2019–20 Scottish Premiership
Season | 2019–20 |
---|---|
Dates | 3 August 2019 – 8 March 2020 |
Champions | Celtic 7th Premiership title 51st Scottish title |
Relegated | Heart of Midlothian |
Champions League | Celtic |
Europa League | Rangers Motherwell Aberdeen |
Matches played | 179 |
Goals scored | 490 (2.74 per match) |
Top goalscorer | Odsonne Édouard (22 goals)[1][2] |
Biggest home win | Celtic 7–0 St Johnstone[3] (3 August 2019) |
Biggest away win | St Johnstone 0–4 Rangers[3] (22 September 2019) Aberdeen 0–4 Celtic[3] (27 October 2019) Ross County 0–4 Rangers[3] (30 October 2019) Motherwell 0–4 Celtic[3] (5 February 2020) |
Highest scoring | Celtic 7–0 St Johnstone[3] (3 August 2019) Motherwell 2–5 Celtic[3] (10 August 2019) Rangers 6–1 Hibernian[3] (11 August 2019) Heart of Midlothian 5–2 St Mirren[3] (9 November 2019) |
Longest winning run | 11 matches[3] Celtic |
Longest unbeaten run | 16 matches[3] Rangers |
Longest winless run | 11 matches[3] Hamilton Academical |
Longest losing run | 7 matches[3] Kilmarnock |
Highest attendance | 59,131[3] Celtic 2–1 Aberdeen (21 December 2019) |
Lowest attendance | 1,075[3] Hamilton Academical 2–1 Livingston (28 September 2019) |
Total attendance | 2,741,726[3] |
Average attendance | 15,316[3](![]() |
← 2018–19 2020–21 →
All statistics correct as of 11 March 2020. |
The 2019–20 Scottish Premiership (known as the Ladbrokes Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the seventh season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 21 June 2019 and the season began on 3 August 2019.[4] Celtic were the defending champions.
Twelve teams contested the league: Aberdeen, Celtic, Hamilton Academical, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Livingston, Motherwell, Rangers, Ross County, St Johnstone and St Mirren.
On 13 March 2020, the Scottish football season was suspended with immediate effect due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[5] The Premiership was curtailed on 18 May 2020, with average points per game used to determine final league positions. As a result, Celtic were awarded a ninth consecutive title, whilst Hearts were relegated to the Championship,[6] a decision which prompted the Edinburgh-based club to pursue ultimately unsuccessful legal action.[7]
Teams
The following teams have changed division since the 2018–19 season.
Promoted from Scottish Championship
Relegated to Scottish Championship
Stadia and locations
Aberdeen | Celtic | Hamilton Academical | Heart of Midlothian |
---|---|---|---|
Pittodrie Stadium | Celtic Park | New Douglas Park | Tynecastle Park |
Capacity: 20,866[10] | Capacity: 60,411[11] | Capacity: 6,018[12] | Capacity: 20,099[13] |
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Hibernian | Kilmarnock | ||
Easter Road | Rugby Park | ||
Capacity: 20,421[14] | Capacity: 17,889[15] | ||
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Livingston | Motherwell | ||
Almondvale Stadium | Fir Park | ||
Capacity: 9,512[16] | Capacity: 13,677[17] | ||
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Rangers | Ross County | St Johnstone | St Mirren |
Ibrox Stadium | Victoria Park | McDiarmid Park | St Mirren Park |
Capacity: 50,817[18] | Capacity: 6,541[19] | Capacity: 10,696[20] | Capacity: 7,937[21] |
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Personnel and kits
Team | Manager | Captain | Kit manufacturer | Shirt sponsor |
---|---|---|---|---|
Aberdeen | ![]() |
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Adidas | Saltire Energy |
Celtic | ![]() |
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New Balance | Dafabet |
Hamilton Academical | ![]() |
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Adidas | Euro Mechanical Handling |
Heart of Midlothian | ![]() |
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Umbro | Save the Children |
Hibernian | ![]() |
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Macron | Hibernian Community Foundation |
Kilmarnock | ![]() |
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Nike | QTS |
