2021–22 Scottish Premiership

Scottish Premiership 2021-22
Season information
Dates	31 July 2021–15 May 2022
Winners	Celtic 8th Premiership title 52nd Scottish title
Relegated	Dundee
Domestic cup winners
Scottish Cup	Rangers
Scottish League Cup	Celtic
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	Celtic Rangers
Europa League	Heart of Midlothian
Europa Conference League	Dundee United Motherwell
Season statistics
Matches played	228
Goals scored	563
Average	2.51
Top goalscorer	Regan Charles-Cook Giorgos Giakoumakis (13 goals each)
Biggest home win	Celtic 7–0 St Johnstone (9 April 2022)
Biggest away win	Dundee 0–5 Ross County (27 October 2021) Motherwell 1–6 Rangers (31 October 2021)
Highest scoring	Motherwell 1–6 Rangers (31 October 2021) Hearts 5–2 Dundee United (6 November 2021) Celtic 7–0 St Johnstone (9 April 2022)
← 2020–21	2022–23 →

The 2021–22 Scottish Premiership (known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the ninth and current season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football, and the 125th edition overall of the top national league competition, not including one cancelled due to World War II. Rangers are the defending champions.

Twelve teams contest the league: Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee, Dundee United, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Livingston, Motherwell, Rangers, Ross County, St Johnstone and St Mirren.

The season began on 31 July 2021. In December, the Scottish Government imposed stadium capacity restrictions as part of its response to the new Omicron variant. As a result, the winter break was brought forward from 4 January to 27 December. The rule of five substitutions per match was also re-introduced (as used the previous season) after the winter break.

Teams

The following teams changed division after the 2020–21 season.

Promoted from the Championship

• Heart of Midlothian
• Dundee

Relegated to the Championship

• Hamilton Academical
• Kilmarnock

Stadia and locations

Aberdeen	Celtic	Dundee	Dundee United
Pittodrie Stadium	Celtic Park	Dens Park	Tannadice Park
Capacity: 20,866	Capacity: 60,411	Capacity: 11,775	Capacity: 14,223
Heart of Midlothian			Hibernian
Tynecastle Park			Easter Road
Capacity: 19,852			Capacity: 20,421
Livingston			Motherwell
Almondvale Stadium			Fir Park
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	Glass, StephenStephen Glass	Lewis, JoeJoe Lewis	Adidas	Saltire Energy
Celtic	Postecoglou, AngeAnge Postecoglou	McGregor, CallumCallum McGregor	Adidas	Dafabet
Dundee	McPake, JamesJames McPake	Adam, CharlieCharlie Adam	Macron	Crown Engineering Services
Dundee United	Mellon, MickyMicky Mellon	Reynolds, MarkMark Reynolds	Macron	Utilita
Heart of Midlothian	Neilson, RobbieRobbie Neilson	Naismith, StevenSteven Naismith	Umbro	Save the Children
Hibernian	Ross, JackJack Ross	Gray, DavidDavid Gray	Joma	"Thank You NHS"
Livingston	Martindale, DavidDavid Martindale	Bartley, MarvinMarvin Bartley	Nike	Phoenix Drilling Ltd
Motherwell	Alexander, GrahamGraham Alexander	O'Donnell, StephenStephen O'Donnell	Macron	Paycare
Rangers	Gerrard, StevenSteven Gerrard	Tavernier, JamesJames Tavernier	Castore	32Red
Ross County	Mackay, MalkyMalky Mackay	Watson, KeithKeith Watson	Joma	Ross-shire Engineering
St Johnstone	Davidson, CallumCallum Davidson	Kerr, JasonJason Kerr	Macron	Binn Group
St Mirren	Goodwin, JimJim Goodwin	Shaughnessy, JoeJoe Shaughnessy	Joma	Skyview Capital

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Celtic	John Kennedy	End of interim spell	15 May 2021	Pre-season	Ange Postecoglou	10 June 2021
Ross County	John Hughes	End of contract	24 May 2021		Malky Mackay	26 May 2021
Dundee United	Micky Mellon	Mutual consent	25 May 2021		Tam Courts	7 June 2021
Rangers	Steven Gerrard	Signed by Aston Villa	11 November 2021	1st	Giovanni van Bronckhorst	18 November 2021
Hibernian	Jack Ross	Sacked	9 December 2021	7th	Shaun Maloney	20 December 2021
Aberdeen	Stephen Glass	13 February 2022	9th	Jim Goodwin	19 February 2022
Dundee	James McPake	16 February 2022	11th	Mark McGhee	17 February 2022
St Mirren	Jim Goodwin	Signed by Aberdeen	19 February 2022	6th	Stephen Robinson	22 February 2022
Hibernian	Shaun Maloney	Sacked	19 April 2022	7th	David Gray (caretaker)	19 April 2022

