Scottish Football Teams & Leagues

The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is made up of four divisions with relegation and portion between leagues. The top tier is the Scottish Premiership, followed by the Scottish Championship then Scottish League One and Scottish League Two.

The SPFL is made up of a total of 42 teams. The Premiership is made up of 12 teams, with the other three divisions consisting of 10 teams each. Promotion and relegation follows a similar pattern across all four leagues. The team finishing bottom of a division swaps places with the team finishing top of the division below. The clubs finishing second bottom enter a playoff system with the teams finishing second, third and fourth from the division below to determine if a second team is promoted and relegated.

Scottish Premiership

Team	Town	Stadium	Capacity
Aberdeen	Aberdeen	Pittodrie Stadium	20,866
Celtic	Glasgow	Celtic Park	60,411
Dundee	Dundee	Dens Park	11,775
Dundee United	Dundee	Tannadice Park	14,223
Heart of Midlothian	Edinburgh	Tynecastle Park	19,852
Hibernian	Edinburgh	Easter Road	20,421
Livingston	Livingston	Almondvale Stadium	8,716
Motherwell	Motherwell	Fir Park	13,677
Rangers	Glasgow	Ibrox Stadium	50,817
Ross County	Dingwall	Victoria Park	6,541
St Johnstone	Perth	McDiarmid Park	10,696
St Mirren	Paisley	St Mirren Park	8,023

About the Scottish Premiership

The Scottish Premiership is ultimately the place every club in Scotland wants to be but there are only room for 12 sides each year. Realistic ambitions for the 12 clubs that feature among the league vary, as they do in virtually every top-flight division across the globe. Some are simply happy to avoid relegation, others want to battle for a European qualification spot and there is, of course, the hunt for the league title.

Celtics v Rangers

The championship race in Scotland tends to be very predictable though in the sense that you can be pretty sure, in any given year, that it will be Celtic or Rangers lifting the trophy. The last time the Scottish top flight was not won by either of these teams was all the way back in 1985 when Alex Ferguson’s brilliant Aberdeen side stole the spotlight. Indeed, overall, the Glasgow giants have won the title 106 (55 Rangers, 51 Celtic) times out of 124 completed seasons, no other side lifting the trophy more than four times.

This kind of extended dominance between two sides is not something you will find in many other leagues and it is what makes Scottish football quite unique. Some claim the league is uncompetitive as a result but it has produced an incredibly fierce rivalry and one that has seen some thrilling neck-and-neck battles over the years.

Third Place Contenders

As for the remaining positions in the league, these are far more variable, seeing plenty of change year on year. Finishing third has long been sufficient for a place in an early stage of a UEFA club competition and this is something many different clubs have celebrated. Between 2009/10 and 2020/21, nine different teams clinched third spot, so there is always all to play for outside of the leading two. Clearly, some clubs are historically stronger than others but there is no obvious contender for Scotland’s “third” team, though Edinburgh sides Hearts and Hibs, plus Aberdeen, are likely contenders.

Scottish Cup

While on the topic of European places, for many years Scotland has been awarded four European spots. The usual format would be for three to be issued based on league position (1st, 2nd & 3rd) and the remaining spot reserved to the winner of the Scottish Cup. Should the Scottish Cup winner finish in the top three, as often happens, then the place would simply be passed on to whichever team finished fourth.

The number of European places is, however, dependent on UEFA coefficients and these are calculated based on how well each nation’s clubs performs in continental competitions. In 2020, Scotland moved up far enough in the coefficient rankings to give them five places for the following season. That’s a major boost to the league and makes the battle for European qualification very open.

Another boost came shortly after as it was made virtually certain that the Premiership winner would receive Champions League group stage entry rather than have to play in the qualification/play-off rounds. As such rounds have often seen Scottish teams drop down to the Europa League, this is a welcome change, albeit one only likely to affect Celtic and Rangers and their supporters.

Battle at the Bottom

For some Premiership sides, getting the chance to play football on the continent is all but a distant dream as they end up too busy fighting relegation battles. The system in the Scottish Premiership is, however, not too brutal when it comes to demoting sides. There is only one automatic relegation spot, which of course goes to the team that finishes in last place.

The team that finishes 11th can be spared the drop but for this to happen they must win the two-legged Premiership play-off final. This game comes against the side that wins the second-tier play-offs. Win the match on aggregate (no away goals rule) and survival is ensured, lose it and relegation awaits, with that team swapping places with their former-Championship conquerors.

A League Divided

The only other structural element of the Scottish Premiership left to discuss is how it works with regard to matches played. The season always begins in a very traditional style with all 12 teams playing one another both home and away. After this though things begin to deviate from the norm. For the next 11 matches, teams play one another again but just the once. From these 11 matches, six will be played at home and five away, or vice-versa. At this stage it means that, for example, Aberdeen may have faced Celtic twice at home, but only once away.

Once these 11 matches have been played, the table is split into two halves, creating a top six mini-league, known as the Championship Group and a bottom six mini-league known as the Relegation Group. The teams in each mini-league then play each other once, either home or away, for their final five matches of the season. Once the separation of the league occurs, none of the ‘bottom six’ side can overtake any ‘top six’ teams. They are effectively two separate leagues at that point, although they will appear on the same one for the final standings.

