Scottish Premier League ~ Watch Live Football Article

Currently the Scottish Premier League is ranked eleventh in the UEFA rankings. More people in Scotland watch this top league than any other nation in Europe. The Scottish Premier originally started with ten clubs and enlarged to twelve for the 2000-01 season. The Scottish Football League had two divisions (division one and division two) which clubs were relegated and promoted at the end of the season. Then it split into three structures, 1. premier division, 2. first division and 3. second division. Then eventually in the mid 1990's they split again into four structures, the fourth is known as the third division. In 2003 there was some controversy caused by the chairman of the members club. He voted against the ground share with Airdrie United, which stopped them from having a ten thousand fan stadium capacity. In 2005 the stadium size reduced to 6000 capacity to the Scottish Premier League. A new league structure which starts in 2008-09, which was proposed by Scottish Premier League chairman, announced he would like to create an "SPL2". The Scottish Premier was founded in 1998. Recently The Bank of Scotland has decided not to renew their sponsorship at the end of the 2006-07 season. Clydesdale Bank has been named the new sponsor. The Scottish Premier League games are being broadcasted live by Setanta Sports, an Irish broadcasting firm, which has been broadcasting since 2004-05. Previously BBC Scotland and Sky Sports was broadcasting the games. There are currently twelve clubs that are going to compete in the 2007-08 season. They are: Aberdeen,Celtic, Dundee united, Falkirk, Gretna, Hearts, Hibernian, Inverness, Kilmarnock, Mother Well, Rangers and St. Mirren. The number one ranked stadium to play in is Celtic park. The largest football stadium in the UK is Old Trafford. The most points held in one season is by Celtic at 103 points in 2001-02. Henrik Larsson is the most goal scorer in one season with 173 goals in 2000-01. The current champions of the Scottish Premier League are Celtic FC 2006-07. David Goodwillie is the youngest goalscorer at 16 years of age. The Ibrox Stadium is the only 5 star stadium in the league. In the 2008-09 season St. Mirren will move to a bigger stadium that seats 8000 fans. As of the 2006-07 season Celtic has the most wins at 252. Dundee United has the most losses at 162 in the 2006-07 season. The oldest player in the Scottish Premier League is Andy Millen at 41 years as of May 19 2007. Since the Scottish Premier League has went from 10 to 12 clubs it has operated on a "split league format" to prevent the need for a 44 game schedule. Under a new system after thirty-three games the division is split into two halves, then the clubs play an additional five games, taking their total to 38 games. The Scottish Premier League is a football club that is located at the top level of the Scottish football league system. The top club from the Scottish First Division is promoted to the Scottish Premier League, providing they meet certain criteria about their stadium.