Livingston | ![]() |
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Nike | Phoenix Drilling Ltd |
Motherwell | ![]() |
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Macron | Paddy Power (unbranded) |
Rangers | ![]() |
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Hummel | 32Red |
Ross County | ![]() ![]() |
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Macron | McEwan Fraser Legal |
St Johnstone | ![]() |
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Macron | Binn Group |
St Mirren | ![]() |
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Joma | Skyview Capital |
Managerial changes
Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Position in table | Incoming manager | Date of appointment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kilmarnock | ![]() |
Signed by Scotland | 20 May 2019[22] | Pre-season | ![]() |
16 June 2019[23] |
Celtic | ![]() |
End of interim spell | 25 May 2019[24] | ![]() |
31 May 2019[25] | |
St Mirren | ![]() |
Mutual consent | 26 June 2019[26] | ![]() |
29 June 2019[27] | |
Heart of Midlothian | ![]() |
Sacked | 31 October 2019[28] | 11th | ![]() |
7 December 2019[29] |
Hibernian | ![]() |
4 November 2019[30] | 10th | ![]() |
15 November 2019[31] | |
Kilmarnock | ![]() |
17 December 2019[32] | 5th | ![]() |
30 December 2019[33] | |
St Johnstone | ![]() |
Resigned | 2 May 2020[34] | 7th | ![]() |
2 May 2020[34] |
Format
In the initial phase of the season, the 12 teams play a round-robin tournament whereby each team plays each one of the other teams three times. After 33 games, the league splits into two sections of six teams, with each team playing each other in that section. The league attempts to balance the fixture list so that teams in the same section play each other twice at home and twice away, but sometimes this is impossible. A total of 228 matches were due be played (38 matches by each team).
League summary
League table
Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | PPG | Qualification or relegation[a] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Celtic (C) | 30 | 26 | 2 | 2 | 89 | 19 | +70 | 80 | 2.67 | Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round |
2 | Rangers | 29 | 21 | 4 | 4 | 64 | 19 | +45 | 67 | 2.31 | Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round[b] |
3 | Motherwell | 30 | 14 | 4 | 12 | 41 | 38 | +3 | 46 | 1.53 | Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round |
4 | Aberdeen | 30 | 12 | 9 | 9 | 40 | 36 | +4 | 45 | 1.50 | |
5 | Livingston | 30 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 41 | 39 | +2 | 39 | 1.30 | |
6 | St Johnstone | 29 | 8 | 12 | 9 | 28 | 46 | −18 | 36 | 1.24 | |
7 | Hibernian | 30 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 42 | 49 | −7 | 37 | 1.23 | |
8 | Kilmarnock | 30 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 31 | 41 | −10 | 33 | 1.10 | |
9 | St Mirren | 30 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 24 | 41 | −17 | 29 | 0.97 | |
10 | Ross County | 30 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 29 | 60 | −31 | 29 | 0.97 | |
11 | Hamilton Academical | 30 | 6 | 9 | 15 | 30 | 50 | −20 | 27 | 0.90 | |
12 | Heart of Midlothian (R) | 30 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 31 | 52 | −21 | 23 | 0.77 | Relegation to the Championship |
Rules for classification: 1) Points per game; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-Head goal difference; 6) Play-off (only if deciding champion, UEFA competitions qualification, second stage group allocation or relegation).[36]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:
- ^ All play-off matches were cancelled, as clubs voted to curtail the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[35]
- ^ Since the 2019–20 Scottish Cup was postponed and could not be completed by the UEFA registration deadline of 3 August 2020, the spot awarded to the Scottish Cup winners (Europa League second qualifying round) was passed to the second-placed team, while the fourth-placed team also qualified for European competition.
