2016–17 Scottish Premiership

The 2016–17 Scottish Premiership (known as the Ladbrokes Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the fourth season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 17 June 2016.^[5] The season began on 6 August 2016.^[6] Celtic were the defending champions.

Scottish Premiership

Season	2016–17
Dates	6 August 2016 – 21 May 2017
Champions	Celtic 4th Premiership title 48th Scottish title
Relegated	Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Champions League	Celtic
Europa League	Aberdeen Rangers St Johnstone
Matches played	228
Goals scored	628 (2.75 per match)
Top goalscorer	Liam Boyce (23 goals)[1][2]
Biggest home win	Celtic 6–1 Kilmarnock (24 September 2016)[3][4] Aberdeen 7–2 Motherwell (15 February 2017)[3][4]
Biggest away win	Dundee 0–7 Aberdeen (31 March 2017)[3][4]
Highest scoring	Aberdeen 7–2 Motherwell (15 February 2017)[3][4]
Longest winning run	22 matches:[4] Celtic
Longest unbeaten run	38 matches:[4] Celtic
Longest winless run	14 matches:[4] Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Longest losing run	7 matches:[4] Dundee
Highest attendance	58,967[4] Celtic 2–0 Heart of Midlothian (21 May 2017)
Lowest attendance	1,548[4] Hamilton Academical 1–1 Ross County (8 April 2017)
Total attendance	3,184,955[4]
Average attendance	13,969 (4,325)[4]
← 2015–16 2017–18 →

Twelve teams contested the league: Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee, Hamilton Academical, Heart of Midlothian, Inverness CT, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Partick Thistle, Rangers, Ross County and St Johnstone.

On 2 April 2017, Celtic won their sixth consecutive title and 48th overall after a 5–0 win away to Hearts, with eight matches still to play and would go on to complete the season unbeaten.^[7][8][9]

Teams

The following teams have changed division since the 2015–16 season.

To Premiership

Promoted from Scottish Championship

• Rangers

From Premiership

Relegated to Scottish Championship

• Dundee United

Stadia and locations

Aberdeen	Celtic	Dundee	Hamilton Academical
Pittodrie Stadium	Celtic Park	Dens Park	New Douglas Park
Capacity: 20,866[10]	Capacity: 60,411[11]	Capacity: 11,506[12]	Capacity: 5,510[13]
Heart of Midlothian	Aberdeen Dundee Heart of Midlothian Inverness Caledonian Thistle Kilmarnock Rangers Ross County St. Johnstone Celtic Hamilton Motherwell Partick Thistle Location of teams in 2016–17 Scottish Premiership		Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Tynecastle Stadium			Caledonian Stadium
Capacity: 17,480[14]			Capacity: 7,512[15]
Kilmarnock			Motherwell
Rugby Park			Fir Park
Capacity: 17,891[16]			Capacity: 13,677[17]
Partick Thistle	Rangers	Ross County	St Johnstone
Firhill Stadium	Ibrox Stadium	Victoria Park	McDiarmid Park
Capacity: 10,102[18]	Capacity: 50,817[19]	Capacity: 6,541[20]	Capacity: 10,696[21]

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Aberdeen	Derek McInnes	Ryan Jack	Adidas	Saltire Energy
Celtic	Brendan Rodgers	Scott Brown	New Balance	Dafabet
Dundee	Neil McCann (interim)	James McPake	Puma	McEwan Fraser Legal
Hamilton Academical	Martin Canning	Michael Devlin	Adidas	SuperSeal (H), NetBet (A)
Heart of Midlothian	Ian Cathro	Perry Kitchen	Puma	Save the Children
Inverness CT	Richie Foran	Gary Warren	Carbrini	McEwan Fraser Legal
Kilmarnock	Lee McCulloch (interim)	Steven Smith	Nike	QTS
Motherwell	Stephen Robinson	Keith Lasley	Macron	Motorpoint
Partick Thistle	Alan Archibald	Abdul Osman	Joma	Kingsford Capital Management
Rangers	Pedro Caixinha	Lee Wallace	Puma	32Red
Ross County	Jim McIntyre	Paul Quinn	Macron	Stanley CRC Evans Offshore
St Johnstone	Tommy Wright	Steven Anderson	Joma	Alan Storrar Cars

