This is a list of the major honours won by football clubs in Scotland. It lists every Scottish football club to have won any of the three major domestic trophies, six major European competitions which have existed at different times, or the two global competitions FIFA has recognised. These honours consist of the Scottish football championship—the Scottish Football League up to 1998, Scottish Premier League from 1998 to 2013 and the Scottish Professional Football League thereafter—the Scottish Cup, the League Cup, the Champions League or its predecessor the European Cup, the now-defunct European Cup Winners' Cup, the UEFA Europa League or its predecessors the UEFA Cup and Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup or its predecessor the Intercontinental Cup.
Competitive football started in Scotland with the Scottish Cup, the second oldest football competition in the world, which was first held in the 1873–74 season. League football followed when the Scottish Football League was founded in 1890, with Dumbarton and Rangers sharing the first title. The Scottish Football League remained the highest division of the Scottish football league system until 1998, when the Scottish Premier League was founded. The Scottish Football League also added a second major cup competition in 1946, when it founded the League Cup, invititation to which is restricted to the 42 members of the league. Rangers have won a record number of league championships and League Cups, while Celtic have won a record number of Scottish Cups.
European competition started in 1955 with the European Cup and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, which was succeeded by the UEFA Cup for the 1971–72 season. The Cup Winners' Cup followed in 1960 but was discontinued in 1999. Three Scottish teams have lifted at least one European trophy. Celtic won the European Cup in 1967, Rangers won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1972 and Aberdeen won the Cup Winners' Cup and Super Cup in 1983. Intercontinental competition started in 1960 with the Intercontinental Cup, which consisted of a two-legged tie between the European Cup and the South American Copa Libertadores winners from 1960 to 1979. To date, Celtic are the only Scottish club to participate in an intercontinental competition, losing the 1967 Intercontinental Cup to Racing Club. [1]
Domestic League | Domestic Cup Competitions | Primary European Competitions | Other European Competitions |
The Intercontinental Cup, officially the European/South American Cup and known from 1980 as the Toyota Cup for sponsorship reasons, was an international football competition endorsed by UEFA (Europe) and CONMEBOL, contested between representative clubs from these confederations, usually the winners of the UEFA Champions League and the South American Copa Libertadores. It ran from 1960 to 2004, when it was succeeded by the FIFA Club World Cup, although they both ran concurrently in 2000.
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the Scottish Cup, is an annual association football knock-out cup competition for men's football clubs in Scotland. The competition was first held in 1873–74. Entry is open to all 122 clubs with full membership of the Scottish Football Association (SFA), along with up to eight other clubs who are associate members. The competition is called Scottish Gas Men's Scottish Cup for sponsorship reasons.
The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. It is considered the predecessor to the UEFA Cup. The competition was the idea of FIFA vice-president and executive committee member Ernst Thommen, Italian Football Federation president and FIFA executive committee member Ottorino Barassi, and the English Football Association general secretary, Stanley Rous, who later became an executive committee member and vice-president of UEFA (1958–1961) and president of FIFA (1961–1974). As the name suggests, the competition was set up to promote international trade fairs. Friendly games were regularly held between teams from cities holding trade fairs and it was from these games that the competition evolved. Initially, the competition was only open to cities that hosted trade fairs, and where the cities' clubs finished in their national league had no relevance. Early competitions also featured a "one city, one team" rule, with some teams selected from multiple clubs.
The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 2000 as the FIFA Club World Championship. It was not held from 2001 to 2004 due to a combination of factors in the cancelled 2001 tournament, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure (ISL), but in 2005 it changed to an annual competition through 2023. Following the 2023 edition, the tournament was revamped to a quadrennial competition starting in 2025. Views differ as to the cup's prestige: it struggles to attract interest in most of Europe, and is the object of heated debate in South America.
UEFA competitions, referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur association football and futsal. The term was established in 1971 by the confederation to differentiate the men's football competitions under its administration, the first in history being held at a pan-European stage, from other international competitions carried out in the continent between 1960s and 1990s, such as the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, International Football Cup and Karl Rappan Cup, Cup of the Alps, Balkans Cup and the restructured Mitropa Cup. All these tournaments were organised by private bodies and/or at least two national associations and concerning one of more regional areas of Europe, not being recognised by UEFA for historic-statistical purposes.
This page indexes the individual year in association football pages. Each year is annotated with one or more significant events as a reference point.
The 1998–99 season was the 102nd season of Scottish league football.
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. The club first participated in a European competition in 1955. The first international cup they took part in was the Latin Cup in which they participated as champions of Spain. The competition lasted from 1949 to 1957 and Real Madrid won both tournaments which they entered, the same number as Barcelona and Milan. Since becoming the first Spanish club to enter the European Cup in 1955, Real has competed in every UEFA-organized competition, except the Intertoto Cup and Conference League. They have missed out on European football only twice in their history, in the 1977–78 and 1996–97 seasons.
Aberdeen Football Club are one of Scotland's most successful football teams, with 17 major domestic trophy wins: four League titles with 17 runners-up finishes, seven Scottish Cups with nine final defeats, and six Scottish League Cups with nine final defeats. They are the only Scottish team to have won two European trophies – the European Cup Winners' Cup against Real Madrid on 11 May 1983 and the European Super Cup against the European Cup holders Hamburger SV in December 1983.
The term sextuple is mainly used in the sports press for winning six important national and international titles in sport, especially in football, within one sporting year or season.
Futbol Club Barcelona is a Spanish professional football club based in Barcelona. The club first participated in a European competition in 1910, and from 1955 onwards spent every season in one or more European competitions. The first international cup they took part in was the Pyrenees Cup. The competition lasted from 1910 to 1914 and Barcelona won four out of five editions. From 1914 to the beginning of the Latin Cup in 1949, Barcelona did not participate in any international competitions. From the 1955–56 season onward, with the exception of 1956–57, they are the only team to have played in the European competitions every year to date.
Scottish football clubs have participated in European association football competitions since 1955, when Hibernian entered the inaugural European Cup.