Positions by round
Leader and Champions League first qualifying round | |
Europa League second qualifying round | |
Europa League first qualifying round | |
Relegated to the Championship |
Results
Matches 1–22
Teams play each other twice, once at home and once away.
Matches 23–33
Teams play each other once, either home or away.
Matches 34–38
It was intended that after 33 matches, the league would split into two sections of six teams i.e. the top six and the bottom six, with the teams playing every other team in their section once (either at home or away). The exact matches would be determined by the position of the teams in the league table at the time of the split. However, the season's premature finish, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meant that this split was never applied.
Season statistics
Scoring
Top scorers
Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() |
Celtic | 22 |
2 | ![]() |
Rangers | 13 |
3 | ![]() |
Hibernian | 12 |
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Rangers | ||
5 | ![]() |
Aberdeen | 11 |
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Celtic | ||
7 | ![]() |
Celtic | 10 |
Hat-tricks
Player | For | Against | Score | Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Celtic | St Johnstone | 7–0 (H) | 3 August 2019 |
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Rangers | Hibernian | 6–1 (H) | 11 August 2019 |
Hamilton Academical | 5–0 (H) | 6 October 2019 | ||
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Hibernian | St Johnstone | 1–4 (A) | 9 November 2019 |
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Livingston | Ross County | 4–0 (H) | 21 December 2019 |
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Celtic | St Mirren | 5–0 (H) | 7 March 2020 |
Attendances
These are the average attendances of the teams.
Pos | Team | Total | High | Low | Average | Change |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Celtic | 869,160 | 59,131 | 54,584 | 57,944 | +0.3% |
2 | Rangers | 689,327 | 50,012 | 47,583 | 49,237 | −0.7% |
3 | Heart of Midlothian | 251,262 | 19,313 | 14,681 | 16,750 | −4.6% |
4 | Hibernian | 250,923 | 20,197 | 14,486 | 16,728 | −5.7% |
5 | Aberdeen | 207,540 | 16,410 | 12,325 | 13,836 | −7.3% |
6 | Kilmarnock | 87,844 | 9,196 | 4,083 | 5,856 | −15.1% |
7 | Motherwell | 83,618 | 8,822 | 3,191 | 5,574 | +2.3% |
8 | St Mirren | 80,647 | 7,332 | 4,240 | 5,376 | +0.5% |
9 | Ross County[a] | 65,302 | 6,575 | 3,301 | 4,664 | +21.2% |
10 | St Johnstone | 65,461 | 8,743 | 2,231 | 4,091 | +5.1% |
11 | Livingston | 49,598 | 8,640 | 1,076 | 3,542 | −3.3% |
12 | Hamilton Academical | 41,044 | 5,300 | 1,075 | 2,565 | −9.3% |
League total | 2,741,726 | 59,131 | 1,075 | 15,316 | −4.1% |
- ^ Club was playing in the Scottish Championship in the previous season.
Awards
Month | Manager of the Month | Player of the Month | Ref. | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Manager | Club | Player | Club | ||
August | ![]() |
Celtic | ![]() |
Celtic | |
September | ![]() |
Rangers | ![]() |
Rangers | |
October | ![]() |
Kilmarnock | ![]() |
Celtic | |
November | ![]() |
Celtic | ![]() |
Hibernian | |
December | ![]() |
Rangers | ![]() |
Hibernian | |
January | ![]() |
Livingston | ![]() |
Celtic | |
February | ![]() |
Celtic | ![]() |
Ross County |
Broadcasting
Live matches
The SPFL permits Sky Sports and BT Sport up to six live home matches between the broadcasters from each club - although this is only four for Rangers and Celtic. Sky Sports and BT Sport's deal allows them to broadcast 30 games each (and the play-offs for BT). The deal roughly provides £21m to SPFL per season.[49] This is the final season of the contract; from 2020–21, Sky Sports will have exclusive rights to Scottish Premiership matches.[50]
Highlights
Sky Sports hold the rights to Saturday night highlights - however, they do not broadcast a dedicated programme and instead merely show the goals of the Premiership matches on Sky Sports News in their Goals Express programme - which primarily is focused on goals from the English Football League. Gaelic-language channel BBC Alba has the rights to broadcast the repeat in full of 38 Saturday 3pm matches "as live" at 5.30pm. The main Premiership highlights programme is BBC Scotland's Sportscene programme, which shows in-depth highlights of all six Premiership matches every weekend. The SPFL also uploads the goals from every Premiership match onto its YouTube channel - available from 6pm on a Sunday for UK and Ireland viewers and 10pm on a Saturday for those worldwide.