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

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Celtic  (C)	38	29	6	3	92	22	+70	93	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
2	Rangers	38	27	8	3	80	31	+49	89	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round
3	Heart of Midlothian	38	17	10	11	54	44	+10	61	Qualification for the Europa Conference League third qualifying round
4	Dundee United	38	12	12	14	37	44	−7	48	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round
5	Motherwell	38	12	10	16	42	61	−19	46	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round
6	Ross County	38	10	11	17	47	61	−14	41
7	Livingston	38	13	10	15	41	46	−5	49
8	Hibernian	38	11	12	15	38	42	−4	45
9	St. Mirren	38	10	14	14	33	51	−18	44
10	Aberdeen	38	10	11	17	41	46	−5	41
11	St Johnstone  (O)	38	8	11	19	24	51	−27	35	Qualification to Play-offs
12	Dundee  (R)	38	6	11	21	34	64	−30	29	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

Results

Matches 1–22 Teams play each other twice, once at home and once away. Home \ Away ABE CEL DND DUN HOM HIB LIV MOT RAN ROS STJ STM Aberdeen — 1–2 2–1 2–0 2–1 1–0 2–0 0–2 1–1 1–1 0–1 4–1 Celtic 2–1 — 6–0 1–1 1–0 2–0 0–0 1–0 3–0 3–0 2–0 6–0 Dundee 2–1 2–4 — 0–0 0–1 2–2 0–0 3–0 0–1 0–5 1–0 2–2 Dundee United 1–0 0–3 1–0 — 0–2 1–3 0–1 2–1 1–0 1–0 0–1 1–2 Heart of Midlothian 1–1 2–1 1–1 5–2 — 0–0 3–0 2–0 0–2 2–1 2–0 2–0 Hibernian 1–0 1–3 1–0 0–3 0–0 — 2–0 1–1 0–1 3–0 1–0 2–2 Livingston 1–2 1–0 2–0 1–1 0–1 1–0 — 1–2 1–3 1–1 1–2 0–1 Motherwell 2–0 0–2 1–0 1–0 2–0 2–3 2–1 — 1–6 2–1 2–0 2–2 Rangers 2–2 1–0 3–0 1–0 1–1 2–1 3–0 1–1 — 4–2 2–0 2–0 Ross County 1–1 1–2 3–2 1–1 2–2 1–0 2–3 3–1 2–4 — 0–0 2–3 St Johnstone 0–1 1–3 3–1 0–1 1–1 1–2 0–3 1–1 1–2 1–2 — 0–0 St Mirren 3–2 0–0 0–1 0–0 1–2 1–1 1–1 1–1 1–2 0–0 0–0 — Source: BBC Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Matches 23–33 Teams play each other once, either home or away. Home \ Away ABE CEL DND DUN HOM HIB LIV MOT RAN ROS STJ STM Aberdeen — 2–3 — 1–1 — 3–1 — — — 0–1 1–1 — Celtic — — 3–2 1–0 — — — — — 4–0 7–0 2–0 Dundee 2–2 — — — — 0–0 0–4 — 1–2 1–2 — 0–1 Dundee United — — 2–2 — 2–2 — — 2–0 1–1 2–1 — — Heart of Midlothian 2–0 1–2 1–2 — — 3–1 2–0 2–0 — — — — Hibernian — 0–0 — 1–1 — — 2–3 — — 2–0 0–0 0–1 Livingston 2–1 1–3 — 2–1 — — — 2–2 — — — 1–1 Motherwell 1–1 0–4 1–1 — — 0–0 — — — 0–1 — 4–2 Rangers 1–0 1–2 — — 5–0 2–0 1–0 2–2 — — — — Ross County — — — — 1–1 — 1–1 — 3–3 — 3–1 1–0 St Johnstone — — 0–0 0–0 2–1 — 1–0 2–1 0–1 — — — St Mirren 1–0 — — 1–2 0–2 — — — 0–4 — 2–1 — Source: BBC Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Matches 34–38

After 33 matches, the league splits into two sections of six teams i.e. the top six and the bottom six, with the teams playing every other team in their section once (either at home or away). The exact matches are determined by the position of the teams in the league table at the time of the split.

