Friday Facts - SPFL Premiership Split Analysis

This Friday Facts covers the SPFL Premierships Split. Tomorrow, Saturday 23rd April 2022, is the next instalment of the Premierships split.

Brought in season 2000-2001 when the top flight in Scotland was extended to 12 teams. Top flights in Europe can’t play more than a maximum of 40 games to compete in European Competitions and be recognised on a par with other top flight leagues in Europe. The SPFL required to come up with a solution for the number of teams they wanted in their top flight and came to the decision of splitting the league into two leagues of 6 after 33 games. Teams will either play the other 11 in the league on 3 occasions before the split, either 2 home; 1 away or vice versa.

Once the split happens where possible teams will play their last 5 games playing the other teams at the venue they’ve only played once during that season. Unfortunately it’s not always possible to do this neatly and on occasion teams need to play either 3 home games or away games to suit the fairest way to schedule. High profile derby’s such as the Old Firm, Dundee and Edinburgh derbies will never be split 3-1, they are always protected with a 2-2 split.

With the league being split into two teams in the bottom half can end up with a better league result against teams in the top half. They can’t be ranked higher than seventh and the league table will show them with a higher points total. Teams in the bottom half can’t qualify for the European competitions through league positioning even if they have the relevant points to finish in those positions.

There are only 3 teams; Aberdeen, Celtic and Motherwell who have featured in the Premiership in each of the seasons since the split was introduced. Celtic and Rangers have only every been in the top half in the seasons that they have featured in the Premiership.

Next Friday’s Friday Facts are still to be confirmed and will be shared as normal.