The Case for a 20-Team Scottish Premiership – Without Losing What Matters
For as long as many of us can remember, Scottish football has been stuck in a loop of structural debate. The 12-team format, with its end of season split, has long drawn criticism—from fans, pundits, and even clubs themselves. There’s been talk of a 14-team league. Or 16. Or going back to 10. But none of those options ever seem to stick, because none of them quite solve the core issues holding the game back.
We’re left with the same frustrations: repetitive fixtures, an awkward split, financial instability for clubs who drop out of the top flight, and little real opportunity for ambitious teams in the second tier.
So here’s the question: What should a modern Scottish football league system actually deliver?
At a minimum, any new structure has to meet some key criteria:
• ✅ Keep Celtic vs Rangers and other top fixtures happening four times a season – these are vital for TV value at the moment
• ✅ Avoid the unpopular league split, which frustrates fans and disrupts fairness
• ✅ Provide more variety of opponents – no more seeing the same 11 teams three/four times
• ✅ Offer financial stability, with a structure that avoids boom-and-bust relegation
• ✅ Give more clubs a chance to win something meaningful, not just avoid the drop
• ✅ Create room for youth development, allowing bigger teams to blood young players
• ✅ Be commercially appealing
That’s a high bar. And realistically, there may be only one format that clears it.
A 20-Team Scottish Premiership, Split Into 4 Leagues
This proposal introduces a 20-team Scottish Premiership, divided into four leagues of five teams each: Premiership 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Every team plays 36 matches per season, broken down like this:
• 4x vs teams in their own league (2 home, 2 away for 16 games)
• 2x vs teams in a designated paired league (1 home, 1 away for 10 games)
• 1x vs the remaining 10 teams across the other two leagues (5 home, 5 away for 10 games)
Every match counts toward a team’s position within their own five-team league. There is no overall 20-team table—because the schedules, while balanced in quantity, are strategically weighted in opposition strength.
*League positions based on current standings of the Scottish Premiership and Championship as of April 3rd 2025.
So a club like Celtic, in Premiership 1, would face Rangers, Hibs, Aberdeen and Dundee United four times each—maintaining the intensity and commercial value of the biggest fixtures. Meanwhile, they’d play Premiership 2 teams Hearts, Motherwell, St Mirren, Ross County and Kilmarnock twice each, and the other 10 clubs once apiece.
That structure not only keeps the fixture calendar fresh, it locks in the key rivalries and revenue-driving matches that broadcasters expect.
More Champions, More Dreams
Under this system, each of the four leagues has its own title race. The team finishing top of each five-team group is crowned champion of that tier. And promotion and relegation are simple and consistent: the bottom team in each league drops down, and the top team in the league below moves up.
The result? Clubs across the country—regardless of budget—have something to fight for. More silverware. More meaning. No more mid-table drift.
A team historically bouncing around mid table might now be winning their league. That gives fans a season-long journey to invest in, no matter which league they’re in.
Financial Stability & Youth Opportunity
One of the biggest flaws in the current model is how brutal relegation can be. A club can finish 3rd one season and be facing financial freefall the next. This model introduces a softer descent. Teams don’t drop out of the top 20 in one go. Instead, they fall one tier, allowing them to regroup, retain core players, and challenge again next year—while still being part of the Premiership ecosystem.
It also creates breathing room for top-tier clubs to integrate younger players—especially in matches against lower-tier Premiership opponents. For the lower-tier clubs, they have an opportunity to challenge themselves against the top-tier. That’s good for development, good for clubs, and good for the national game.
Some will say this is too radical. But in truth, it’s a system built entirely on logic, designed to answer the actual challenges Scottish football faces—while keeping the parts of the game we all love.
It protects broadcast value. It increases fan engagement. It builds stability and growth into the league’s DNA.
And most importantly, it gives clubs—all clubs—a reason to believe.
This isn’t just about change for change’s sake. It’s about building a structure that supports the future of Scottish football.
Who knows, maybe this will give us time to grow the strength of our game towards an identical 20 team structure to the EPL. Or perhaps, this structure is even better than our neighbours down south.