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.
