12 teams, 38 games: Why Scotland's League Is So Complicated?

The Scottish Premiership is the top-flight of Scottish football and comprises 12 teams. And yet each season is 38 games long.

38 into 12 doesn’t go, obviously, so how does that work?

More importantly, why does it work that way?

Written by Seb Stafford-Bloor, illustrated by Craig Silcock.

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#SPL #ScottishFootball

[Tifo]

It was the 2018-19 season when Hearts finished above St Johnstone, not 2019-20. Our mistake.

[scottwhitley]

It’s actually quite good in the fact that the split means there’s always a good relegation battle and that teams going for the title don’t have the advantage of playing lower placed teams.

[wiseman]

Talking about complicated league system, I want to know more about South American leagues system, where many leagues are divided into Apertura and Clausura, and how relegations are determined through coefficients ranking.

[DaveHogg]

You wouldn't divide 38 by 12, you would divide it by 11.

[colinlittlewood]

I had to format a London Handball league a few years back. There were 10 teams in the league and all thought that 9 games each was too few but 18 would be too many, so I borrowed this format. It's definitely an imperfect compromise but sometimes the best of the options available.

[PipJim]

Summary:
- 12 teams play each other 3 times = 33 games.
- The league is then split in half, top 6 and bottom 6.
- teams from each half play each other once = 5 games.
- Total: 38 games.

[BigTawfiq]

00:14 - 12 wouldn't need to go into 38, you would need to prove 11 doesn't go into 38. 20 doesn't go into 38 either (EPL). but 19 does... teams don't play themselves.

[briangrajeda]

Do a video about Liga MX they have a "interesting" playoff and regulation scenarios

[thMandalorian]

In just over 3 minutes i finally understand how the Scottish Premiership finally works!

[MeetTheCynic]

Love to see you guys doing Scottish Football videos but at least spell Livingston correctly 😑

[md]

The league in Northern Ireland works in this way too. The only difference being that there is a European playoff between the teams in 3-7 meaning that there is something meaningful for the teams in the bottom half of the split to play for at the end of the season.

[sarahjessicafarter]

1:11 Livingston is spelt wrong.

1:19 Hearts finished 12th that season and were relegated.

Neither of these errors matter, I just felt like pointing them out, still a great short explainer video.

[danielhay]

You could have just said "so that there are four old firm games" and ended the video there honestly

[mattngai]

I have always wondered what makes your videos so top-notch.

Informative? Yes.
Good visuals? Yes.
Easy to understand? Yes.
Your narrating voice? Absolute YES!

[ZnakeTech]

Similar system in Denmark, for the past few seasons(don't remember exactly when it was introduced), except all teams play each other twice, then it splits, and they play each team within the group twice as well - and there is playoff matches for relegation, and one or two of the European tournament spots. Not really sure if I like it or not, but each team used to play each other 3 times, which meant the top teams from the previous season got an advantage, as they were given extra home games.

[Snaily]

The Cymru Premier uses a fairly similar system, except the first phase has each team play eachother twice instead of 3 times, and the second phase sees a further 2 games against each side in a team's half of the table, for a total of 32 games and teams always playing 50% of games at home.

[md-iotb]

For a few years now there's a similar system in Austria but with each team having the same amount of home and away games:

- 12 teams playing against each other twice
- After 22 games, split in two groups with the points divided in two
- In each play-off the teams play against each other twice.
- After 32 games, the 7th and 8th play one match, the winner of which plays two games against the 5th (or 6th, depending on how many clubs can play international). And the winner of that duel gets the last place in the UEFA tournaments.

Nobody likes that system but I think at least it's better than the unjust Scottish mode.

[bobbins]

J-League system is interesting too.
The league resets at the midway point of the season during a break and the two winners face each other in a final at the end of the season to determine the league champion.

Edit: Someone mentioned in the reply, but this system is no longer in place, I hadn't realised it changed. My apologies!

[BOABModels]

It says a lot about the coverage of Scottish football that I live in England yet had no knowledge of this format.

[scottyc]

I think the league should be extended to 14 teams where..
-Everyone plays each other twice (home & away) =26 games
-league then splits top 7 and bottom 7 and everyone plays each other twice again (home & away) =12 games
-Still 38 games season.
-Everyone gets equal share of home and away games.