It has been over 30 years since Aberdeen won the league, and it has been all Old Firm since. Will any other team ever win the league again?
Probably not unless they both get demoted at the same time for some reason unrelated to league performance. Those two can just outspend all the other teams by so much, it's hard for the smaller teams to compete with them. It's Rangers first season back in the Premiership and look where they're already at.
Even for football standard it's a bit much. La Liga is dominated by Real and Barca but even they have occasional wins by Atletico and Valencia. Seems like the best shots would be Hearts and Hibs.
While attendance numbers aren't everything, I think they can help explain the discrepancy. In La Liga, Barcelona is first with 80k per game, Real Madrid is second with 68k, and Atletico comes in 3rd at 43.5k per game. So Atletico gets 57% of Barcelona's attendance and 65% of Real's. In Scotland, Celtic is first with 54.8k per game, Rangers are second with 49k, and Hearts are in 3rd with 16.4k per game. That's only 30% of Celtic's attendance and 33.5% of Rangers' attendance for Hearts. (If you compare the top attendance to the middle attendance, it's even more stark. Las Palmas gets 26% of Barcelona's attendance and their average of 20k is still more than Hearts' average. Kilmarnock get 9% of Celtic's average.) So as you can see, there's a much bigger difference in support between Celtic/Rangers and Hearts than there is between Barcelona and Atletico (Hibernian isn't even in the Premiership at the moment, but when they were last in they averaged below Aberdeen). So although Edinburgh is large enough that you'd expect their teams to be able to compete with the Glasgow teams, they just don't get the support that those two do.
I don't even know what would have to happen. Celtic / Rangers won't collapse both at the same time, especially now with fair play rules limiting everyone. Some crazy rich guy would have to buy one of the little clubs maybe? But with fair play, he would have to be willing to play in Scotland only, because he wouldn't be able to spend freely and play in Europe. Plus it won't happen anyway, Scottish league isn't sexy anymore. Unless some local Scotsman football fanatic builds the next Facebook and becomes a multi billionaire. Maybe if Scotland gained independence, that would even the field a little, if they'd also change immigration rules. UK migration laws hurt little clubs more than they hurt big clubs. If their laws were closer to Portuguese / Dutch, all clubs would fish for cheaper talent overseas. Right now the little clubs rely mainly on weak local pool, while Celtic buys their best players.
Yes, under 5,000-1 odds. For the foreseeable future it might take likewise for a non-Old Firm club to win the SPL. Because of the revenue discrepancies it means teams will be hard pressed to match the talent levels of the Glascow pair even for a single season, so it will certainly take its fair share of luck with regard to injuries, fortunes on the pitch, etc. It will also probably take an uncanny grouping of youth or previously unheralded players that will have a reason to be at, say, Hearts rather than a bigger club. The other thing that would help is for 1-2 other teams to come along and at least offer stronger competition. Leicester won in large part because the giants of the league kept beating each other up while LCFC themselves were quite miraculously sneaking out wins. So if in the same year Aberdeen and Hibs took enough points from the Old Firm but somehow Hearts was able to nick wins in those same matches it would help give them a chance. Ultimately this won't be viable until the SPL offers the resources to the other clubs to be more competitive without the need for such great luck. The odds of that happening, however...
EPL is more equal, Leicester or Sunderland only has ~2-3 times smaller payrolls than the likes of Chelsea. In Scotland, Celtic has 2-3 times the payroll of Rangers, 5 times of Aberdeen, 8 times of Hearts and 12-17 times of everyone else. Also, in Scotland you have to play Celtic and Rangers 4 times each, if you want to win the title. It makes it less random, harder for a small club to sneak by. I don't think they'll ever change that structure (more likely they could go the other way and make it 5 games each between contenders).
Ideally, every league should have one of some sort. Or enough countermeasures to endow smaller clubs with the resources to be more competitive.
There also needs to be some sort of protection of small leagues from UEFA money. Champions league cash is too big. Smaller countries only get 1 Champions league spot, and that club, if it wins a couple qualifying rounds, gets an enormous amount of cash by their local league standards. If one club is naturally bigger and also gets CL money a few times in a row, it starts a cycle that's hard to get out. I don't see how the Rangers are going to catch Celtic. Celtic are so far ahead right now, and they'll get CL cash every year, while the Rangers have an ownership mess, probably lost a lot of overseas fans because of being invisible for years, and haven't even done proper stadium repairs since their financial problems started, so that's almost 10 years now. Rangers have so many leaks, so much to fix before they are competitive, and even if they do a great job, Celtic will still be the favorite because of CL money. What are the odds of Celtic losing the title in the next 10 years.
Celtic finish the season with no league losses. FA cup final next Saturday, if they get that, they'll have all 3 domestic trophies with not a single loss.
The power of Celtic is very high in Scotland, but their quality is reduced in UEFA measures. Probably because they don't have strong opponents in the Scottish league. In some periods we could see Hearts, Hibernian. Aberdeen could win the 2nd place, also a big surprise if you end between Old Firm teams. Celtic and Rangers should unite with English Premier League and create stronger influence over there. Just like Wales made with Swansea and Cardiff.
Full wage list for Scottish Premiership clubs World ranking / Avg annual pay £ / Avg weekly pay £ 203 - Celtic - £735,040 / £14,135 256 - Rangers - £329,600 / £6,338 313 - Aberdeen - £136,382 / £2,623 316 - Hearts - £95,514 / £1,837 318 - Hibs - £87,100 / £1,675 334 - Dundee - £59,904 / £1,152 337 - Partick Thistle - £58,175 / £1,119 338 - Ross County - £56,394 / £1,085 341 - Kilmarnock - £55,100 / £1,060 346 - St Johnstone - £47,992 / £923 347 - Motherwell - £42,662 / £820 348 - Hamilton - £41,488 / £798 Champions League money has made Celtic rich, add to the 60,000 seater stadium that they mostly fill week in week out. Right now they are light years ahead of third placed Aberdeen, who only have a 20,000 seater stadium. But one thing that would upset the order is loan deals. For example, Hearts have just signed Steven Naismith on loan from Norwich. And if he gets back to his EPL form, he's all but just guaranteed Hearts a fourth place finish above Hibs. IMO The Scottish Premiership is English championship level. But they have the best atmospheres in the UK. Personally I'd love them to get into the EPL. But they'd have to start at the bottom of the pyramid, or at least lower than Level 4. Infact Rangers missed a perfect opportunity to move south of the border when they had to start at the bottom of the Scottish pyramid. They fill Ibrox (50,000) every week, and even filled it down at the bottom. They are a massive club. Swansea and Cardiff are totally different. They're been member of the English league for over a hundred years. There was no Welsh league when they were formed. Scotland will not get independence any time soon. The standard of living in Scotland is way higher than England. They have a sweet deal (free tuition fees, free eye examinations, free prescription fees, free dental check ups, no separate water charges, lower council taxes, lower crime rates, higher GDP per head etc etc) . And if they ever got independence they would still be using the pound and they would not enforce any immigration laws. And ironically, Rangers who are the biggest club in Scotland (but Celtic are bigger around the world), have the most patriotic supporters of being "British" out of all the clubs in Britain.
Hello, this is random but for a Latino player to play in Scotland, do they follow the same EPL rules? They have to have certain minutes with their national team? Just wondering, thanks
You'll find what you need to know here: https://stv.tv/sport/football/1392526-explained-work-permit-rules-for-footballers-coming-to-the-uk/ But in short, yes. It's very similar to the EPL.