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Celtic	Ronny Deila	Resigned	15 May 2016 [22]	Pre-season	Brendan Rodgers	20 May 2016[23]
Inverness CT	John Hughes	Resigned	20 May 2016[24]		Richie Foran	30 May 2016[25]
Heart of Midlothian	Robbie Neilson	Signed by MK Dons	2 December 2016[26]	2nd	Ian Cathro	5 December 2016[27]
Rangers	Mark Warburton	Resigned	10 February 2017[28]	3rd	Pedro Caixinha	13 March 2017[29]
Kilmarnock	Lee Clark	Signed by Bury	15 February 2017[30]	6th	Lee McCulloch (interim)	15 February 2017[30]
Motherwell	Mark McGhee	Sacked	28 February 2017[31]	10th	Stephen Robinsona	28 February 2017[31][32]
Dundee	Paul Hartley	Sacked	17 April 2017[33]	11th	Neil McCann (interim)	18 April 2017[34]

a.^ Initially interim, made permanent 15 March 2017

Format

In the initial phase of the season, each of the twelve teams play the other eleven teams three times. After 33 rounds, the league splits into two sections, a top six and a bottom six, with each team playing all the other teams in their section once. The league attempts to balance the fixture list so that teams in the same section have played 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

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation[a]
1	Celtic (C)	38	34	4	0	106	25	+81	106	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round[b]
2	Aberdeen	38	24	4	10	74	35	+39	76	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round
3	Rangers	38	19	10	9	56	44	+12	67	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
4	St Johnstone	38	17	7	14	50	46	+4	58
5	Heart of Midlothian	38	12	10	16	55	52	+3	46
6	Partick Thistle	38	10	12	16	38	54	−16	42
7	Ross County	38	11	13	14	48	58	−10	46
8	Kilmarnock	38	9	14	15	36	56	−20	41
9	Motherwell	38	10	8	20	46	69	−23	38
10	Dundee	38	10	7	21	38	62	−24	37
11	Hamilton Academical (O)	38	7	14	17	37	56	−19	35	Qualification for the Premiership play-off final
12	Inverness Caledonian Thistle (R)	38	7	13	18	44	71	−27	34	Relegation to the Scottish Championship

Source: Scottish Premiership, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Play-off (only if deciding champion, UEFA competitions qualification and second stage group allocation).^[35]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Teams played each other three times (33 matches), before the league split into two groups (the top six and the bottom six) for the last five matches.
2. Since the winners of the 2016–17 Scottish Cup, Celtic, qualified for European competition based on league position, the spot awarded to the Scottish cup winners (Europa League second qualifying round) was passed to the second-placed team and the spot awarded to the second-placed team (Europa League first qualifying round) was passed to the fourth-placed team.

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. In order to preserve chronological progress, any postponed matches are not included in the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards. For example, if a match is scheduled for matchday 13, but then postponed and played between days 16 and 17, it will be added to the standings for day 16.

	Leader – Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round
	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round
	Qualification to Premiership play-off final
	Relegation to 2017–18 Scottish Championship

Team \ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38
Celtic	3	5	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Aberdeen	7	9	4	7	7	4	2	2	2	2	2	3	2	2	3	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Rangers	6	1	1	2	3	5	7	5	4	5	5	2	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
St Johnstone	8	2	7	9	5	3	4	4	5	4	3	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Heart of Midlothian	9	11	5	3	2	2	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Partick Thistle	2	3	8	11	12	12	12	12	11	11	9	7	8	11	12	11	12	12	9	6	7	6	7	9	7	7	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
Ross County	11	8	3	4	4	7	6	7	8	7	10	11	12	8	8	7	7	6	6	8	6	7	8	7	9	9	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	7	8	7	7
Kilmarnock	10	6	10	10	10	9	11	11	9	8	7	8	7	9	11	6	6	7	8	10	10	8	9	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	8	7	8	8
Motherwell	4	7	9	8	8	6	5	6	6	9	11	9	10	6	6	9	9	8	10	7	9	10	6	6	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	11	10	11	11	10	9	9
Dundee	1	4	6	5	6	8	9	10	12	12	12	12	11	12	7	10	10	10	7	9	8	9	10	10	6	6	7	8	8	8	9	9	11	9	9	9	10	10
Hamilton Academical	5	10	11	6	9	10	10	9	10	10	8	10	9	10	10	8	8	9	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	12	11	11	12	11	11	10	9	10	10	11	11	11
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	12	12	12	12	11	11	8	8	7	6	6	6	6	7	9	12	11	11	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	11	12	12	11	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12

Source: BBC Sport

Results

Matches 1–22

Teams play each other twice, once at home and once away.

