2019–20 Scottish Premiership

The 2019–20 Scottish Premiership (known as the Ladbrokes Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the seventh season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 21 June 2019 and the season began on 3 August 2019.[4] Celtic were the defending champions.

Scottish Premiership
Season2019–20
Dates3 August 2019 – 8 March 2020
ChampionsCeltic
7th Premiership title
51st Scottish title
RelegatedHeart of Midlothian
Champions LeagueCeltic
Europa LeagueRangers
Motherwell
Aberdeen
Matches played179
Goals scored490 (2.74 per match)
Top goalscorerOdsonne Édouard
(22 goals)[1][2]
Biggest home winCeltic 7–0 St Johnstone[3]
(3 August 2019)
Biggest away winSt Johnstone 0–4 Rangers[3]
(22 September 2019)
Aberdeen 0–4 Celtic[3]
(27 October 2019)
Ross County 0–4 Rangers[3]
(30 October 2019)
Motherwell 0–4 Celtic[3]
(5 February 2020)
Highest scoringCeltic 7–0 St Johnstone[3]
(3 August 2019)
Motherwell 2–5 Celtic[3]
(10 August 2019)
Rangers 6–1 Hibernian[3]
(11 August 2019)
Heart of Midlothian 5–2 St Mirren[3]
(9 November 2019)
Longest winning run11 matches[3]
Celtic
Longest unbeaten run16 matches[3]
Rangers
Longest winless run11 matches[3]
Hamilton Academical
Longest losing run7 matches[3]
Kilmarnock
Highest attendance59,131[3]
Celtic 2–1 Aberdeen
(21 December 2019)
Lowest attendance1,075[3]
Hamilton Academical 2–1 Livingston
(28 September 2019)
Total attendance2,741,726[3]
Average attendance15,316[3](657)
All statistics correct as of 11 March 2020.

Twelve teams contested the league: Aberdeen, Celtic, Hamilton Academical, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Livingston, Motherwell, Rangers, Ross County, St Johnstone and St Mirren.

On 13 March 2020, the Scottish football season was suspended with immediate effect due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[5] The Premiership was curtailed on 18 May 2020, with average points per game used to determine final league positions. As a result, Celtic were awarded a ninth consecutive title, whilst Hearts were relegated to the Championship,[6] a decision which prompted the Edinburgh-based club to pursue ultimately unsuccessful legal action.[7]

Teams

The following teams have changed division since the 2018–19 season.

Promoted from Scottish Championship

Relegated to Scottish Championship

Stadia and locations
Aberdeen Celtic Hamilton Academical Heart of Midlothian
Pittodrie Stadium Celtic Park New Douglas Park Tynecastle Park
Capacity: 20,866[10] Capacity: 60,411[11] Capacity: 6,018[12] Capacity: 20,099[13]
Hibernian
Location of teams in 2019–20 Scottish Premiership
 Kilmarnock
Easter Road Rugby Park
Capacity: 20,421[14] Capacity: 17,889[15]
Livingston Motherwell
Almondvale Stadium Fir Park
Capacity: 9,512[16] Capacity: 13,677[17]
Rangers Ross County St Johnstone St Mirren
Ibrox Stadium Victoria Park McDiarmid Park St Mirren Park
Capacity: 50,817[18] Capacity: 6,541[19] Capacity: 10,696[20] Capacity: 7,937[21]

Personnel and kits
Team Manager Captain Kit manufacturer Shirt sponsor
Aberdeen Scotland Derek McInnes England Joe Lewis Adidas Saltire Energy
Celtic Northern Ireland Neil Lennon Scotland Scott Brown New Balance Dafabet
Hamilton Academical Scotland Brian Rice Scotland Brian Easton Adidas Euro Mechanical Handling
Heart of Midlothian Germany Daniel Stendel Scotland Steven Naismith Umbro Save the Children
Hibernian Scotland Jack Ross Scotland David Gray Macron Hibernian Community Foundation
Kilmarnock England Alex Dyer Republic of Ireland Gary Dicker Nike QTS
Livingston Scotland Gary Holt Scotland Alan Lithgow Nike Phoenix Drilling Ltd
Motherwell Northern Ireland Stephen Robinson England Peter Hartley Macron Paddy Power (unbranded)
Rangers England Steven Gerrard England James Tavernier Hummel 32Red
Ross County Scotland Steven Ferguson and Scotland Stuart Kettlewell Scotland Marcus Fraser Macron McEwan Fraser Legal
St Johnstone Scotland Alec Cleland (caretaker) Scotland Jason Kerr Macron Binn Group
St Mirren Republic of Ireland Jim Goodwin Scotland Stephen McGinn Joma Skyview Capital

