Scottish Premier League : As you all know professional leagues has played a huge role in the development of football across the globe. Even it is more popular than international teams these days and every nation is having their own professional leagues which plays a huge role in identifying and nurturing the young talents and also helps in improving the infrastructure standards. Europe has been the major hub of football over the years and lots of country based professional leagues are more popular and are drawing huge crowd into the ground.
Like other European countries football is the most popular sport in Scotland also and they are having their own professional league which paves way of the development of football there. Scottish premier league has not much to its name since it was introduced in late 1990’s and has seen a major change in the format in 2013 and now Scottish premier league is officially called as Scottish professional football league which involves 10 teams participating in it.
Before that they have been playing their teams with English premier league but after 1998 they started their own league which proves to the milestone step in Scottish football history because it is one of the major reasons for the development of football in the country. Here everything about football like history, teams, records and upcoming matches are listed below:
History of Scottish Premier League
Scottish Premier League now officially called as Scottish Professional Football League is the premier club level competition happening in Scotland till now. The league was established in the year of 1998 by broking from Scottish professional league. But in 2013 the merger happened between two leagues and formed a new league in the name of Scottish professional football team which involves 19 teams. Before that Scottish Premier League always has two different league structures which involves division one and two and teams has been promoted and relegated to two divisions based on their standings.
But during 1995 four division structure was introduced which involves 10 teams for each division which led to the split of teams in premier division and formed their own league called Scottish Premier League but in 2013 merger between two leagues happened and now Scottish Professional Football League comprises of 19 teams which has two decisions and same relegation and promotion format which was followed during the early stages has been retained.
Current Scottish Premier League Structure
As mentioned earlier the league structure comprises of four divisions Scottish premiership, Scottish championship, Scottish premier league one and Scottish premier league two. The format was framed to bring the non professional clubs into unique structure.
Over the four divisions 42 teams has been involved in the structure. Board directors which comprises of six member team of board directors were appointed and each team has been considered as the shareholder and major decisions regarding the rule changes were taken through the voting system between those 42 teams.
Clubs in Scottish Premier League
Here are list of clubs that are placed under four different divisions in 2018-19 season:
| Scottish premiership | Scottish championship | Scottish league one | Scottish league two |
| Aberdeen | Alloa atheletic | Airdrieonians | Albion rovers |
| Celtic | Ayr United | Arbroath | Annan atheletic |
| Dundee | Dundee united | Brechin city | Berwick Rangers |
| Hamilton Academical | Dunfermline athletic | dumbarton | Clyde |
| Heart of Midlothian | Falkirk | East fife | cowdenbeath |
| Hibernian | Greenton Morton | Fortar atheletic | Edinburgh city |
| Kilmarnock | Inverness caledonian | mantrose | Elgin city |
| Livingston | Partick thistle | Raith rovers | Peterhead |
| Motherwell | Queen of south | stenhousemuir | Queen’s park |
| Rangers | Ross county | stranraer | Stirling Albion |
| St johnstone | |||
| St Mirren |
Scottish Premier League Champions
After the establishment of the newly formed league in 2013 old warriors Celtic has been placed in Scottish premiership division and they are the successful team in the tournament so far. They won all the titles to date by defeating different teams in the final. This overwhelming success has led to their participation in UEFA Champions league where they have fared well till now.
When it comes to next division in Scottish professional football league called Scottish championship club Dundee has won the inaugural edition championship and the clubs like heart Midlothian, rangers, Hibernian and Mirren have won the championship of the following editions.
Team Stirling Albion has won the championship of the inaugural edition of Scottish league one division and after that, the teams like Stenhousemuir, queen’s park, Forfar athletic and again Stenhousemuir has won the titles in following years.
Scottish league two also known as the regional league has not taken part in the 2013-14 season and after that clubs like Montrose, Edinburgh city, Cowdenbeath emerged champions in following years.
Promotion and Relegation Format
Scottish professional football league is following the same format which is followed in different clubs across the globe. The two teams that are bottom placed in Scottish Premiership will be relegated to Scottish championship and the team that is placed the top of the tables in Scottish championship league will be promoted to Scottish Premiership league.
This same format applies to the other two leagues also. This format ensures the quality of the game and also helps to improve the standards of players and infrastructure standards will be improved a lot over the years.
Sponsorship and Media Rights
The merger happened between Scottish football league and Scottish premier league in order to generate more revenue. After the merger Irn-bru, the major soft drink company in Scotland who also sponsored for Scottish football league has been roped in as a title sponsor. In 2015 leading bookmaker Ladbrokes has been roped with exciting sponsorship deals.
As far as media rights are concerned sky sports and BT sports have acquired rights to telecast the football league in Scotland and European regions. The contract has been extended in 2015 and sky sports and BT sport has given new rights with improved terms and conditions until 2020. In 2015 SPFL struck a major deal with MP & Silva For international telecasting rights but the deal has not done well according to the terms as MP 7 Silva defaulted the payments which led to the cancellation of the agreement.
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