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Scottish Premiership
Scottish Premiership
Country Scotland Scotland
Confederation UEFA
Founded 2013
Number of teams 12
Relegation to Scottish Championship
Levels on pyramid 1
Domestic cup(s) Scottish Cup, Scottish League Cup
UEFA cup(s) UEFA Champions League
UEFA Europa League
UEFA Europa Conference League
Current champions Celtic (10th title) (2023-24)
Most successful club Celtic (10 titles)
TV Sky Sports
BT Sport
BBC Scotland
Website Official website
Football current event 2024–25

The Scottish Premiership, known for sponsorship reasons as the Ladbrokes Premiership, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish Premiership was established in July 2013, after the Scottish Professional Football League was formed by a merger of the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League.

Competition format[]

Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then goal difference, and then goals scored. At the end of each season, the club with the most points is crowned league champion. If points are equal, the goal difference and then goals scored determine the winner.

Split[]

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. During this period the SPL and now the SPFL have operated a "split" format. This is done 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, but is now considered to be 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 a 'top six' and a 'bottom six'. Each club then plays 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 section 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 previous years. If a club does not finish in the half where it is predicted to finish, it faces the possibility of playing an unequal number of home and away games. For example, one club sometimes plays another three times at home and once away.

Promotion and relegation[]

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 17 years. That now means the Premiership club in 11th place face the Championship play-off winners over two legs. The winner of those play-offs will earn the right to play in the Scottish Premiership the following season along with the winners of the Scottish Championship. The Scottish Football League had used playoffs between its three divisions since 2007.

European qualification[]

Clubs finishing in the top positions of the Premiership will gain qualification to compete in one of UEFA's European competitions. UEFA grants European places to the Scottish Football Association, determined by the Scotland's position in the UEFA coefficients ranking system. The Scottish Football Association in turn allocate a number of these European places to final Scottish Premiership positions.

Currently, the top placed team in the Scottish Premiership gains qualification to the UEFA Champions League qualifying round 2, whilst the second and third placed teams gain qualification to the UEFA Europa League at qualifying round 2 and qualifying round 1, respectively.

Personnel and kits (2018–19)[]

Team Manager Captain Kit manufacturer Shirt sponsor
Aberdeen Flag of Scotland McInnes, DerekDerek McInnes Flag of Scotland Shinnie, GraemeGraeme Shinnie Adidas Saltire Energy
Celtic Flag of Northern Ireland Rodgers, BrendanBrendan Rodgers Flag of Scotland Brown, ScottScott Brown New Balance Dafabet
Dundee Flag of Scotland McCann, NeilNeil McCann Flag of Republic of Ireland O'Dea, DarrenDarren O'Dea Puma McEwan Fraser Legal
Hamilton Academical Flag of Scotland Canning, MartinMartin Canning Flag of Scotland Imrie, DougieDougie Imrie Adidas SuperSeal (H), NetBet (A)
Heart of Midlothian Flag of Scotland Levein, CraigCraig Levein Flag of Scotland Berra, ChristopheChristophe Berra Umbro Save the Children
Hibernian Flag of Northern Ireland Neil Lennon Flag of Scotland David Gray Macron Marathonbet
Kilmarnock Flag of Scotland Clarke, SteveSteve Clarke Flag of Scotland Smith, StevenSteven Smith Nike QTS
Livingston Flag of Scotland Hopkin, DavidDavid Hopkin Flag of Scotland Halkett, CraigCraig Halkett FBT Tony Macaroni
Motherwell Flag of Northern Ireland Robinson, SteveSteve Robinson Flag of Republic of Ireland McHugh, CarlCarl McHugh Macron McEwan Fraser Legal
Rangers Flag of England Gerrard, StevenSteven Gerrard Flag of Scotland Wallace, LeeLee Wallace Hummel 32Red
St Johnstone Flag of Northern Ireland Wright, TommyTommy Wright Flag of Scotland Anderson, StevenSteven Anderson Joma Alan Storrar Cars
St Mirren Flag of Scotland Ross, JackJack Ross Flag of Scotland McGinn, StephenStephen McGinn Joma Skyview Capital

Stadiums[]

See also Scottish stadiums
Aberdeen Celtic Dundee Hamilton Academical Heart of Midlothian Hibernian
Pittodrie Stadium Celtic Park Dens Park New Douglas Park Tynecastle Stadium Easter Road
Capacity: 20,866 Capacity: 60,411 Capacity: 11,775 Capacity: 6,018 Capacity: 19,852 Capacity: 20,421
Inside Pittodrie Stadium. - geograph.org.uk - 109557 Celtic Park3 Dens stand New Douglas Park - 1 Tynecastle Stadium 2007 Easter Road
Kilmarnock Motherwell Partick Thistle Rangers Ross County St Johnstone
Rugby Park Fir Park Firhill Stadium Ibrox Stadium Victoria Park McDiarmid Park
Capacity: 15,003 Capacity: 13,677 Capacity: 10,102 Capacity: 50,817 Capacity: 6,541 Capacity: 10,696
Rugby Park Fir Park JHS@Firhill Ibrox Inside Victoria park 2 McDiarmid Park

External links[]

Scottish Premiership 2024-25
Aberdeen · Celtic · Dundee · Dundee United · Heart of Midlothian · Hibernian · Kilmarnock · Motherwell · Rangers · Ross County · St Johnstone · St Mirren
Football Seasons in Scotland
Football League
Division One
Premier Division
Premier League
2010–11 · 2011–12 · 2012–13
Premiership
2013–14 · 2014–15 · 2015–16 · 2016–17 · 2017–18 · 2018–19 · 2019–20 · 2020–21 · 2021–22 · 2022–23 · 2023–24 · 2024–25 ·
Scottish Premiership stadiums 2023–24

Celtic Park · Dens Park · Easter Road · Fir Park · Ibrox Stadium · McDiarmid Park · Pittodrie Stadium · Rugby Park · St Mirren Park · Tannadice Park · Tynecastle Park · Victoria Park

Football in Scotland
League competitions The SFA Cup competitions
Scottish Premiership Scotland (B) (C) Scottish Cup
Scottish Football League (U-21) (U-20) Scottish League Cup
(Championship, League 1, League 2) (U-19) (U-17) Scottish Challenge Cup
Scottish Non-League List of clubs
(East of Scotland · South of Scotland · Highland · Lowland) List of stadiums
SJFA West · SJFA East · SJFA North (by capacity)
List of leagues
Scotland National Team Logo
Flag of Scotland Scotland
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