Managerial changes
Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position in table Incoming manager Date of appointment
Kilmarnock Scotland Steve Clarke Signed by Scotland 20 May 2019[22] Pre-season Italy Angelo Alessio 16 June 2019[23]
Celtic Northern Ireland Neil Lennon End of interim spell 25 May 2019[24] Northern Ireland Neil Lennon 31 May 2019[25]
St Mirren Northern Ireland Oran Kearney Mutual consent 26 June 2019[26] Republic of Ireland Jim Goodwin 29 June 2019[27]
Heart of Midlothian Scotland Craig Levein Sacked 31 October 2019[28] 11th Germany Daniel Stendel 7 December 2019[29]
Hibernian England Paul Heckingbottom 4 November 2019[30] 10th Scotland Jack Ross 15 November 2019[31]
Kilmarnock Italy Angelo Alessio 17 December 2019[32] 5th England Alex Dyer 30 December 2019[33]
St Johnstone Northern Ireland Tommy Wright Resigned 2 May 2020[34] 7th Scotland Alec Cleland (caretaker) 2 May 2020[34]

Format

In the initial phase of the season, the 12 teams 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 were due be played (38 matches by each team).

League summary

League table
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts PPG Qualification or relegation[lower-alpha 1]
1 Celtic (C) 30 26 2 2 89 19 +70 80 2.67 Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2 Rangers 29 21 4 4 64 19 +45 67 2.31 Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round[lower-alpha 2]
3 Motherwell 30 14 4 12 41 38 +3 46 1.53 Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
4 Aberdeen 30 12 9 9 40 36 +4 45 1.50
5 Livingston 30 10 9 11 41 39 +2 39 1.30
6 St Johnstone 29 8 12 9 28 46 −18 36 1.24
7 Hibernian 30 9 10 11 42 49 −7 37 1.23
8 Kilmarnock 30 9 6 15 31 41 −10 33 1.10
9 St Mirren 30 7 8 15 24 41 −17 29 0.97
10 Ross County 30 7 8 15 29 60 −31 29 0.97
11 Hamilton Academical 30 6 9 15 30 50 −20 27 0.90
12 Heart of Midlothian (R) 30 4 11 15 31 52 −21 23 0.77 Relegation to the Championship
Source: BBC SPFL
Rules for classification: 1) Points per game; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-Head goal difference; 6) Play-off (only if deciding champion, UEFA competitions qualification, second stage group allocation or relegation).[36]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:
  1. All play-off matches were cancelled, as clubs voted to curtail the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[35]
  2. Since the 2019–20 Scottish Cup was postponed and could not be completed by the UEFA registration deadline of 3 August 2020, the spot awarded to the Scottish Cup winners (Europa League second qualifying round) was passed to the second-placed team, while the fourth-placed team also qualified for European competition.

Positions by round
Team ╲ Round123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930
Celtic111111121111111111111111111111
Rangers422222212222222222222222222222
Motherwell6106534333433444434333333344333
Aberdeen345443444544333343444444433444
Livingston783356667767887878675555555555
St Johnstone121110121112121212128111112121112101099988888886
Hibernian57799111110111198666666756666666667
Kilmarnock91212667775355555555567777777778
St Mirren1058101010101191012121210101299910101010101010101099
Ross County23487555667677878788889999991010
Hamilton Academical1169789888810910119101112111111111112111111111111
Heart of Midlothian891111128991091110991191011121212121211121212121212
Leader and Champions League first qualifying round
Europa League second qualifying round
Europa League first qualifying round
Relegated to the Championship
Source:

Results

Matches 1–22

Teams play each other twice, once at home and once away.

