| Football in Scotland has origins all the way back from the middle ages and an international side was actually formed before there was an official league. The Scotland football team was formed in 1872 but the first football league in Scotland was not formed until 1890. Since then the league has had many names, but is currently known as the Scottish Premier League or the Clydesdale Bank Premier League (after its current sponsors) and was created in 1998. Since 1998 Celtic have been victorious 6 times, while rivals Rangers have triumphed 5 times, however, they look set to equal Celtics haul this season after opening up a large lead at the top of the table. Rangers' Kris Boyd is the league's all-time top goal scorer with 162goals, surpassing Celtic's Henrik Larsson's 158 goals in December 2009.The current champions are Rangers who are looking very likely to win the Scottish Premier League as they are 13 points ahead (as of 16th March) of Celtic who are in 2nd place. The league is dominated every year by the Old Firm clubs Celtic and Rangers, who are the teams to beat for all other clubs.
See below a list of winners of the Scottish Premier League for the past ten years;
Season 1999-00 Winners Rangers Season 2000-01 Winners Celtic
Season 2001-02 Winners Celtic Season 2002-03 Winners Rangers
Season 2003-04 Winners Celtic Season 2004-05 Winners Rangers
Season 2005-06 Winners Celtic Season 2006-07 Winners Celtic
Season 2007-08 Winners Celtic Season 2008-09 Winners Rangers
Season 2009-10 Winners Rangers Season 2010-11 Winners Rangers
While the league is the main focus for all clubs there are two other domestic competitions in Scotland which are the Scottish Cup and the League Cup. The Scottish Cup has 6 rounds and then semi finals and the final. This cup can see "giant killers" appearing such as in 2006, Clyde beating Celtic 2-1 which usually happens due to big teams like Rangers and Celtics playing weak sides to save key player. However, in the case just mentioned, Celtic were not playing a weaker side, and were debuting a number of big-name signings such as Roy Keane. Perhaps the most famous shock in recent cup history was Celtics 3-1 loss to 2nd Division Inverness Caledonian Thistle on the 8th February 2000 which sparked the now world-famous headline ’Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic are Atrocious’. However Celtic's dominance have seen them lift the trophy 34 titles.
The League Cup sees 42 teams battle it out over many rounds resulting in semi finals and then the final of the competition. The League cup has seen Rangers win the trophy 25 times but Celtic are the current champions. You can see from the list below that the Scottish Premier League means more to the big clubs as the two competitions you see low level clubs in the final.
Winners of the League Cup over the past ten years;
Year 2000 Celtic 2 - 0 Aberdeen Year 2001 Celtic 3 - 0 Kilmarnock
Year 2002 Rangers 4 - 0 Ayr Year 2003 Rangers 2 - 1 Celtic
Year 2004 Livingston 2 - 0 Hibernian Year 2005 Rangers 5 - 1 Motherwell
Year 2006 Celtic 3 - 0 Dunfermline Year 2007 Hibernian 5 -1 Kilmarnock
Year 2008 Rangers 3 - 2 (pens) Dundee United Year 2009 Celtic 2 - 0 Rangers
Winners of the Scottish Cup over the past nine years;
Year 2001 Celtic 3 - 0 Hibernian Year 2002 Celtic 2 - 3 Rangers
Year 2003 Dundee 0 - 1 Rangers Year 2004 Dunfermline 1- 3 Celtic
Year 2005 Celtic 1 - 0 Dundee United Year 2006 Hearts 4 - 2 (pens) Gretna
Year 2007 Dunfermline 0 - 1 Celtic Year 2008 Queen of the South 2 - 3 Rangers
Year 2009 Rangers 1 - 0 Falkirk
There has always been one major criticism about the Scottish premier League and that is the dominance that Celtic and Rangers have had for so many years. They are both based in Glasgow which is the most populated area in Scotland resulting in the club having huge revenue streams compared to every other club in Scotland. An example of there dominance is that since 1998 there has only been one season when they haven't been in the top two spots in the league. The difference is Stadium size between Celtic and Rangers and the other clubs demonstrates the difference as the top two can accommodate over 55,000 fans where as the next biggest after that is Aberdeen's stadium which can hold just over 21,000. Many argue that this is not healthy for Scottish football as almost every match that is played against the big two is just so predictable, hence the league is not very exciting. However, Scottish fans do not see it this way, in fact when the Clydesdale Bank began its sponsorship of the Scottish Premier League, it cited to the BBC Sport website in 2007 that one of the swaying factors as being that “More people watch SPL football per head of population than any other nation in Europe”.
Over the last ten years, there has been much speculation about Rangers and Celtic leaving the Scottish Premier League as they are seen as just too good for the league. However other clubs argue that if the "Old Firm" were to leave then this would mean that sponsorship, T.V deals etc would have no reason to stay in Scotland. There would be massive repercussions for the other clubs as they would loose a lot of income that would leave Scottish football in taters. From that point of view you can see why for the sake of the rest of Scottish football, Rangers and Celtic shouldn't leave the league. On the other hand, a lot of people believe that it would be great for Scotland if their top two teams entered the English Premiership and competed, as they would give their top teams like Arsenal, Chelsea and Man United a run for their money. The Scottish Premier League is seen as the 15th best league in Europe where as the English Premiership is seen as the best, therefore you can see why Rangers and Celtic want to join the best league in Europe. A report in 2009 stated that Martin Bain of Rangers football club said that, "they would leave the Scottish league in the next ten years," however which league they would go to was not discussed.
This article was written by Ian Ryan on the 12th of March who is the webmaster of footballbettingtips.co.uk. He is here to guide you to success with your betting on football and in reference to this article the Scottish Premier League which for an outright bet is always a two horse race. Please gamble responsibly and use the website to increase your chances of winning
|
