2020–21 Scottish Premiership

Scottish Premiership

Season	2020–21
Champions	Rangers 1st Premiership title 55th Scottish title
Relegated	Kilmarnock Hamilton Academical
Champions League	Rangers Celtic
Europa League	St Johnstone
Europa Conference League	Aberdeen Hibernian
Matches played	228
Goals scored	552 (2.42 per match)
Top goalscorer	Odsonne Édouard (18 goals)
Biggest home win	Rangers 8–0 Hamilton Academical (8 November 2020)
Biggest away win	Ross County 0–5 Celtic (12 September 2020)
Highest scoring	Hamilton Academical 3–5 St Johnstone (17 October 2020) Rangers 8–0 Hamilton Academical (8 November 2020)
Longest winning run	15 matches: Rangers
Longest unbeaten run	38 matches: Rangers
Longest winless run	12 matches: Motherwell Ross County
Longest losing run	8 matches: Kilmarnock
← 2019–20 2021–22 →

The 2020–21 Scottish Premiership was the eighth season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football (the 124th edition overall of the top national league competition, not including one cancelled due to World War II). The fixtures were published on 6 July 2020, with the season beginning on 1 August, following Scottish Government approval due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland.

Twelve teams contested the league: Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee United, Hamilton Academical, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Livingston, Motherwell, Rangers, Ross County, St Johnstone and St Mirren. Celtic were the defending champions, seeking a record-breaking tenth successive title.

On 7 March, Rangers clinched their 55th title after Celtic drew 0–0 away to Dundee United with 6 games remaining. Rangers also completed an unbeaten league season on 15 May 2021 after a 4–0 win against Aberdeen on the final matchday.

Teams

The following teams changed division after the 2019–20 season.

Promoted from the Championship

• Dundee United

Relegated to the Championship

• Heart of Midlothian

Stadia and locations

Aberdeen	Celtic	Dundee United	Hamilton Academical
Pittodrie Stadium	Celtic Park	Tannadice Park	New Douglas Park
Capacity: 20,866	Capacity: 60,411	Capacity: 14,223	Capacity: 6,018
200px	200px
Hibernian	Aberdeen Dundee United Hibernian Kilmarnock Livingston Ross County St. Johnstone St Mirren Celtic Hamilton Motherwell Rangers Location of teams in the 2020–21 Scottish Premiership		Kilmarnock
Easter Road			Rugby Park
Capacity: 20,421			Capacity: 17,889
Livingston			Motherwell
Almondvale Stadium			Fir Park
Capacity: 9,512			Capacity: 13,677
Rangers	Ross County	St Johnstone	St Mirren
Ibrox Stadium	Victoria Park	McDiarmid Park	St Mirren Park
Capacity: 50,817	Capacity: 6,541	Capacity: 10,696	Capacity: 7,937

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Aberdeen	Stephen Glass	Joe Lewis	Adidas	Saltire Energy
Celtic	John Kennedy (Interim)	Scott Brown	Adidas	Dafabet
Dundee United	Micky Mellon	Mark Reynolds	Macron	Utilita
Hamilton Academical	Brian Rice	Brian Easton	Adidas	Cullen
Hibernian	Jack Ross	David Gray	Macron	"Thank You NHS"
Kilmarnock	Tommy Wright	Gary Dicker	Hummel	Brownings The Bakers
Livingston	David Martindale	Marvin Bartley	Nike	Phoenix Drilling Ltd
Motherwell	Graham Alexander	Declan Gallagher	Macron	Paycare
Rangers	Steven Gerrard	James Tavernier	Castore	32Red
Ross County	John Hughes	Iain Vigurs	Macron	Ross-shire Engineering
St Johnstone	Callum Davidson	Jason Kerr	Macron	Binn Group
St Mirren	Jim Goodwin	Joe Shaughnessy	Joma	Skyview Capital

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Ross County	Steven Ferguson (co-manager)	Internal restructuring	10 June 2020	Pre-season	Stuart Kettlewell (manager)	10 June 2020
St Johnstone	Alec Cleland	End of caretaker spell	18 June 2020		Callum Davidson	18 June 2020
Dundee United	Robbie Neilson	Signed by Heart of Midlothian	21 June 2020		Micky Mellon	6 July 2020
Livingston	Gary Holt	Resigned	26 November 2020	10th	David Martindale	21 December 2020
Ross County	Stuart Kettlewell	Sacked	19 December 2020	12th	John Hughes	21 December 2020
Motherwell	Stephen Robinson	Resigned	31 December 2020	10th	Graham Alexander	7 January 2021
Kilmarnock	Alex Dyer	Mutual consent	30 January 2021	9th	Tommy Wright	8 February 2021
Celtic	Neil Lennon	Resigned	24 February 2021	2nd	John Kennedy (Interim)	24 February 2021
Aberdeen	Derek McInnes	Mutual consent	8 March 2021	4th	Stephen Glass	23 March 2021

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 played, with 38 matches played by each team.