Home \ Away ABE CEL HAM HOM HIB KIL LIV MOT RAN ROS STJ STM
Aberdeen — 0–4 1–0 3–2 1–1 3–0 2–1 0–1 2–2 3–0 1–1 2–1
Celtic 2–1 — 2–1 3–1 2–0 3–1 4–0 2–0 1–2 6–0 7–0 2–0
Hamilton Academical 0–1 0–1 — 2–1 1–1 2–0 2–1 1–3 1–3 2–2 0–1 0–1
Heart of Midlothian 1–1 0–2 2–2 — 0–2 0–1 1–1 2–3 1–1 0–0 0–1 5–2
Hibernian 3–0 1–1 2–1 1–2 — 2–2 2–2 3–1 0–3 2–2 2–2 1–0
Kilmarnock 0–0 1–3 2–2 3–0 2–0 — 2–1 0–1 1–2 0–0 0–0 1–0
Livingston 0–2 2–0 0–0 0–0 2–0 3–0 — 0–0 0–2 4–0 1–0 2–1
Motherwell 0–3 2–5 1–2 1–0 3–0 2–1 2–1 — 0–2 1–2 4–0 2–0
Rangers 5–0 0–2 5–0 5–0 6–1 1–0 3–1 2–1 — 2–0 N/A 1–0
Ross County 1–3 1–4 3–0 0–0 2–1 1–0 1–4 1–2 0–4 — 2–2 2–1
St Johnstone 1–1 0–3 3–2 1–0 1–4 0–1 2–2 0–1 0–4 1–1 — 0–0
St Mirren 1–0 1–2 0–0 0–0 1–2 1–0 3–3 0–3 0–1 2–1 2–0 —
Source: SPFL
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 HAM HOM HIB KIL LIV MOT RAN ROS STJ STM
Aberdeen — 1–2 — N/A 3–1 — — — — 1–2 0–1 —
Celtic — — — 5–0 — 3–1 — — — 3–0 N/A 5–0
Hamilton Academical 1–3 1–4 — — N/A 1–0 2–4 0–0 — — — —
Heart of Midlothian — — 2–2 — — 2–3 — 1–1 2–1 N/A — —
Hibernian — N/A — 1–3 — — 1–1 — — 3–0 N/A 2–2
Kilmarnock 2–2 — — — 1–2 — N/A — 2–1 3–1 — N/A
Livingston N/A 2–2 — N/A — — — 1–0 — — — 2–1
Motherwell N/A 0–4 — — 0–0 N/A — — — 4–1 — 1–2
Rangers 0–0 N/A 0–1 — 2–1 — 1–0 N/A — — — —
Ross County — — N/A — — — 2–0 — 0–1 — 1–1 N/A
St Johnstone — — N/A 3–3 — 2–1 1–0 2–1 2–2 — — —
St Mirren 0–0 — 1–1 1–0 — — — — N/A — 0–0 —
Source: SPFL
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

It was intended that after 33 matches, the league would split 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 would be determined by the position of the teams in the league table at the time of the split. However, the season's premature finish, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meant that this split was never applied.

Season statistics

Top scorers

[1][2]

Rank Player Club Goals
1 France Odsonne Édouard Celtic 22
2 England Jermain Defoe Rangers 13
3 Wales Christian Doidge Hibernian 12
Colombia Alfredo Morelos Rangers
5 England Sam Cosgrove Aberdeen 11
Scotland Ryan Christie Celtic
7 Scotland James Forrest Celtic 10

Hat-tricks
Main article: List of Scottish Professional Football League hat-tricks § Scottish Premiership
Player For Against Score Date
Scotland Ryan Christie Celtic St Johnstone 7–0 (H) 3 August 2019
England Jermain Defoe Rangers Hibernian 6–1 (H) 11 August 2019
Hamilton Academical 5–0 (H) 6 October 2019
Wales Christian Doidge Hibernian St Johnstone 1–4 (A) 9 November 2019
Scotland Lyndon Dykes Livingston Ross County 4–0 (H) 21 December 2019
Scotland Leigh Griffiths Celtic St Mirren 5–0 (H) 7 March 2020

Attendances

These are the average attendances of the teams.

Pos Team Total High Low Average Change
1 Celtic 869,160 59,131 54,584 57,944 +0.3%†
2 Rangers 689,327 50,012 47,583 49,237 −0.7%†
3 Heart of Midlothian 251,262 19,313 14,681 16,750 −4.6%†
4 Hibernian 250,923 20,197 14,486 16,728 −5.7%†
5 Aberdeen 207,540 16,410 12,325 13,836 −7.3%†
6 Kilmarnock 87,844 9,196 4,083 5,856 −15.1%†
7 Motherwell 83,618 8,822 3,191 5,574 +2.3%†
8 St Mirren 80,647 7,332 4,240 5,376 +0.5%†
9 Ross County[lower-alpha 1] 65,302 6,575 3,301 4,664 +21.2%†
10 St Johnstone 65,461 8,743 2,231 4,091 +5.1%†
11 Livingston 49,598 8,640 1,076 3,542 −3.3%†
12 Hamilton Academical 41,044 5,300 1,075 2,565 −9.3%†
League total 2,741,726 59,131 1,075 15,316 −4.1%†