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	DND	HAM	HOM	INV	KIL	MOT	PAR	RAN	ROS	STJ
Aberdeen	—	0–1	3–0	2–1	0–0	1–1	5–1	7–2	2–1	2–1	4–0	0–0
Celtic	4–1	—	2–1	1–0	4–0	3–0	6–1	2–0	1–0	5–1	2–0	1–0
Dundee	1–3	0–1	—	1–1	3–2	2–1	1–1	2–0	0–2	1–2	0–0	3–0
Hamilton Academical	1–0	0–3	0–1	—	3–3	1–1	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–2	1–0	1–1
Heart of Midlothian	0–1	1–2	2–0	3–1	—	5–1	4–0	3–0	1–1	2–0	0–0	2–2
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	1–3	2–2	3–1	1–1	3–3	—	1–1	1–2	0–0	0–1	2–3	2–1
Kilmarnock	0–4	0–1	2–0	0–0	2–0	1–1	—	1–2	2–2	1–1	3–2	0–1
Motherwell	1–3	3–4	0–0	4–2	1–3	0–3	0–0	—	2–0	0–2	4–1	1–2
Partick Thistle	1–2	1–4	2–0	2–2	1–2	2–0	0–0	1–1	—	1–2	1–1	0–2
Rangers	2–1	1–2	1–0	1–1	2–0	1–0	3–0	2–1	2–0	—	0–0	1–1
Ross County	2–1	0–4	1–3	1–1	2–2	3–2	2–0	1–1	1–3	1–1	—	0–2
St Johnstone	0–0	2–4	2–1	3–0	1–0	3–0	0–1	1–1	1–2	1–1	2–4	—

Source: Scottish Premiership
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Matches 23–33

Teams play every other team once (either at home or away).

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	DND	HAM	HOM	INV	KIL	MOT	PAR	RAN	ROS	STJ
Aberdeen	—	—	—	—	2–0	1–0	—	1–0	2–0	0–3	1–0	—
Celtic	1–0	—	—	2–0	—	—	3–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	—	—
Dundee	0–7	1–2	—	0–2	—	—	1–1	—	0–1	2–1	—	—
Hamilton Academical	1–0	—	—	—	—	3–0	1–1	—	—	—	1–1	1–0
Heart of Midlothian	—	0–5	1–0	4–0	—	1–1	—	—	—	4–1	0–1	—
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	—	0–4	2–2	—	—	—	1–1	—	—	2–1	1–1	0–3
Kilmarnock	1–2	—	—	—	0–0	—	—	1–2	1–1	0–0	—	—
Motherwell	—	—	1–5	0–0	0–3	4–2	—	—	—	—	—	1–2
Partick Thistle	—	—	—	2–0	2–0	1–1	—	1–0	—	—	2–1	0–1
Rangers	—	—	—	4–0	—	—	—	1–1	2–0	—	1–1	3–2
Ross County	—	2–2	2–1	—	—	—	1–2	1–2	—	—	—	1–2
St Johnstone	1–2	2–5	2–0	—	1–0	—	0–2	—	—	—	—	—

Source: Scottish Premiership
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

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 (either at home or away). The exact matches are determined by the position of the teams in the league table at the time of the split.

Top six Home \ Away ABE CEL HOM PAR RAN STJ Aberdeen — 1–3 — — — 0–2 Celtic — — 2–0 — — 4–1 Heart of Midlothian 1–2 — — 2–2 — — Partick Thistle 0–6 0–5 — — 1–2 — Rangers 1–2 1–5 2–1 — — — St Johnstone — — 1–0 1–0 1–2 — Source: Scottish Premiership Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Bottom six Home \ Away DND HAM INV KIL MOT ROS Dundee — — 0–2 — — 1–1 Hamilton Academical 4–0 — — 0–2 0–1 — Inverness Caledonian Thistle — 2–1 — — 3–2 — Kilmarnock 0–1 — 2–1 — — 1–2 Motherwell 2–3 — — 3–1 — 0–1 Ross County — 3–2 4–0 — — — Source: Scottish Premiership Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of matches played on 21 May 2017

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Liam Boyce	Ross County	23
2	Scott Sinclair	Celtic	21
3	Moussa Dembélé	Celtic	17
4	Stuart Armstrong	Celtic	15
	Louis Moult	Motherwell
6	Kris Doolan	Partick Thistle	14
7	Adam Rooney	Aberdeen	12
	Leigh Griffiths	Celtic
	Jamie Walker	Hearts
10	Kenny Miller	Rangers	11

Source:^[1][2]

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Reference
Liam Boyce	Ross County	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	3–2 (A)	13 August 2016	[36]
Moussa Dembélé	Celtic	Rangers	5–1 (H)	10 September 2016	[37]
Louis Moult4	Motherwell	Hamilton Academical	4–2 (H)	17 September 2016	[38]
Moussa Dembélé	Celtic	St Johnstone	5–2 (A)	5 February 2017	[39]
Adam Rooney	Aberdeen	Motherwell	7–2 (H)	15 February 2017	[40]
Andrew Considine	Aberdeen	Dundee	7–0 (A)	31 March 2017	[41]
Scott Sinclair	Celtic	Heart of Midlothian	5–0 (A)	2 April 2017	[42]
Liam Boyce4	Ross County	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	4–0 (H)	28 April 2017	[43]
Scott Wright	Aberdeen	Partick Thistle	6–0 (A)	21 May 2017	[44]

