The Scottish Premier League is also known as the Clydesdale Bank Premier League because it is the Clydesdale Bank who sponsor the league. It is also sometimes known as just ?The Premier League? or SPL. It is a professional competition league for football clubs at the top level in Scotland. It is above the Scottish Football League. The Scottish Premier League is currently the tenth ranked in the UEFA rankings of European leagues - this is based on the performances of member clubs in European competitions.

Since it's conception in 1998 a total of seventeen football clubs have competed in the Scottish Premier League, but only two of them have won the championship title, these are Celtic - six times, and Rangers - four times.

The Scottish League system is devised of four leagues, The Scottish Premier League, First Division, Second Division and Third Division. The inception of the Scottish Premier League came about following an earlier example in England where they had created a similar Premier League, the decision to follow suit was fuelled by a desire among the top level clubs to retain more of the revenue generated by the game. Before the creation of the Scottish Premier League, sponsorship money was divided proportionally between clubs in all the divisions of league football, once the Premier League was formed this was no longer the case and they now receive a larger proportion of revenue due in part to better television broadcast deals.

There are twelve teams in the Scottish Premier League, and they play in a ?split league format? through the season. What this means is that each team plays every other team 3 times - either two home games and one away game, or one home game and two away games bringing it to a total of thirty three games per team. Then the division is split with the top six teams and the bottom six teams going on to play a further five matches against other teams in their half of the league, taking the total games played by each team to 38 matches. What this means is that because the top teams matches are often harder to win, the seventh team in the league (the team at the top of the second half of the league), often has more points than the teams who place fifth and sixth because of their final five games being easier.

Points are scored through the season on a win/draw/lose basis with three points being awarded for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a lost game. It is these points which determine the position in the league for the first part of the season, and then within each half for the second part of the season. The team at the top of the league table at the end of the season win the championship. The team at the bottom of the table are relegated to the Scottish First Division, and the top team from the Scottish First Division are promoted into the Premier League in their place. Occasionally the team at the top of the Scottish First Division don't meet the criteria regarding their stadium, in which case, no relegation or promotion occurs that year.