2021–22 Scottish Premiership

The 2021–22 Scottish Premiership was the ninth season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football, and the 125th edition overall of the top national league competition, not including one cancelled due to World War II. Celtic claimed the league trophy back after an outstanding run with a 1–1 draw with Dundee United on 11 May enough to confirm them as champions.
Twelve teams contested the league: Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee, Dundee United, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Livingston, Motherwell, Rangers, Ross County, St Johnstone and St Mirren.
The season began on 31 July 2021. In December, the Scottish Government imposed stadium capacity restrictions as part of its response to the new Omicron variant. As a result, the winter break was brought forward from 4 January to 27 December. The rule of five substitutions per match was also re-introduced after the winter break.

Teams

The following teams changed division after the 2020–21 season.
Promoted from the Championship

Relegated to the Championship

Personnel and kits

Team

Manager

Captain

Kit manufacturer

Shirt sponsor

Aberdeen

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Format

In the initial phase of the season, the 12 teams will 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 will be played, with 38 matches played by each team.

League summary

League table

Results

Matches 1–22

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

Matches 23–33

Teams play each other once, either home or away.

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. The exact matches are determined by the position of the teams in the league table at the time of the split.

Season statistics

Scoring

Hat-tricks

Player

For

Against

Score

Date

Ref.

Clean sheets

Source:

Attendances

These are the average attendances of the teams. Games with restricted attendances are not included in these figures.

Premiership play-offs

The quarter-finals were contested by the teams placed third and fourth in the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. The winners advanced to the semi-finals to face the team placed second in the Championship. The final was contested by the semi-final winners and the team placed eleventh in the Premiership, with the winners securing a place in the 2022–23 Scottish Premiership.

Broadcasting

Live matches (UK and Ireland)

Sky Sports has exclusive rights to the Scottish Premiership and will show up to 48 matches, and the Premiership play-off final. BBC Scotland will broadcast the Premiership quarter-final and semi-final play-off ties.
Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, clubs will continue to stream matches to fans on a pay-per-view or "virtual season ticket" basis, whilst capacities in stadia are limited due to social distancing restrictions.

Highlights

Highlights are broadcast on BBC Scotland's flagship Sportscene programme on both Saturdays and Sundays. Sky Sports also show highlights.
Gaelic-language channel BBC Alba has rights to broadcast repeats in full of 38 Saturday 3pm matches "as live" at 5.30pm.
The SPFL also uploads the goals from every Premiership match onto its YouTube channel.