League summary

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

After the 12 Premiership clubs were given permission to restart full-contact training by the Scottish Government from 29 June 2020, it was announced that an Aberdeen player had tested positive for COVID-19 two days later. The identity of the player was not disclosed but the club said that he was asymptomatic and self-isolating.

Nine days prior to the start of the season on 1 August, it was reported on 23 July that seven members of St Mirren's coaching staff had tested positive. As a result, a pre-season friendly between St Mirren and St Johnstone on 25 July was cancelled and Hamilton Academical, who had played St Mirren in a friendly on 18 July, confirmed that all of their players and coaching staff had subsequently tested negative. The following day, St Mirren announced that after the seven positive tests were retested, only one came back as positive with the other six negative.

On the opening day of the season Rangers defeated Aberdeen 1–0 at Pittodrie Stadium and after the game, eight members of the Aberdeen squad went out to a pub in the city. Later in the week, the pub was linked to an outbreak of COVID-19 in Aberdeen which led to a lockdown of the city. Two of the group subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 and the eight players were put into self-isolation. Initially, the Scottish Government said Aberdeen's match against St Johnstone, scheduled for 8 August, wouldn't be affected by the lockdown of the city but the match was postponed after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was "pretty furious" about the situation. Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes was critical of the group of players - namely Bruce Anderson, Craig Bryson, Sam Cosgrove, Michael Devlin, Jonny Hayes, Matty Kennedy, Dylan McGeouch and Scott McKenna - who apologised for a "huge error of judgement".

The following weekend, defending champions Celtic drew 1–1 with Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on 9 August. Defender Boli Bolingoli was in the Celtic match squad and came off the bench during the match, but was found to have travelled back from Spain a few days earlier – at that time, a 14-day quarantine was required for anyone travelling to Scotland from that country. Celtic manager Neil Lennon said Bolingoli "went rogue" and the club were unaware of his actions before it came to light on 10 August. Kilmarnock manager Alex Dyer revealed that Celtic had apologised for the situation. Bolingoli (who tested negative for the virus) was subsequently fined £480 by the police for his breach of quarantine rules.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned Scottish football clubs, players and authorities that the breaches of COVID-19 protocols set up to allow football to resume in Scotland had resulted in her giving the game a "yellow card" and that further breaches could lead to a pause in the football season. Aberdeen and Celtic's matches against Hamilton Academical and St Mirren respectively on 12 August were postponed as a result of the two incidents, as well as the Celtic vs. Aberdeen match on 15 August.

The Scottish Football Association (SFA) and Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) introduced new rules following the breaches of COVID-19 rules which meant Bolingoli and the "Aberdeen eight" were charged by both governing bodies. An SFA hearing was held on 28 August which resulted in a three-match ban with a further two-match ban suspended for Bolingoli. The "Aberdeen eight" were each given a three-match suspended ban. The suspended bans would be triggered if a player was again charged with "bringing the game into disrepute" before 28 February 2021.

Three fixtures (Kilmarnock v Motherwell, St Mirren v Motherwell and St Mirren v Hamilton) during the autumn were postponed after Kilmarnock and St Mirren told the SPFL that they could not fulfil them as scheduled due to COVID-19 outbreaks. The SPFL initially awarded 3–0 victories to their opponents; but that decision was overturned after an appeal to the Scottish Football Association.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. To preserve chronological evolvements, 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 round 13, but then postponed and played between rounds 16 and 17, it is added to the standings for round 16.

