from Spain a few days earlier – at that time, a 14-day quarantine was required for anyone travelling to Scotland from that country. Celtic manager Neil Lennon said Bolingoli "went rogue" and the club were unaware of his actions before it came to light on 10 August. Kilmarnock manager Alex Dyer revealed that Celtic had apologised for the situation. Bolingoli (who tested negative for the virus) was subsequently fined £480 by the police for his breach of quarantine rules.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned Scottish football clubs, players and authorities that the breaches of COVID-19 protocols set up to allow football to resume in Scotland had resulted in her giving the game a "yellow card" and that further breaches could lead to a pause in the football season. Aberdeen and Celtic's matches against Hamilton Academical and St Mirren respectively on 12 August were postponed as a result of the two incidents, as well as the Celtic vs. Aberdeen match on 15 August.

The Scottish Football Association (SFA) and Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) introduced new rules following the breaches of COVID-19 rules which meant Bolingoli and the "Aberdeen eight" were charged by both governing bodies. An SFA hearing was held on 28 August which resulted in a three-match ban with a further two-match ban suspended for Bolingoli. The "Aberdeen eight" were each given a three-match suspended ban. The suspended bans would be triggered if a player was again charged with "bringing the game into disrepute" before 28 February 2021.

Three fixtures (Kilmarnock v Motherwell, St Mirren v Motherwell and St Mirren v Hamilton) during the autumn were postponed after Kilmarnock and St Mirren told the SPFL that they could not fulfil them as scheduled due to COVID-19 outbreaks. The SPFL initially awarded 3–0 victories to their opponents; but that decision was overturned after an appeal to the Scottish Football Association.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Rangers  (C)	38	32	6	0	92	13	+79	102	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
2	Celtic	38	22	11	5	78	29	+49	77	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round
3	Hibernian	38	18	9	11	48	35	+13	63	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round
4	Aberdeen	38	15	11	12	36	38	−2	56
5	St Johnstone	38	11	12	15	36	46	−10	45
6	Livingston	38	12	9	17	42	54	−12	45
7	Motherwell	38	12	9	17	39	55	−16	45
8	St. Mirren	38	11	12	15	37	45	−8	45
9	Dundee United	38	10	14	14	32	50	−18	44
10	Ross County	38	11	6	21	35	66	−31	39
11	Kilmarnock  (R)	38	10	6	22	43	54	−11	36	Qualification to Play-offs
12	Hamilton Academical  (R)	38	7	10	21	34	67	−33	31	Relegation to the Championship

Source: BBC Sport
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

Premiership play-offs

The quarter-finals will be contested between the third and fourth placed teams in the Scottish Championship. The winners will advance to the semi-finals to face the second placed team in the Championship, and the winners of that tie will advance to the final to play-off against the 11th placed team in the Premiership, with the winners securing a place in the 2021–22 Scottish Premiership.

Quarter-final

First leg

4 May 2021	Dunfermline Athletic	0–0	Raith Rovers	Dunfermline
19:00		https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/56955749		Stadium: East End Park Attendance: 0 Referee: Steven Kirkland

Second leg

8 May 2021	Raith Rovers	2–0 (2–0 agg.)	Dunfermline Athletic	Kirkcaldy
15:00	Vaughan  64' Ugwu  89'	Report		Stadium: Stark's Park Attendance: 0 Referee: Greg Aitken

Semi-final

First leg

12 May 2021	Raith Rovers	0–3	Dundee	Kirkcaldy
19:45		Report	McGhee  22', 55' Sow  84'	Stadium: Stark's Park Attendance: 0 Referee: Nick Walsh

Second leg

15 May 2021	Dundee	0–1 (3–1 agg.)	Raith Rovers	Dundee
19:45		Report	Vaughan  21'	Stadium: Dens Park Attendance: 0 Referee: Don Robertson

Final

First leg

20 May 2021	Dundee	2–1	Kilmarnock	Dundee
20:15	McGhee  6' Adam  47'	Report	Haunstrup  77'	Stadium: Dens Park Attendance: 500 Referee: John Beaton

Second leg

24 May 2021	Kilmarnock	1–2 (2–4 agg.)	Dundee	Kilmarnock
19:45	Lafferty  69' (pen.)	Report	Mullen  7' Ashcroft  12'	Stadium: Rugby Park Attendance: 500 Referee: Bobby Madden

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

As of 16 May 2021

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Odsonne Édouard	Celtic	18
2	Kevin Nisbet	Hibernian	14
	Kemar Roofe	Rangers
4	Martin Boyle	Hibernian	12
	Alfredo Morelos	Rangers
	James Tavernier	Rangers
7	Devante Cole	Motherwell	11
8	Mohamed Elyounoussi	Celtic	10
	Ryan Kent	Rangers
	Jamie McGrath	St Mirren

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Score	Date
Odsonne Édouard	Celtic	Hamilton Academical	5–1 (H)	2 August 2020
Kevin Nisbet	Hibernian	Livingston	4–1 (A)	8 August 2020
Mohamed Elyounoussi	Celtic	Motherwell	4–1 (A)	8 November 2020
Kyle Lafferty	Kilmarnock	Dundee United	3–0 (H)	21 April 2021

Most assists

As of 16 May 2021

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Ianis Hagi	Rangers	11
2	Ryan Christie	Celtic	9
	Ryan Kent	Rangers
	James Tavernier	Rangers
5	Callum McGregor	Celtic	7
6	David Turnbull	Celtic	6
	Martin Boyle	Hibernian
	Borna Barišić	Rangers

Clean sheets

As of 16 May 2021

Rank	Player	Club	Clean Sheets
1	Joe Lewis	Aberdeen	17
	Allan McGregor	Rangers
3	Benjamin Siegrist	Dundee United	12
	Ofir Marciano	Hibernian
5	Jak Alnwick	St Mirren	10

Attendances

Games are mostly being played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Limited attendance is allowed at some grounds with strict conditions under the Scottish Government Tier system, dependent on the club's geographical location.

Broadcasting

Live matches (UK and Ireland)

This is the first season where Sky Sports has exclusive rights to Scottish Premiership matches The Broadcaster will show up to 48 matches, plus playoffs. The deal with Sky Sports will earn the SPFL £25m for season 2020-21. However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, clubs will stream matches (not broadcast on Sky) to fans on a Pay Per View or "Virtual Season ticket" basis whilst capacities in stadia are limited due to social distancing restrictions.

Highlights

Sky Sports hold the rights to Saturday night highlights - however, they do not broadcast a dedicated programme and instead merely show the goals of the Premiership matches on Sky Sports News in their Goals Express programme - which primarily is focused on goals from the English Football League.

Gaelic-language channel BBC Alba has rights to broadcast the repeat in full of 38 Saturday 3pm matches "as live" at 5.30pm.

The main Premiership highlights programme is BBC Scotland's Sportscene programme, which shows in-depth highlights of all six Premiership matches every weekend, and is usually broadcast on a Sunday evening.

The SPFL also uploads the goals from every Premiership match onto its YouTube channel - available from 6pm on a Sunday for UK and Ireland viewers and 10pm on a Saturday for those worldwide.

External links

• Official website

Football Seasons in Scotland

Football League

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Premier Division

Premier League

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