2019–20 Scottish Premiership

The 2019–20 Scottish Premiership (known as the Ladbrokes Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the seventh season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 21 June 2019 and the season began on 3 August 2019.^[4] Celtic were the defending champions.

Scottish Premiership

Season	2019–20
Dates	3 August 2019 – 11 March 2020
Champions	Celtic 7th Premiership title 51st Scottish title
Relegated	Hearts
Champions League	Celtic
Europa League	Rangers Motherwell Aberdeen
Matches played	179
Goals scored	490 (2.74 per match)
Top goalscorer	Odsonne Édouard (22 goals)[1][2]
Biggest home win	Celtic 7–0 St Johnstone[3] (3 August 2019)
Biggest away win	St Johnstone 0–4 Rangers[3] (22 September 2019) Aberdeen 0–4 Celtic[3] (27 October 2019) Ross County 0–4 Rangers[3] (30 October 2019) Motherwell 0–4 Celtic[3] (5 February 2020)
Highest scoring	Celtic 7–0 St Johnstone[3] (3 August 2019) Motherwell 2–5 Celtic[3] (10 August 2019) Rangers 6–1 Hibernian[3] (11 August 2019) Heart of Midlothian 5–2 St Mirren[3] (9 November 2019)
Longest winning run	11 matches[3] Celtic
Longest unbeaten run	16 matches[3] Rangers
Longest winless run	11 matches[3] Hamilton Academical
Longest losing run	7 matches[3] Kilmarnock
Highest attendance	59,131[3] Celtic 2–1 Aberdeen (21 December 2019)
Lowest attendance	1,075[3] Hamilton Academical 2–1 Livingston (28 September 2019)
Total attendance	2,741,726[3]
Average attendance	15,316[3](657)
← 2018–19 2020–21 → All statistics correct as of 11 March 2020.

Twelve teams contested the league: Aberdeen, Celtic, Hamilton Academical, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Livingston, Motherwell, Rangers, Ross County, St Johnstone and St Mirren.

On 13 March 2020, the Scottish football season was suspended with immediate effect due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[5] The Premiership was curtailed on 18 May 2020, with average points per game used to determine final league positions. As a result, Celtic were awarded a ninth consecutive title, whilst Hearts were controversially demoted to the Championship,^[6] a decision which prompted the Edinburgh-based club to pursue ultimately unsuccessful legal action.^[7]

Teams

The following teams have changed division since the 2018–19 season.

Promoted from Scottish Championship

• Ross County^[8]

Relegated to Scottish Championship

• Dundee^[9]

Stadia and locations

Aberdeen	Celtic	Hamilton Academical	Heart of Midlothian
Pittodrie Stadium	Celtic Park	New Douglas Park	Tynecastle Park
Capacity: 20,866[10]	Capacity: 60,411[11]	Capacity: 6,018[12]	Capacity: 20,099[13]
Hibernian	Aberdeen Hearts Hibernian Kilmarnock Livingston Rangers Ross County St Johnstone St Mirren Celtic Hamilton Motherwell Location of teams in 2019–20 Scottish Premiership		Kilmarnock
Easter Road			Rugby Park
Capacity: 20,421[14]			Capacity: 17,889[15]
Livingston			Motherwell
Almondvale Stadium			Fir Park
Capacity: 9,512[16]			Capacity: 13,677[17]
Rangers	Ross County	St Johnstone	St Mirren
Ibrox Stadium	Victoria Park	McDiarmid Park	St Mirren Park
Capacity: 50,817[18]	Capacity: 6,541[19]	Capacity: 10,696[20]	Capacity: 7,937[21]

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Aberdeen	Derek McInnes	Joe Lewis	Adidas	Saltire Energy
Celtic	Neil Lennon	Scott Brown	New Balance	Dafabet
Hamilton Academical	Brian Rice	Brian Easton	Adidas	Euro Mechanical Handling
Heart of Midlothian	Daniel Stendel	Steven Naismith	Umbro	Save the Children
Hibernian	Jack Ross	David Gray	Macron	Hibernian Community Foundation
Kilmarnock	Alex Dyer	Gary Dicker	Nike	QTS
Livingston	Gary Holt	Alan Lithgow	Nike	Phoenix Drilling Ltd
Motherwell	Stephen Robinson	Peter Hartley	Macron	Paddy Power (unbranded)
Rangers	Steven Gerrard	James Tavernier	Hummel	32Red
Ross County	Steven Ferguson and Stuart Kettlewell	Marcus Fraser	Macron	McEwan Fraser Legal
St Johnstone	Alec Cleland (caretaker)	Jason Kerr	Macron	Binn Group
St Mirren	Jim Goodwin	Stephen McGinn	Joma	Skyview Capital

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Kilmarnock	Steve Clarke	Signed by Scotland	20 May 2019[22]	Pre-season	Angelo Alessio	16 June 2019[23]
Celtic	Neil Lennon	End of interim spell	25 May 2019[24]		Neil Lennon	31 May 2019[25]
St Mirren	Oran Kearney	Mutual consent	26 June 2019[26]		Jim Goodwin	29 June 2019[27]
Heart of Midlothian	Craig Levein	Sacked	31 October 2019[28]	11th	Daniel Stendel	7 December 2019[29]
Hibernian	Paul Heckingbottom		4 November 2019[30]	10th	Jack Ross	15 November 2019[31]
Kilmarnock	Angelo Alessio		17 December 2019[32]	5th	Alex Dyer	30 December 2019[33]
St Johnstone	Tommy Wright	Resigned	2 May 2020[34]	7th	Alec Cleland (caretaker)	2 May 2020[34]

Format

In the initial phase of the season, the 12 teams 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 were due be played (38 matches by each team).

