Scottish Premiership

What is Scottish Premiership?

The Scottish Premiership is the top level of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL).

The division was established in the summer of 2013 after the SPFL was formed by a combination of the Scottish Football League and Scottish Premier League.

There are 12 clubs in this league, with each team playing 38 games per term. Sixteen outfits have played in the Scottish Premiership since its creation in the 2013–14 term.

Steven Gerrard’s Rangers are the current league champions, having lifted the 2020–21 Scottish Premiership trophy.

Talking about stats, this was the Gers’ 55th Scottish league championship in total, and it finished a run of nine straight league titles by their arch-rivals Celtic.

The Scottish top-flight has contained 12 clubs since the 2000–01 term, the longest period without change in the history of the Scottish football league structure.

During this time the Scottish Premier League, and now the Scottish Premiership, has used a “split” format. This is utilised to prevent the need for a 44-match schedule, based on playing each other on four occasions.

That system was used in the Scottish Premier Division in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, but it is now too high a number of matches in a league season.

The ‘Global Sports Salaries Survey’ report in 2017 found a large variation between the wages offered by clubs in the Scottish Premiership, with Celtic parting with £735,040 an average annual salary per player, whilst historical rivals Rangers could only pay £329,600 and Aberdeen offered £136,382.

The lowest salary presented by any of the twelve member sides was Hamilton’s £41,488 – 17 times less than the Celts, whose wages were close to the fee of the other eleven clubs combined.

Who are traditional favourites?

When we talk about the Scottish Championship and the favourites for this league, the first two sides that always come to mind are Rangers and Celtic and so it should be.

There is a big difference between them and the rest of the clubs and consequently, for many years now it is Rangers and Celtic who are fighting for the main title.

Scottish Premiership – 2021/22 season (odds)

Rangers will be looking to put forward a serious title defence and they are backed to succeed as the favourites to win the title at 1/2.

The club will know that Celtic will be the main rivals but after poor form last term and with a new manager in place, the side are 7/5.