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The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994) Third divisions.
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was formed in 1890, initially with 12 clubs. More clubs joined the league soon afterwards, which was split into two divisions (Division One and Division Two) in 1893. A third division was added in 1923, but this lasted only three years before it collapsed under heavy financial losses. From 1926 until the Second World War, the SFL returned to two divisions. A third division, including some reserve teams, was added in 1949. The withdrawal of the reserve teams in 1955 saw a return to two divisions, with 37 clubs split almost evenly.
Following a decline in attendances in the early 1960s the SFL management committee wrote to its member clubs in early 1965 proposing change to a three division setup, with 14 clubs in the top flight. [1] The committee proposed to allocate clubs to each division based on attendance, rather than league position at the end of the previous season, because previous proposals had failed due to uncertainty about where clubs would finish in a given season. [1] This proposal failed to attract enough support, as did one made the following year for a 16 club top flight. [2]
The dominance of Celtic in the late 1960s and early 1970s led to criticism that the league had become too predictable. [3] Most of the major clubs, including Celtic, recorded drops in attendance in the 1972–73 season. [3] In the summer of 1974, the clubs voted in favour of a three division setup, with 10 clubs in the top tier. [4] It was decided to name the top flight as the Premier Division because many of the clubs had bad memories of the previous incarnations of Division Three, which had included reserve teams and had not lasted. [5] The allocation of the clubs in the new divisions was determined by their league position in the 1974–75 season. [5]
Initially, two clubs were relegated each season from a 10 club Premier Division. [6] It was highly unlikely that either Celtic or Rangers would ever be involved in a relegation battle, given their historic dominance. [6] This meant that the other eight clubs were at a very high risk of relegation each season. [6] [7] For example, in the first season of operation (1975–76), Dundee United and Aberdeen only avoided relegation on goal difference and Dundee did go down, for the first time since the 1930s. [6] [7] In the 1976–77 season, Hearts were relegated for the first time in their history.
The move to a three division system also had the effect of widening the gap in playing standards between the clubs. [6] Writing in 1990, Bob Crampsey noted that of the 14 clubs in the 1975–76 Scottish Second Division, only one (Clydebank) had ever played in the Premier Division. [6] Having narrowly avoided relegation from the Premier Division, Dundee United and Aberdeen gained most from the new setup, as they established an ascendancy over Rangers and Celtic in the early 1980s. [8] [7]
The high probability of relegation led to calls for a 12 club Premier Division, but there was insufficient support due to clubs either having to play each other three times or playing a 44-game schedule. [8] The new setup did result in an increase in attendances, but the risk of relegation caused problems such as defensive playing styles, less young players developing and clubs were unable to plan for the long term. [9] Aberdeen made those points in conjunction with a proposal to cut relegation to one club, but this did not attract enough support. [10] A proposal by East Fife to revert to the old two division setup attracted nearly as much support as the Aberdeen plan. [10]
A major change made in February 1981, that passed almost unnoticed at the time, was the abolition of gate sharing. [11] This meant that clubs retained all of the revenue from their home attendances, and were able to vary the cost of admission for different opposing clubs. [11]
Before the start of the 1998–99 season, the clubs of the Premier Division resigned en masse to form the Scottish Premier League, following the example of English clubs who formed the FA Premier League in 1992. [12] The Scottish Football League did not reform the Premier Division, instead leaving the league with just the First, Second and Third Divisions.
Initially and for most of its existence, the Premier Division had 10 clubs that played each other four times, giving a total of 36 games for each club in a season. [13] There was initially two clubs automatically relegated from the Premier Division to the First Division each season. [13]
From the 1994–95 season, a promotion and relegation two-match playoff was held each year between the second-from bottom in the Premier Division and the runner-up in the First Division. [14] Three points for a win was also introduced in 1994.
The clubs listed below competed in the Scottish Premier Division.
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland. From its foundation in 1890 until the breakaway Scottish Premier League (SPL) was formed in 1998, the SFL was the top level of football in Scotland. After 1998, the SFL represented levels 2 to 4 of the Scottish football league system. In June 2013, the SFL merged with the SPL to form the Scottish Professional Football League.
The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when the SPL and SFL merged to form the new Scottish Professional Football League, with its top division being known as the Scottish Premiership. A total of 19 clubs competed in the SPL, but only the Old Firm clubs - Celtic and Rangers - won the league championship.