Top six Home \ Away CEL DUN HOM MOT RAN ROS Celtic — — 4–1 6–0 1–1 — Dundee United 1–1 — 2–3 1–0 — — Heart of Midlothian — — — — 1–3 0–0 Motherwell — — 2–1 — 1–3 — Rangers — 2–0 — — — 4–1 Ross County 0–2 1–2 — 0–1 — — Source: BBC Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Bottom six Home \ Away ABE DND HIB LIV STJ STM Aberdeen — 1–0 — 1–2 — 15 May Dundee — — 3–1 — 1–1 — Hibernian 1–1 — — — 15 May — Livingston — 15 May 1–0 — 1–1 — St Johnstone 1–0 — — — — 0–1 St Mirren — 2–0 0–1 0–0 — — Updated to match(es) played on 14 May 2022. Source: BBC Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Premiership play-offs

The quarter-finals will be contested by the teams placed third and fourth in the Scottish Championship. The winners will advance to the semi-finals to face the team placed second in the Championship. The final will be contested by the semi-final winners and the team placed eleventh in the Premiership, with the winners securing a place in the 2022–23 Scottish Premiership.

Quarter-finals

First leg

3 May 2022	Partick Thistle	1–2	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	Glasgow
19:05	Crawford  54'	Report	Sutherland  71' Samuels  82'	Stadium: Firhill Stadium Attendance: 2,919 Referee: Steven McLean

Second leg

6 May 2022	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	1–0 (3–1 agg.)	Partick Thistle	Inverness
19:45	Samuels  29'	Report		Stadium: Caledonian Stadium Attendance: 2,470 Referee: Kevin Clancy

Semi-finals

First leg

10 May 2022	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	0–0	Arbroath	Inverness
19:05		Report		Stadium: Caledonian Stadium Attendance: 2,201 Referee: Euan Anderson

Second leg

13 May 2022	Arbroath	0–0 (0–0 agg.) (3–5 pen)	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	Arbroath
19:45		Report		Stadium: Gayfield Park Attendance: 5,154 Referee: Willie Collum
	Penalties
	McKenna Low Colin Hamilton Linn		McKay Hardy Welsh Harper Broadfoot

Final

First leg

20 May 2022	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	2–2	St Johnstone	Inverness
19:45	McAlear  73', 80'	Report	Rooney  18' Hallberg  24'	Stadium: Caledonian Stadium Attendance: 4,811 Referee: Bobby Madden

Second leg

23 May 2022	St Johnstone	4– (6–2 agg.)	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	Perth
19:45	May  46' MacPherson  53' Hendry  87' Rooney  90'	Report		Stadium: McDiarmid Park Attendance: 7,355 Referee: Nick Walsh

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Giorgos Giakoumakis	Celtic	13
	Regan Charles-Cook	Ross County
2	Kyogo Furuhashi	Celtic	12
4	Lewis Ferguson	Aberdeen	11
	Bruce Anderson	Livingston
	Alfredo Morelos	Rangers
5	Christian Ramirez	Aberdeen	10
	Liel Abada	Celtic
	Jota	Celtic
	Liam Boyce	Heart of Midlothian
	Tony Watt	Motherwell, Dundee United
	Kemar Roofe	Rangers

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Score	Date
Kyogo Furuhashi	Celtic	Dundee	6–0 (H)	8 August 2021
David Turnbull	Celtic	St Mirren	6–0 (H)	21 August 2021
Fashion Sakala	Rangers	Motherwell	1–6 (A)	31 October 2021
Giorgos Giakoumakis	Celtic	Dundee	3–2 (H)	20 February 2022
Giorgos Giakoumakis	Celtic	Ross County	4–0 (H)	19 March 2022
Kemar Roofe	Rangers	St Mirren	0–4 (A)	10 April 2022

Most assists

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	James Tavernier	Rangers	13
2	Jota	Celtic	10
	Barrie McKay	Heart of Midlothian
4	Anthony Ralston	Celtic	9
5	Ryan Kent	Rangers	8
6	Paul McMullan	Dundee	7
	Alfredo Morelos	Rangers

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean Sheets
1	Joe Hart	Celtic	19
2	Craig Gordon	Heart of Midlothian	14
3	Allan McGregor	Rangers	12
4	Matt Macey	Hibernian	10
	Zander Clark	St Johnstone
	Jak Alnwick	St Mirren
5	Benjamin Siegrist	Dundee United	9

External links

• Official website

Football Seasons in Scotland

Football League

Division One

Premier Division

Premier League

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