Results

Matches 1–22

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

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	DUN	HAM	HIB	KIL	LIV	MOT	RAN	ROS	STJ	STM
Aberdeen	—	3–3	0–0	4–2	2–0	1–0	2–1	0–3	0–1	2–0	2–1	2–1
Celtic	1–0	—	3–0	5–1	3–0	2–0	3–2	3–0	0–2	2–0	1–1	1–2
Dundee United	0–0	0–1	—	2–1	0–1	2–0	1–2	1–1	1–2	2–1	1–1	2–1
Hamilton Academical	1–1	0–3	1–1	—	0–4	1–0	0–2	3–0	0–2	0–1	3–5	0–1
Hibernian	0–1	2–2	1–1	3–2	—	2–1	0–3	0–0	2–2	0–2	2–2	1–0
Kilmarnock	0–2	1–1	4–0	2–1	0–1	—	1–2	0–1	0–1	3–1	1–2	1–1
Livingston	0–0	2–2	2–0	1–2	1–4	1–3	—	0–2	0–0	1–0	2–0	0–1
Motherwell	0–0	1–4	0–1	0–1	0–3	0–2	2–2	—	1–5	4–0	1–0	0–1
Rangers	4–0	1–0	4–0	8–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	3–1	—	2–0	3–0	3–0
Ross County	0–3	0–5	1–2	0–2	0–0	2–2	1–1	1–0	0–4	—	1–1	0–2
St Johnstone	0–1	0–2	0–0	0–0	0–1	1–0	1–2	1–1	0–3	0–1	—	1–0
St Mirren	1–1	1–2	0–0	1–1	0–3	0–1	1–0	0–0	0–2	1–1	3–2	—

Matches 23–33

Teams play each other once, either home or away.

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	DUN	HAM	HIB	KIL	LIV	MOT	RAN	ROS	STJ	STM
Aberdeen	—	—	—	0–0	—	1–0	0–2	2–0	1–2	—	—	0–0
Celtic	1–0	—	—	2–0	1–1	—	0–0	2–1	1–1	—	—	—
Dundee United	1–0	0–0	—	—	0–2	—	3–0	—	—	—	2–2	1–5
Hamilton Academical	—	—	0–0	—	—	—	—	—	1–1	1–2	1–1	1–1
Hibernian	2–0	—	—	2–0	—	2–0	—	0–2	0–1	—	—	—
Kilmarnock	—	0–4	1–1	2–0	—	—	—	4–1	—	—	2–3	—
Livingston	—	—	—	2–1	1–1	2–0	—	—	0–1	3–1	1–2	—
Motherwell	—	—	2–1	1–4	—	—	3–1	—	1–1	—	0–3	—
Rangers	—	—	4–1	—	—	1–0	—	—	—	5–0	1–0	3–0
Ross County	4–1	1–0	0–2	—	1–2	3–2	—	1–2	—	—	—	—
St Johnstone	0–0	1–2	—	—	1–0	—	—	—	—	1–0	—	1–0
St Mirren	—	0–4	—	—	1–2	2–0	1–1	1–1	—	1–0	—	—

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	HIB	LIV	RAN	STJ
Aberdeen	—	1–1	0–1	—	—	—
Celtic	—	—	—	6–0	—	4–0
Hibernian	—	0–0	—	2–1	—	0–1
Livingston	1–2	—	—	—	0–3	—
Rangers	4–0	4–1	2–1	—	—	—
St Johnstone	0–1	—	—	0–0	1–1	—

Bottom six

Home \ Away	DUN	HAM	KIL	MOT	ROS	STM
Dundee United	—	—	—	2–2	0–2	—
Hamilton Academical	0–1	—	0–2	0–1	—	—
Kilmarnock	3–0	—	—	—	2–2	3–3
Motherwell	—	—	2–0	—	1–2	1–0
Ross County	—	2–1	—	—	—	1–3
St Mirren	0–0	1–2	—	—	—	—

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

As of 16 May 2021

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Odsonne Édouard	Celtic	18
2	Kevin Nisbet	Hibernian	14
	Kemar Roofe	Rangers
4	Martin Boyle	Hibernian	12
	Alfredo Morelos	Rangers
	James Tavernier	Rangers
7	Devante Cole	Motherwell	11
8	Mohamed Elyounoussi	Celtic	10
	Ryan Kent	Rangers
	Jamie McGrath	St Mirren

Source:

Hat-tricks

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

Player	For	Against	Score	Date	Ref.
Odsonne Édouard	Celtic	Hamilton Academical	5–1 (H)	2 August 2020
Kevin Nisbet	Hibernian	Livingston	4–1 (A)	8 August 2020
Mohamed Elyounoussi	Celtic	Motherwell	4–1 (A)	8 November 2020
Kyle Lafferty	Kilmarnock	Dundee United	3–0 (H)	21 April 2021

