2020–21 Scottish Premiership


The 2020–21 Scottish Premiership will be the eighth season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 6 July 2020, with the season due to begin on 1 August, following Scottish Government approval. Celtic are the defending champions.
Twelve teams will contest the league: Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee United, Hamilton Academical, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Livingston, Motherwell, Rangers, Ross County, St Johnstone and St Mirren.

Teams

The following teams changed division after the 2019–20 season.
Promoted from the Championship
Relegated to the Championship

Personnel and kits

TeamManagerCaptainKit manufacturerShirt sponsor
Aberdeen AdidasSaltire Energy
Celtic AdidasDafabet
Dundee United MacronUtilita
Hamilton Academical AdidasCullen
Hibernian Macron"Thank You NHS"
Kilmarnock HummelBrownings The Bakers
Livingston NikePhoenix Drilling Ltd
Motherwell MacronTBC
Rangers Castore32Red
Ross County MacronRoss-shire Engineering
St Johnstone MacronBinn Group
St Mirren JomaSkyview Capital

Managerial changes

Format

In the initial phase of the season, the 12 teams will 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 will be played, with 38 matches played by each team.

League summary

League table


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

After 33 matches, the league splits 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. The exact matches are determined by the position of the teams in the league table at the time of the split.

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

RankPlayerClubGoals
1 Martin BoyleHibernian2
2 Chris BurkeKilmarnock1
2 Liam CraigSt. Johnstone1
2 Nicky ClarkDundee United1
2 Ryan KentRangers1
2 Richard TaitSt. Mirren1

Hat-tricks

Attendances

These are the average attendances of the teams.

Awards

Premiership play-offs

The quarter-finals will be contested between the third and fourth placed teams in the Scottish Championship. The winners will advance to the semi-finals to face the second placed team in the Championship, and the winners of that tie will advance to the final to play-off against the 11th placed team in the Premiership, with the winners securing a place in the 2021–22 Scottish Premiership.

Broadcasting

Live matches (UK and Ireland)

Sky Sports has exclusive rights to the Scottish Premiership and will show up to 48 matches, whilst also broadcasting the play-offs. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, clubs will stream matches to fans on a pay-per-view or "virtual season ticket" basis, whilst capacities in stadia are limited due to social distancing restrictions.

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 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, and is usually broadcast on a Sunday evening.
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.