This can sometimes create a slightly odd-looking league table at first glance, especially if you are only really familiar with English football (or indeed most leagues that operate in the “normal” fashion). It is not at all uncommon for the team in seventh to end up with more points than the team in sixth and even fifth because they have finished the season with five distinctly easier fixtures. For clubs tied on points within each of the two mini-leagues, goal difference rather than head-to-head records is used as the tie-breaker.

Scottish Championship

Team	Town	Stadium	Capacity
Arbroath	Arbroath	Gayfield Park	6,600
Ayr United	Ayr	Somerset Park	10,185
Dunfermline Athletic	Dunfermline	East End Park	11,480
Greenock Morton	Greenock	Cappielow Park	11,589
Hamilton Academical	Hamilton	New Douglas Park	6,018
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	Inverness	Caledonian Stadium	7,512
Kilmarnock	Kilmarnock	Rugby Park	17,889
Partick Thistle	Glasgow	Firhill Stadium	10,102
Queen of the South	Dumfries	Palmerston Park	8,690
Raith Rovers	Kirkcaldy	Stark’s Park	8,867

About the Scottish Championship

There are a few key differences to note between the Scottish Premiership and Scottish Championship. For one, as you have probably spotted already, the second tier only features 10 teams rather than 12. This facilitates a more straightforward league structure in which every team faces each other on four occasions, twice at home and twice away. As a result, a full regular season in the Scottish Championship will see all teams play 36 matches so only two fewer than in the Premiership. There is no splitting the table into two so the final standings are purely down to points and then goal difference in the event of a tie.

Ever year the Championship will see a minimum of two clubs leave the league and a maximum of four. One team is always guaranteed to exit via the ‘right’ end as winning the league results in automatic promotion to the top flight. The other promotion spot, however, is not a guarantee as it involves the Championship side winning the Premiership play-off final. The play-offs work as a three-round system with the opening quarter-final stage contested by the sides that finish third and fourth in the Championship. These two teams battle it out across two legs with the victor rewarded with a semi-final clash against the side that secured second place in the table.

The winner of this two-legged semi-final will then face the big showdown against the club that finished 11th in the Premiership. Away goals are not counted so there is an increased chance of the tie ending all square once 180 minutes of football has been played. If the teams are level on aggregate, a 30-minute period of extra time will be called-upon and failing that, the dreaded penalty shootout.

The Pressure Is On

With promotion hopes resting on one two-legged contest, these can be quite tense affairs. The pressure proved far too much for Dundee United in 2019 as when the match was forced into a penalty shootout, they somehow managed to miss all four of the spot-kicks they took. Quite the tragic way to miss out on promotion we are sure you will agree, but they did earn automatic promotion the very next season.

Losing the promotion play-off final is perhaps a little less painful than being sent down though, a fate that awaits at least one but potentially two Championship teams each year. As with the Premiership, the team that winds up rock bottom is sent down, without hope of a reprieve. Second from bottom however can spare themselves if they are able to win the relegation play-off, in this case known as the Championship play-off.

The play-offs work differently in the Championship though as the side threatened with the drop does not enter the final round automatically. Instead, they enter a two-legged semi-final in which they face the fourth best side in League One. Should they prevail in this test, they will face the winner of the other semi-final which involves the teams that finished second and third. As with all Scottish play-off matches across the tiers, the Championship play-off final is played over two-legs and there is no away goals rule.

Scottish League One

Team	Town	Stadium	Capacity
Airdrieonians	Airdrie	Excelsior Stadium	10,101
Alloa Athletic	Alloa	Recreation Park	3,100
Clyde	Cumbernauld	Broadwood Stadium	8,086
Cove Rangers	Cove Bay, Aberdeen	Balmoral Stadium	2,602
Dumbarton	Dumbarton	Dumbarton Football Stadium	2,020
East Fife	Methil	Bayview Stadium	1,980
Falkirk	Falkirk	Falkirk Stadium	7,937
Montrose	Montrose	Links Park	4,936
Peterhead	Peterhead	Balmoor	3,150
Queen’s Park	Glasgow	Lesser Hampden	1,774

About League One

The format of Scotland’s third-tier is almost identical to that of the Championship so we can keep this fairly brief. The only slight difference comes with regard to promotion. As with every professional Scottish league, the title winners are granted promotion by default while second place enters a play-off round.

Unlike in the Championship though, there is no quarter-final stage in the play-offs as things begin straight from the semis. In this, as mentioned above, second and third place in League One will face off while the fourth best side will face the Championship outfit potentially facing the drop.

The promotion play-off situation in League One ultimately favours the teams that sneak into third and fourth spot as they have one less two-legged fixture to play in order to secure promotion. The loser ends up being the unlucky Championship side that ends up in the mix as they must defeat two opponents. If they were facing relegation from the Premiership, they would only need to defeat just the one.