League summary

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	PPG	Qualification or relegation[a]
1	Celtic (C)	30	26	2	2	89	19	+70	80	2.67	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Rangers	29	21	4	4	64	19	+45	67	2.31	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round[b]
3	Motherwell	30	14	4	12	41	38	+3	46	1.53	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
4	Aberdeen	30	12	9	9	40	36	+4	45	1.50
5	Livingston	30	10	9	11	41	39	+2	39	1.30
6	St Johnstone	29	8	12	9	28	46	−18	36	1.24
7	Hibernian	30	9	10	11	42	49	−7	37	1.23
8	Kilmarnock	30	9	6	15	31	41	−10	33	1.10
9	St Mirren	30	7	8	15	24	41	−17	29	0.97
10	Ross County	30	7	8	15	29	60	−31	29	0.97
11	Hamilton Academical	30	6	9	15	30	50	−20	27	0.90
12	Heart of Midlothian (R)	30	4	11	15	31	52	−21	23	0.77	Relegation to the Championship

Source: BBC SPFL
Rules for classification: 1) Points per game; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-Head goal difference; 6) Play-off (only if deciding champion, UEFA competitions qualification, second stage group allocation or relegation).^[36]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. All play-off matches were cancelled, as clubs voted to curtail the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[35]
2. Since the 2019–20 Scottish Cup was postponed and could not be completed by the UEFA registration deadline of 3 August 2020, the spot awarded to the Scottish Cup winners (Europa League second qualifying round) was passed to the second-placed team, while the fourth-placed team also qualified for European competition.

Positions by round

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
Celtic	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Rangers	4	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Motherwell	6	10	6	5	3	4	3	3	3	4	3	3	4	4	4	4	3	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	3	3	3
Aberdeen	3	4	5	4	4	3	4	4	4	5	4	4	3	3	3	3	4	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	4
Livingston	7	8	3	3	5	6	6	6	7	7	6	7	8	8	7	8	7	8	6	7	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
St Johnstone	12	11	10	12	11	12	12	12	12	12	8	11	11	12	12	11	12	10	10	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	6
Hibernian	5	7	7	9	9	11	11	10	11	11	9	8	6	6	6	6	6	6	7	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	7
Kilmarnock	9	12	12	6	6	7	7	7	5	3	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	8
St Mirren	10	5	8	10	10	10	10	11	9	10	12	12	12	10	10	12	9	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	9	9
Ross County	2	3	4	8	7	5	5	5	6	6	7	6	7	7	8	7	8	7	8	8	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	10	10
Hamilton Academical	11	6	9	7	8	9	8	8	8	8	10	9	10	11	9	10	11	12	11	11	11	11	11	12	11	11	11	11	11	11
Heart of Midlothian	8	9	11	11	12	8	9	9	10	9	11	10	9	9	11	9	10	11	12	12	12	12	12	11	12	12	12	12	12	12

	Leader and Champions League first qualifying round
	Europa League second qualifying round
	Europa League first qualifying round
	Relegated to the Championship

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Results

Matches 1–22

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

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	HAM	HOM	HIB	KIL	LIV	MOT	RAN	ROS	STJ	STM
Aberdeen	—	0–4	1–0	3–2	1–1	3–0	2–1	0–1	2–2	3–0	1–1	2–1
Celtic	2–1	—	2–1	3–1	2–0	3–1	4–0	2–0	1–2	6–0	7–0	2–0
Hamilton Academical	0–1	0–1	—	2–1	1–1	2–0	2–1	1–3	1–3	2–2	0–1	0–1
Heart of Midlothian	1–1	0–2	2–2	—	0–2	0–1	1–1	2–3	1–1	0–0	0–1	5–2
Hibernian	3–0	1–1	2–1	1–2	—	2–2	2–2	3–1	0–3	2–2	2–2	1–0
Kilmarnock	0–0	1–3	2–2	3–0	2–0	—	2–1	0–1	1–2	0–0	0–0	1–0
Livingston	0–2	2–0	0–0	0–0	2–0	3–0	—	0–0	0–2	4–0	1–0	2–1
Motherwell	0–3	2–5	1–2	1–0	3–0	2–1	2–1	—	0–2	1–2	4–0	2–0
Rangers	5–0	0–2	5–0	5–0	6–1	1–0	3–1	2–1	—	2–0	N/A	1–0
Ross County	1–3	1–4	3–0	0–0	2–1	1–0	1–4	1–2	0–4	—	2–2	2–1
St Johnstone	1–1	0–3	3–2	1–0	1–4	0–1	2–2	0–1	0–4	1–1	—	0–0
St Mirren	1–0	1–2	0–0	0–0	1–2	1–0	3–3	0–3	0–1	2–1	2–0	—

Source: SPFL
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 each other once, either home or away.