Most assists

As of 16 May 2021

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Ianis Hagi	Rangers	11
2	Ryan Christie	Celtic	9
	Ryan Kent	Rangers
	James Tavernier	Rangers
5	Callum McGregor	Celtic	7
6	David Turnbull	Celtic	6
	Martin Boyle	Hibernian
	Borna Barišić	Rangers

Source:

Clean sheets

As of 16 May 2021

Rank	Player	Club	Clean Sheets
1	Joe Lewis	Aberdeen	17
	Allan McGregor	Rangers
3	Benjamin Siegrist	Dundee United	12
	Ofir Marciano	Hibernian
5	Jak Alnwick	St Mirren	10

Source:

Attendances

Games are mostly being played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Limited attendance is allowed at some grounds with strict conditions under the Scottish Government Tier system, dependent on the club's geographical location.

Awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Ref.
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Steven Gerrard	Rangers	Ryan Kent	Rangers
September	Neil Lennon	Celtic	James Tavernier
October	Steven Gerrard	Rangers	Connor Goldson	Rangers
November			James Tavernier
December	David Martindale	Livingston	David Turnbull	Celtic
January			Scott Robinson	Livingston
February	Steven Gerrard	Rangers	Odsonne Édouard	Celtic
March	Callum Davidson	St Johnstone	Alfredo Morelos	Rangers
April	Graham Alexander	Motherwell	Kyle Lafferty	Kilmarnock

Premiership play-offs

The quarter-finals were contested between the third and fourth placed teams in the Scottish Championship. The winners advanced to the semi-finals to face the second placed team in the Championship, and the winners of that tie advanced to the final to play-off against the 11th placed team in the Premiership, with the winners securing a place in the 2021–22 Scottish Premiership.

Quarter-final

First leg

Dunfermline Athletic v Raith Rovers

4 May 2021	Dunfermline Athletic	0–0	Raith Rovers	Dunfermline
19:00				Stadium: East End Park Attendance: 0 Referee: Steven Kirkland

Second leg

Raith Rovers v Dunfermline Athletic

8 May 2021	Raith Rovers	2–0 (2–0 agg.)	Dunfermline Athletic	Kirkcaldy
15:00	Vaughan  64' Ugwu  89'			Stadium: Stark's Park Attendance: 0 Referee: Greg Aitken

Semi-final

First leg

Raith Rovers v Dundee

12 May 2021	Raith Rovers	0–3	Dundee	Kirkcaldy
19:45			McGhee  22', 55' Sow  84'	Stadium: Stark's Park Attendance: 0 Referee: Nick Walsh

Second leg

Dundee v Raith Rovers

15 May 2021	Dundee	0–1 (3–1 agg.)	Raith Rovers	Dundee
19:45			Vaughan  21'	Stadium: Dens Park Attendance: 0 Referee: Don Robertson

Final

First leg

Dundee v Kilmarnock

20 May 2021	Dundee	2–1	Kilmarnock	Dundee
20:15	McGhee  6' Adam  47'		Haunstrup  77'	Stadium: Dens Park Attendance: 500 Referee: John Beaton

Second leg

Kilmarnock v Dundee

24 May 2021	Kilmarnock	1–2 (2–4 agg.)	Dundee	Kilmarnock
19:45	Lafferty  69' (pen.)		Mullen  7' Ashcroft  12'	Stadium: Rugby Park Attendance: 500 Referee: Bobby Madden

Broadcasting

Live matches

UK and Ireland

Sky Sports has exclusive rights to the Scottish Premiership regular league season and can show up to 48 matches, whilst also broadcasting the play-off final with BBC Scotland showing the quarter-final & semi-final. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, clubs can stream matches (not broadcast on Sky) to fans on a pay-per-view or "virtual season ticket" basis, whilst capacities in stadia are limited due to social distancing restrictions.

United States

Select Premiership matches, along with the matches in the promotion/relegation playoffs, are shown in the United States on ESPN+, as part of a deal that allows ESPN+ to broadcast matches from Scottish leagues.

Highlights

From the start of this season, highlights are shown on both Saturdays and Sundays on BBC Scotland's flagship Sportscene programme. Sky Sports also show highlights.

Gaelic-language channel BBC Alba has rights to broadcast repeats in full of 38 Saturday 3 pm matches "as live" at 5.30 pm.

The SPFL also uploads the goals from every Premiership match onto its YouTube channel - available from 6 pm on a Sunday for UK and Ireland viewers and 10 pm on a Saturday for those worldwide.

External links

• Official website

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