Notes

• (H) – Home; (A) – Away
• ⁴ Player scored 4 goals

Awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Ref.
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Brendan Rodgers	Celtic	Liam Boyce	Ross County	[45]
September	Richie Foran	Inverness CT	Moussa Dembélé	Celtic
October	Brendan Rodgers	Celtic	Adam Barton	Partick Thistle
November	Robbie Neilson	Heart of Midlothian	Bjørn Johnsen	Heart of Midlothian
December	Brendan Rodgers	Celtic	Stuart Armstrong	Celtic
January	No awards due to winter break
February	Paul Hartley	Dundee	Moussa Dembélé	Celtic
March	Derek McInnes	Aberdeen	Stuart Armstrong	Celtic
April	Brendan Rodgers	Celtic	Liam Boyce	Ross County

Premiership play-offs

The quarter-final was contested between the 3rd and 4th placed teams (Dundee United and Greenock Morton) in the Scottish Championship. After defeating Greenock Morton 5–1 over two legs, Dundee United advanced to the semi-finals to face the 2nd placed team (Falkirk) in the Championship. Dundee United progressed to the play-off final following a 4–3 aggregate victory, but then lost 1–0 on aggregate to Hamilton Academical in the final. Hamilton therefore retained their place in the Premiership for the 2017–18 season.

	Quarter-final							Semi-final							Final
															1	Hamilton Academical	0	1	1
								2	Falkirk	2	1	3			3	Dundee United	0	0	0
	3	Dundee United	2	3	5			3	Dundee United	2	2	4
	4	Greenock Morton	1	0	1

Quarter-final

First leg

Greenock Morton v Dundee United

9 May 2017	Greenock Morton	1–2	Dundee United	Greenock
19:45	O'Ware 7'	BBC Report	Murray 51' Spittal 65'	Stadium: Cappielow Attendance: 3,306 Referee: Willie Collum

Second leg

Dundee United v Greenock Morton

12 May 2017	Dundee United	3–0 (5–1 agg.)	Greenock Morton	Dundee
19:45	Murray 52' Kuaté 64' Spittal 81'	BBC Report		Stadium: Tannadice Park Attendance: 6,606 Referee: Andrew Dallas

Semi-final

First leg

Dundee United v Falkirk

16 May 2017	Dundee United	2–2	Falkirk	Dundee
19:45	Murray 16' Spittal 53'	BBC Report	Craigen 27' McKee 59'	Stadium: Tannadice Park Attendance: 7,034 Referee: Bobby Madden

Second leg

Falkirk v Dundee United

19 May 2017	Falkirk	1–2 (3–4 agg.)	Dundee United	Falkirk
19:45	Craigen 11'	BBC Report	Murray 76' Dixon 87'	Stadium: Falkirk Stadium Attendance: 7,926 Referee: Kevin Clancy

Final

First leg

Dundee United v Hamilton Academical

25 May 2017	Dundee United	0–0	Hamilton Academical	Dundee
19:45		BBC Report		Stadium: Tannadice Park Attendance: 9,386 Referee: Steven McLean

Second leg

Hamilton Academical v Dundee United

28 May 2017	Hamilton Academical	1–0 (1–0 agg.)	Dundee United	Hamilton
15:00	Docherty 64'	BBC Report		Stadium: New Douglas Park Attendance: 5,027 Referee: Craig Thomson

Attendances

These are the average attendances of the teams.

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Celtic	1,037,864	58,967	37,404	54,624	+21.8%†
2	Rangers	928,974	50,126	46,563	48,893	+7.9%†
3	Heart of Midlothian	310,192	16,803	15,470	16,325	−0.6%†
4	Aberdeen	240,176	19,332	8,195	12,640	−3.5%†
5	Dundee	122,200	9,702	4,708	6,431	+5.0%†
6	Kilmarnock	94,310	11,800	3,056	4,963	+24.3%†
7	Motherwell	85,229	8,535	3,131	4,485	−8.7%†
8	St Johnstone	83,451	7,979	2,549	4,392	+13.2%†
9	Partick Thistle	85,648	7,951	2,257	4,282	+12.7%†
10	Ross County	73,861	6,590	2,511	4,103	+1.7%†
11	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	74,968	7,012	2,473	3,945	+5.1%†
12	Hamilton Academical	48,082	5,292	1,548	2,530	−16.4%†
	League total	3,184,955	58,967	1,548	13,969	+44.8%†

Updated to games played on 21 May 2017
Source: ^[4]

See also

• Nine in a row