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, that is, split in two phases as is explained below. 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 it 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 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 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,[3] 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 play-offs amongst its three divisions since 2007.[10]

UEFA country coefficient 2017–22

Rank	Association	Coefficient
7	The Netherlands	49.300
8	Austria	38.850
9	Scotland	36.900
10	Russia	34.482
11	Serbia	33.375

UEFA grants European places to the Scottish Football Association, determined by Scotland's position in the UEFA country coefficient rankings. The Scottish Football Association in turn allocates a number of these European places to final Scottish Premiership positions. At the end of the 2020–21 season, Scotland was ranked 11th in Europe – granting them two teams in the UEFA Champions League, one team in the UEFA Europa League, and two teams in the UEFA Europa Conference League.

At the end of the 2021–22 season, the Scottish Premiership winners (Celtic) gained qualification to the Champions League group stage, whilst the second placed team (Rangers) entered at the third qualifying round. The third placed team (Heart of Midlothian) entered the Europa League in the playoff round, while the fourth (Dundee United) and fifth (Motherwell) placed teams entered the Europa Conference League in the third and second qualifying rounds respectively.

Scotland's place in the Europa League is awarded to the winners of the Scottish Cup. Should the winners of that competition have already qualified for European competition, then the fifth placed team also enters the Europa Conference League second qualifying round, while third placed team (unless they are cup winners themselves) are promoted from Europa Conference League to the Europa League third 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.[11] The lowest salary offered by any of the twelve member clubs was Hamilton's £41,488 – one seventeenth that of Celtic, whose wages were close to the sum of the other eleven clubs combined.[11]

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.[11]

As of 2023, Scotland's top-flight league championship has been won 55 times by Rangers, 53 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

Rangers 8–0 Hamilton Academical, 8 November 2020[25]

Biggest away win

Dundee United 0–9 Celtic, 28 August 2022

Most goals in a game

Hibernian 5–5 Rangers, 13 May 2018

Most points in a season

106; Celtic, 2016–17[26]

Fewest points in a season

21; Dundee, 2018–19

Most wins in a season

34; Celtic, 2016–17[26]

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; Celtic, 2022–23; Aberdeen, 2022–23

Most defeats in a season

27; Dundee, 2018–19

Fewest defeats in a season

0; Celtic, 2016–17;[26] Rangers, 2020–21[27]

Most goals scored in a season

114; Celtic, 2022–23

Fewest goals scored in a season

24; St Johnstone, 2021–22[note 3]

Most goals conceded in a season

78; Dundee, 2018–19

Fewest goals conceded in a season

13; Rangers, 2020–21[27]

Fastest goal

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

Highest transfer fee paid

Odsonne Édouard, from Paris Saint-Germain to Celtic, £9 million, 15 June 2018[29]

Highest transfer fee received

Kieran Tierney, from Celtic to Arsenal, £25 million, 8 August 2019[30]

Most hat-tricks

Liam Boyce and Leigh Griffiths, 4 each

Youngest player

Dylan Reid, for St Mirren v Rangers, 16 years and 5 days, 6 March 2021[31]

Youngest goalscorer

Jack Aitchison, for Celtic v Motherwell, 16 years and 71 days[32]

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

• Bold shows players still playing in the Scottish Premiership.
• Italics show players still playing professional football in other leagues.

As of matches played on 22 October 2023

Rank	Player	Goals	Apps	Ratio	First	Last	Club(s) (goals/apps)	Notes
1	Leigh Griffiths	92	188	0.49	2014	2022	Celtic (90/173), Dundee (2/15)	[note 4]
2	Alfredo Morelos	78	178	0.44	2017	2023	Rangers
3	Odsonne Édouard	66	116	0.57	2017	2021	Celtic
	Adam Rooney	66	151	0.44	2014	2018	Aberdeen	[note 4]
	James Tavernier	66	250	0.26	2015	2023	Rangers
6	Liam Boyce	62	153	0.41	2014	2022	Ross County (48/99), Heart of Midlothian (13/43)
7	Billy Mckay	59	185	0.32	2013	2021	Inverness Caledonian Thistle (32/78), Dundee United (12/29), Ross County (15/78)	[note 4]
8	Kris Boyd	55	145	0.38	2013	2019	Kilmarnock	[note 4]
9	Kris Doolan	54	176	0.31	2013	2018	Partick Thistle
10	James Forrest	52	233	0.22	2013	2023	Celtic
	Niall McGinn	52	259	0.2	2013	2022	Aberdeen (51/244), Dundee (1/15)	[note 4]