References
- ^ a b "Scottish Premiership Top Scorers". BBC. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ a b "Scottish Premiership Scoring Stats - 2019-20". ESPN. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Scottish Premiership Performance Stats - 2019-20". ESPN. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
- ^ "Key dates for 2019/20". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
- ^ "Coronavirus joint response group update". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
- ^ "Celtic champions & Hearts relegated after SPFL ends season". BBC Sport. 18 May 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
- ^ Murray, Ewan (15 June 2020). "Hearts begin legal action against SPFL as Premiership relegation is confirmed". The Guardian.
- ^ "Ross County 4–0 Queen of the South". BBC Sport. 26 April 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
- ^ "Dundee 0–1 Hamilton: Tony Andreu penalty sends Dundee down". BBC Sport. 4 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
- ^ "Aberdeen Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
- ^ "Celtic Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
- ^ "Hamilton Academical Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
- ^ McLean, David (21 June 2017). "Demolition of Tynecastle main stand nears completion". EEN. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
- ^ "Hibernian Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
- ^ "Kilmarnock Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
- ^ "Livingston Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
- ^ "Motherwell Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
- ^ "Rangers Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
- ^ "Ross County Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
- ^ "St Johnstone Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
- ^ "St Mirren Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
- ^ "Steve Clarke is named new Scotland manager". BBC. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
- ^ "Kilmarnock appoint Angelo Alessio as the club's new manager". BBC. 16 June 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
- ^ "Heart of Midlothian 1–2 Celtic". BBC. 25 May 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- ^ "Celtic appoint Neil Lennon as manager for second time". BBC. 31 May 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- ^ "Oran Kearney: St Mirren confirm manager's departure". BBC. 26 June 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ^ "St Mirren: Jim Goodwin appointed two days after Oran Kearney leaves". BBC. 29 June 2019. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
- ^ "Craig Levein: Hearts sack manager & director of football". BBC. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
- ^ "Hearts: Daniel Stendel 'can take club forward' after appointment". BBC. 7 December 2019. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
- ^ "Hibernian: Paul Heckingbottom sacked as head coach". BBC. 4 November 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- ^ "Jack Ross: Hibernian appoint former Sunderland manager". BBC. 15 November 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
- ^ "Angelo Alessio: Italian sacked as Kilmarnock manager". BBC. 17 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
- ^ "Kilmarnock: Alex Dyer appointed manager until the end of the season". BBC. 30 December 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
- ^ a b "St Johnstone: Tommy Wright quits as manager after seven years". BBC. 2 May 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
- ^ "Dundee Utd, Raith & Cove win titles and reconstruction talks start after Dundee vote". BBC Sport. 15 April 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
- ^ "The Rules of the Scottish Professional Football League" (PDF). SPFL. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
- ^ "Aberdeen Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ "Celtic Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ "Hamilton Academical Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ "Heart of Midlothian Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ "Hibernian Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ "Kilmarnock Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ "Livingston Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ "Motherwell Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ "Rangers Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ "Ross County Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ "St Johnstone Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ "St Mirren Performance Stats". ESPN. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ Kyle, Gregor (10 September 2015). "SPFL strike TV deal with Sky and BT for Premiership and Play Off coverage". dailyrecord. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
- ^ McLaughlin, Chris (19 November 2018). "Scottish Premiership: Matches to be shown live on Sky only as new £160m TV deal struck". BBC Sport. Retrieved 27 February 2019.