Source: [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]

  1. Club was playing in the Scottish Championship in the previous season.

Awards
Month Manager of the Month Player of the Month Ref.
Manager Club Player Club
August Northern Ireland Neil Lennon Celtic France Odsonne Édouard Celtic
September England Steven Gerrard Rangers Colombia Alfredo Morelos Rangers
October Italy Angelo Alessio Kilmarnock Norway Mohamed Elyounoussi Celtic
November Northern Ireland Neil Lennon Celtic Wales Christian Doidge Hibernian
December England Steven Gerrard Rangers Australia Martin Boyle Hibernian
January Scotland Gary Holt Livingston France Odsonne Édouard Celtic
February Northern Ireland Neil Lennon Celtic Northern Ireland Billy Mckay Ross County

Broadcasting

Live matches

The SPFL permits Sky Sports and BT Sport up to six live home matches between the broadcasters from each club - although this is only four for Rangers and Celtic. Sky Sports and BT Sport's deal allows them to broadcast 30 games each (and the play-offs for BT). The deal roughly provides £21m to SPFL per season.[49] This is the final season of the contract; from 2020–21, Sky Sports will have exclusive rights to Scottish Premiership matches.[50]

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 the 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. 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.

References
  1. "Scottish Premiership Top Scorers". BBC. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  2. "Scottish Premiership Scoring Stats - 2019-20". ESPN. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  3. "Scottish Premiership Performance Stats - 2019-20". ESPN. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  4. "Key dates for 2019/20". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  5. "Coronavirus joint response group update". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  6. "Celtic champions & Hearts relegated after SPFL ends season". BBC Sport. 18 May 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  7. Murray, Ewan (15 June 2020). "Hearts begin legal action against SPFL as Premiership relegation is confirmed". The Guardian.
  8. "Ross County 4–0 Queen of the South". BBC Sport. 26 April 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  9. "Dundee 0–1 Hamilton: Tony Andreu penalty sends Dundee down". BBC Sport. 4 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  10. "Aberdeen Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  11. "Celtic Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  12. "Hamilton Academical Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  13. McLean, David (21 June 2017). "Demolition of Tynecastle main stand nears completion". EEN. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  14. "Hibernian Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  15. "Kilmarnock Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  16. "Livingston Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  17. "Motherwell Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  18. "Rangers Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  19. "Ross County Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  20. "St Johnstone Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  21. "St Mirren Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  22. "Steve Clarke is named new Scotland manager". BBC. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  23. "Kilmarnock appoint Angelo Alessio as the club's new manager". BBC. 16 June 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  24. "Heart of Midlothian 1–2 Celtic". BBC. 25 May 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  25. "Celtic appoint Neil Lennon as manager for second time". BBC. 31 May 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  26. "Oran Kearney: St Mirren confirm manager's departure". BBC. 26 June 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  27. "St Mirren: Jim Goodwin appointed two days after Oran Kearney leaves". BBC. 29 June 2019. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  28. "Craig Levein: Hearts sack manager & director of football". BBC. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  29. "Hearts: Daniel Stendel 'can take club forward' after appointment". BBC. 7 December 2019. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  30. "Hibernian: Paul Heckingbottom sacked as head coach". BBC. 4 November 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  31. "Jack Ross: Hibernian appoint former Sunderland manager". BBC. 15 November 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  32. "Angelo Alessio: Italian sacked as Kilmarnock manager". BBC. 17 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  33. "Kilmarnock: Alex Dyer appointed manager until the end of the season". BBC. 30 December 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  34. "St Johnstone: Tommy Wright quits as manager after seven years". BBC. 2 May 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  35. "Dundee Utd, Raith & Cove win titles and reconstruction talks start after Dundee vote". BBC Sport. 15 April 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  36. "The Rules of the Scottish Professional Football League" (PDF). SPFL. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  37. "Aberdeen Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  38. "Celtic Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  39. "Hamilton Academical Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  40. "Heart of Midlothian Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  41. "Hibernian Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  42. "Kilmarnock Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  43. "Livingston Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  44. "Motherwell Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  45. "Rangers Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  46. "Ross County Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  47. "St Johnstone Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  48. "St Mirren Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  49. Kyle, Gregor (10 September 2015). "SPFL strike TV deal with Sky and BT for Premiership and Play Off coverage". dailyrecord. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  50. McLaughlin, Chris (19 November 2018). "Scottish Premiership: Matches to be shown live on Sky only as new £160m TV deal struck". BBC Sport. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
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