Scottish League Two

Team	Town	Stadium	Capacity
Albion Rovers	Coatbridge	Cliftonhill	1,238
Annan Athletic	Annan	Galabank	2,504
Cowdenbeath	Cowdenbeath	Central Park	4,309
Edinburgh City	Edinburgh	Meadowbank Stadium	500
Elgin City	Elgin	Borough Briggs	4,520
Forfar Athletic	Forfar	Station Park	6,777
Kelty Hearts	Kelty	New Central Park	2,181
Stenhousemuir	Stenhousemuir	Ochilview	3,746
Stirling Albion	Stirling	Forthbank Stadium	3,808
Stranraer	Stranraer	Stair Park	4,178

About League Two

The SPFL likes to keep things largely consistent so there is very little different to talk about at the lowest tier of the professional ranks. Promotion is identical to how it works in League One with one place going to the league winner and the other, non-guaranteed place, open to any side that finished between second and fourth. It may seem quite generous for a team finishing in fourth, in a league of 10, to earn promotion but it does help keep the season exciting for longer. In the 2015/16 season, Queen’s Park beat Annan Athletic to fourth spot courtesy of a +2 superior goal difference, before then winning the League One play-offs. Talk about fine margins.

When it comes to relegation, this is where League Two is the outlier as there are no automatic relegation spots. The team that ends up at the very bottom of the SPFL pyramid simply enters a League Two play-off. As part of this the League Two side heads straight into the final where they will face the victor of the semi-final clash involving the champions of the Highland Football League or the Lowland Football League.

This format must be quite popular with teams currently in League Two but it makes escaping from the fifth tier of Scottish football very difficult. Even when teams win their league, promotion is not assured as they have to then win not just one, but two high-pressure affairs. Even the best teams in the Highland Football League or Lowland Football League can wait years for their chance to get out as a result. When also noting that both fifth-tier divisions feature 18 teams, rather than just 10, dropping out of the SPFL is something clubs desperately want to avoid.

Scottish Football League History

The first football governing body in Scotland, the Scottish Football Association, first appeared in 1873. As part of their role they facilitated certain friendly matches as well as Scottish Cup ties. There was no organised league in the country and many of the friendly matches that took place were often arranged or cancelled at the last minute.

1890: Scottish Football League Established

With the establishment of the English Football League in 1888 attracting a lot of top Scottish talent, teams north of the border decided to respond with a league of their own shortly after. Initial plans began to take shape in March 1890 as the secretary of Renton Football Club wrote to 13 other sides to see if they were open to creating a formal league. 11 clubs accepted but Queen’s Park and Clyde turned down the offer, fearing it would lead to professionalism and hurt smaller clubs.

A month later and the Scottish Football League (SFL) was inaugurated on 30th April 1890, with the league featuring 11 teams: Abercorn, Cambuslang, Celtic, Cowlairs, Dumbarton, Heart of Midlothian, Rangers, Renton, St Mirren, Third Lanark and Vale of Leven. The initial 1890/91 season, which saw teams handed two points for a win and one for a draw, ended with Dumbarton tied with Rangers at the top of the table. To try and determine an outright league champion, the pair played in a play-off match but this ended as a draw. Having made no plans further tiebreaker plans, the championship was simply shared. It was only in the 1921/22 season that goal average was used to separate teams tied on points, something replaced by goal difference starting as late as 1971/72.

Having proved such an early success, more and more teams wanted to be part of the Scottish Football League and so a second tier was formed in 1893. Promotion worked a little differently back then though with a club’s fate determined by a ballot. It was not until 1922 that automatic promotion existed for teams winning the second tier.

Division Three Becomes Division C

The year after promotion was altered, Scottish football welcomed a national third tier, Division Three, although this only lasted a mere three years before collapsing due to financial problems. Many of the newly homeless third-tier clubs ended up joining the Scottish Football Alliance as the Football League stuck with a two-tier system for the next two decades.

Post-war reforms saw the re-introduction of a third-tier, known as Division C (with the top tiers renamed Division A & B). Division C, which also included reserve sides, was split into a North West and a South East section in 1949. This did not continue for long though as when reserve teams exited the league, Scottish football reverted back to its standard two-tier system. Both leagues were well populated though as there were 18 clubs in Division A and 19 in Division B.

A three-league system again returned in 1975, this time sticking, and in 1994 a fourth tier was added for the first time. Each league featured 10 teams and the SFL decided to issue three points for a win rather than the previous reward of just two. Much like in England though, the top clubs decided to form their own breakaway league in the latter part of the 1990s, as it was seen as being more lucrative.

SPL Expands Number of Clubs

This had been threatened earlier, in 1992, with a ‘Super League’ attempted but in 1998 similar plans came to fruition with the establishment of the Scottish Premier League (SPL). Part of the arrangement saw the SPL expand to 12 clubs in 2000, increasing the count of clubs in the Scottish league system to 42.

It was in 2005 that the SFL introduced the play-off system to decide some relegation and promotion places. The biggest change in modern times though came in 2013 when both the SFL and SPL voted to merge to create the SPFL. Structurally the leagues remained the same but there were significant changes to the distribution of finances, mainly with more money being funnelled towards the second tier. The SPFL has been in charge of the top four leagues since and they also operate both the Scottish League Cup and the Scottish Challenge Cup.