Airdrieonians Football Club, more commonly known as Airdrie, was a Scottish professional football team from the town of Airdrie, in the Monklands area of Lanarkshire.
Leith Athletic Football Club is a football club based in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland. They compete in the East of Scotland Football League, Conference A. First team matches are played at Peffermill 3G.
St Bernard's Football Club were a football club based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The club was established in 1878 and joined the Scottish Football League. They played at several different grounds before making the Royal Gymnasium Ground their long-term home. However, after having to sell it in 1943, the club was dissolved.
The Scottish Football Alliance was a football league football structure set up in Scotland in competition with the Scottish Football League. Its success in the early years of professional football in both England and Scotland made Alliance the basis for a second division in both countries. The alliance attracted a number of Junior clubs to the League system to guarantee its longevity for years to come.
The 2006–07 Scottish Premier League season was the ninth season of the Scottish Premier League. It began on 29 July 2006.
The 2005–06 Scottish Premier League was won by Celtic, with a 17-point margin over their nearest challengers Hearts in the first season under the management of Gordon Strachan. Rangers, who finished third, failed to finish a Scottish top flight campaign as champions or runners-up for the first time since 1988.
The 2004–05 Scottish Premier League was won by Rangers, who claimed the title on the final day of the season by a single point from Celtic, who had gone into the final fixtures leading and were still ahead in the closing minutes of their last game against Motherwell until they conceded two goals, costing them the title with Rangers winning their match against Hibernian in Edinburgh. The dramatic events became known in popular culture as 'Helicopter Sunday' due to the aircraft ceremonially delivering the championship trophy changing direction in mid-flight as the identity of its winners altered suddenly.
The 2003–04 Scottish Premier League was won by Celtic.
The 2000–01 Scottish Premier League was the third season of the Scottish Premier League, the top level of football in Scotland. It began on 29 July 2000 and concluded on 20 May 2001.
The Scottish League XI was a representative side of the Scottish Football League. The team regularly played against the (English) Football League and other national league select teams between 1892 and 1980. For a long period the annual fixture between the English and Scottish leagues was only second in importance to the matches between the two national teams. The fixture declined in importance after regular European club competition was instituted in the 1950s; matches in the 1960s and 1970s were played irregularly and poorly attended. A match involving a Scottish League XI was last played in 1990, to mark the centenary of the League.
The 1999–2000 Scottish Premier League was the second season of the Scottish Premier League, the top level of football in Scotland. It began in on 31 July 1999 and concluded on 21 May 2000.
The 1998–99 Scottish Premier League season was the inaugural season of Scottish Premier League football, the top division of Scottish football. It began on 1 August 1998 and concluded on 23 May 1999.
The 2010–11 Scottish League Cup is the 65th season of Scotland's second-most prestigious football knockout competition, the Scottish League Cup, also known as the Co-operative Insurance Cup for sponsorship reasons. The competition started in July 2010 with the First Round and ended in Spring 2011 with the Final. Rangers are the current title holder, having beaten Celtic in the 2011 final.
The 2013–14 Scottish Premiership was the first season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The season began on 2 August 2013 and concluded on 11 May 2014. This was the first season of the competition being part of the newly formed Scottish Professional Football League after the merger of the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. This season also featured the introduction of an end of season play-off between the 11th-placed team in the top flight and the teams placed 2nd–4th in the Scottish Championship, to determine whether a second team will be relegated from the league.
The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As well as operating its league competition, which consists of the top four levels of the Scottish football league system, the SPFL also operates two domestic cup competitions, the Scottish League Cup and the Scottish Challenge Cup. While the Scottish Cup includes all the teams within the SPFL, the competition is run and organised by the Scottish Football Association.
Clydebank Football Club was a football club based in Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The first club to represent Clydebank — which was a rapidly developing industrial "boom town" at this time — in the Scottish Football League (SFL), the second senior Clydebank F.C. were newly formed when elected to Division Two in 1914. The lower division closed down a year later due to the impact of the First World War, but after two years playing in the Western League they were elevated directly to the top flight, three clubs from the north and east of the country having been forced to stand down for the duration of the war due to travel difficulties. The economic boost the war had given to Clydebank's shipyards and factories was probably a contributory factor to the local team being chosen to fill the vacancy.