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	HAM	HOM	HIB	KIL	LIV	MOT	RAN	ROS	STJ	STM
Aberdeen	—	1–2	—	N/A	3–1	—	—	—	—	1–2	0–1	—
Celtic	—	—	—	5–0	—	3–1	—	—	—	3–0	N/A	5–0
Hamilton Academical	1–3	1–4	—	—	N/A	1–0	2–4	0–0	—	—	—	—
Heart of Midlothian	—	—	2–2	—	—	2–3	—	1–1	2–1	N/A	—	—
Hibernian	—	N/A	—	1–3	—	—	1–1	—	—	3–0	N/A	2–2
Kilmarnock	2–2	—	—	—	1–2	—	N/A	—	2–1	3–1	—	N/A
Livingston	N/A	2–2	—	N/A	—	—	—	1–0	—	—	—	2–1
Motherwell	N/A	0–4	—	—	0–0	N/A	—	—	—	4–1	—	1–2
Rangers	0–0	N/A	0–1	—	2–1	—	1–0	N/A	—	—	—	—
Ross County	—	—	N/A	—	—	—	2–0	—	0–1	—	1–1	N/A
St Johnstone	—	—	N/A	3–3	—	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–2	—	—	—
St Mirren	0–0	—	1–1	1–0	—	—	—	—	N/A	—	0–0	—

Source: SPFL
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

It was intended that after 33 matches, the league would split 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 would be determined by the position of the teams in the league table at the time of the split. However, the season's premature finish, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meant that this split was never applied.

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

^[1][2]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Odsonne Édouard	Celtic	22
2	Jermain Defoe	Rangers	13
3	Christian Doidge	Hibernian	12
	Alfredo Morelos	Rangers
5	Sam Cosgrove	Aberdeen	11
	Ryan Christie	Celtic
7	James Forrest	Celtic	10

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of Scottish Professional Football League hat-tricks § Scottish Premiership

Player	For	Against	Score	Date
Ryan Christie	Celtic	St Johnstone	7–0 (H)	3 August 2019
Jermain Defoe	Rangers	Hibernian	6–1 (H)	11 August 2019
		Hamilton Academical	5–0 (H)	6 October 2019
Christian Doidge	Hibernian	St Johnstone	1–4 (A)	9 November 2019
Lyndon Dykes	Livingston	Ross County	4–0 (H)	21 December 2019
Leigh Griffiths	Celtic	St Mirren	5–0 (H)	7 March 2020

Attendances

These are the average attendances of the teams.

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Celtic	869,160	59,131	54,584	57,944	+0.3%†
2	Rangers	689,327	50,012	47,583	49,237	−0.7%†
3	Heart of Midlothian	251,262	19,313	14,681	16,750	−4.6%†
4	Hibernian	250,923	20,197	14,486	16,728	−5.7%†
5	Aberdeen	207,540	16,410	12,325	13,836	−7.3%†
6	Kilmarnock	87,844	9,196	4,083	5,856	−15.1%†
7	Motherwell	83,618	8,822	3,191	5,574	+2.3%†
8	St Mirren	80,647	7,332	4,240	5,376	+0.5%†
9	Ross County[a]	65,302	6,575	3,301	4,664	+21.2%†
10	St Johnstone	65,461	8,743	2,231	4,091	+5.1%†
11	Livingston	49,598	8,640	1,076	3,542	−3.3%†
12	Hamilton Academical	41,044	5,300	1,075	2,565	−9.3%†
	League total	2,741,726	59,131	1,075	15,316	−4.1%†

Source: ^{[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]}

1. Club was playing in the Scottish Championship in the previous season.

Awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Ref.
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Neil Lennon	Celtic	Odsonne Édouard	Celtic
September	Steven Gerrard	Rangers	Alfredo Morelos	Rangers
October	Angelo Alessio	Kilmarnock	Mohamed Elyounoussi	Celtic
November	Neil Lennon	Celtic	Christian Doidge	Hibernian
December	Steven Gerrard	Rangers	Martin Boyle	Hibernian
January	Gary Holt	Livingston	Odsonne Édouard	Celtic
February	Neil Lennon	Celtic	Billy Mckay	Ross County

Broadcasting

Live matches

The SPFL permits Sky Sports and BT Sport up to six live home matches between the broadcasters from each club - although this is only four for Rangers and Celtic. Sky Sports and BT Sport's deal allows them to broadcast 30 games each (and the play-offs for BT). The deal roughly provides £21m to SPFL per season.^[49] This is the final season of the contract; from 2020–21, Sky Sports will have exclusive rights to Scottish Premiership matches.^[50]

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 the 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. 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.