Scottish Football

The Scottish FA is the second oldest of all time having been founded in 1873 and presides over the professional and amateur pyramids. There are 4 professional tiers in Scotland which are run by the SPFL and are the Scottish Premier League, Scottish Championship, Scottish League 1, and Scottish League 2.

The premier cup competition is the Scottish Cup which can be entered by all teams and the Scottish League Cup which is exclusively for SPFL teams.

Premiership and Championship – Promotion and Relegation

There are 12 teams in the Premiership, and they all play each other 3 times before the league is split into two. Points are carried over and each team then plays the other 5 in their split one more time. The team at the top after this are crowned the champions.

The team in 12^th place is automatically relegated whilst the team in 11^th enter a relegation playoff against the Championship playoff winners in a 2-legged tie.

There are 10 teams in the Championship and the winner is automatically promoted the Premiership. The 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th placed teams enter into the playoffs. The 4^th placed team plays away at the 3^rd placed in a one-off game with the winner advancing to a one-off game away at the second placed team. The winner of this then enters the aforementioned play off against the Premiership team.

The bottom placed team in the Championship is automatically relegated and the second bottom team enters a similar playoff to that of the Premiership relegation playoffs.

European Qualification

Courtesy of their 14^th ranking in the coefficients by UEFA, Scotland have two Champions League spots. The Premiership champions enter the 3^rd qualifying round whilst the second placed team enter the 2^nd qualifying round.

The winner of the Scottish Cup winners qualify for the 3^rd qualifying round of the Europa League if they have not already qualified for the Champions League, if they have this spot will go to the 3^rd places team in the league.

Depending on the winners of the cup, the 3^rd or 5^th placed team along with the 4^th paced team will qualify for the second qualifying round of the inaugural UEFA Conference League.

Scottish Cup

Any team fully affiliated with the Scottish FA may enter the cup, and teams that are not fully affiliated may qualify regionally. The higher ranked teams enter the competition at a later stage accordingly.

The two biggest clubs in Scotland, Celtic and Rangers have dominated this competition throughout its history winning it 39 and 33 times, respectively. Queen’s Park are way behind in 3^rd with 10.

Scottish Premiership

The top division in Scotland has also been completely dominated by the big two teams, with Rangers taking 54 titles and Celtic slightly behind on 51. In joint 3^rd place are Aberdeen, Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian all with just 4.