Scottish Premiership

Scottish Premiership is the top tier in the Scottish Championship league system. Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) was established in 2013 after a merger of the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League.

History

Scottish Championship is a relative new league, but it should be seen as the new name of an old league, one of the oldest actually. The original Scottish Football League was inaugurated in 1890 (which could be compared with the English Football League founded in 1888).

In 1893, the league started to allow professional players and a second division was also established. Until 1946 the top-flight was called Division One, when it changed to Division A for nine seasons until it became Division One again. In 1975, the name of the top-flight once again change its name, this time to Premier Division.

The Scottish league would change name to Scottish Football Premier League in 1975 and since 2013 the first division has been called Scottish Premiership.

The easiest way to refer to historical records and statistics is the call the league Scottish Championship, which include all names and versions since 1890.

League system

Scottish Premiership is the top level of the Scottish Professional Football League The second division is since 2013 known as Scottish Championship (previously the first level in Scottish Football League). An overview of the current national league system is presented in table 1.

Table 1. Scottish football tiers

Club	Tier
Scottish Premiership	1
Scottish Championship	2
Scottish League One	3
Scottish League Two	4
Highland / Lowland Football League	5

Below the fourth tier, the league is played on a semi-professional level and divided in regions. The fight tier consists of Highland Football League and Lowland Football League.

Stats

Teams with most titles

Statistics of all Scottish clubs that have won the top division between 1890 and 2024.

Table 2. Clubs and Scottish Championship titles

Club	Titles	1st title
Rangers	55	1890-91
Celtic	54	1892-93
Aberdeen	4	1954-55
Heart of Midlothian	4	1857-58
Hibernian	4	1902-03
Dunbarton	2	1890-92
Dundee	1	1961-62
Kilmarnock	1	1864-65
Dundee United	1	1890-91
Third Lanark	1	1903-04
Motherwell	1	1931-32

* The first championship in 1891 was shared between Dunbarton and Rangers.

In addition, Airdrieonians (dissolved in 2002) and Falkirk have been runners-up, four and tow times respectively.

Third Lanark AC was dissolved in 1962.

Teams with most titles in the 2000s

Statistics of the Scottish clubs that have won the top division between 2000 and 2020.

Table 3. Scottish Championship titles in the 2000s

Club	Titles
Celtic	16
Rangers	4

In the historic struggle between the two superior clubs, Celtic have got the upper hand in the current millennia. This is partly due to the Rangers liquidation in 2012.

Teams with most league participation

Statistics of the Scottish clubs that have participated more than 100 times in the national top division during the period 1890-2020.

Table 4. Clubs and league participation

Club	Participation
Celtic	129
Rangers	109

Since the first season of Scottish Premiership, in total 16 clubs have participating in top division of the league.

Audience

Capacity of Scottish Premiership stadiums

The capacity of all Scottish Premiership club stadiums. Celtic and Rangers have by far the biggest stadiums.

Table 5. The stadium capacities in the Premiership season 2018-2019

Team	Stadium name	Capacity
Aberdeen	Pittodrie Stadium	20,866
Celtic	Celtic Park	60,411
Dundee	Dens	11,506
Hamilton Academical	New Douglas Park	5,510
Heart of Midlothian	Tynecastle Park	20,099
Hiberian	Easter Road	20,421
Kilmarnock	Rugby Park	17,889
Livingston	Almondvale Stadium	9,512
Motherwell	Fir Park	17,889
Rangers	Ibrox Stadium	50,817
St Johnstone	McDiarmid Park	10,696
St Mirren	St Mirren Park	8,023

By Oscar Anderson

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scottish_football_champions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Football_League