Season 2007–08 Champions League CelticRangers Dates 4 Aug 2007 – 13 May 2008 Location Scotland, United Kingdom | ||
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The 2007–08 Scottish Premier League season was the tenth season of the Scottish Premier League. It began on 4 August 2007 and was originally due to end on 18 May 2008. Due to the death of Phil O'Donnell and extremely poor weather causing the postponement of fixtures during the winter, as well as a backlog of Rangers fixtures and their progression to the UEFA Cup Final, the SPL decided to move the final round of fixtures forward four days to 22 May 2008. It was the first season under the sponsorship of the Clydesdale Bank.
Contents
- Promotion and Relegation from 200607
- Notable events
- League table
- Matches 122
- Matches 2333
- Matches 3438
- Kits and shirt sponsors
- Attendances
- Broadcasting rights
- Transfer deals
- References
Gretna were promoted from the First Division the previous season and played in the SPL for the first time, replacing Dunfermline Athletic. Gretna did not play at their home stadium Raydale Park as it did not meet the SPL stadia criteria of 6,000 and instead used Motherwell's Fir Park for all but one of their games; that match was at Livingston's Almondvale Stadium.
Champions Celtic qualified directly for the Champions League, while second-placed Rangers qualified for the Second qualifying round. Third-placed Motherwell qualified for the UEFA Cup and Hibernian qualified for the Intertoto Cup. First Division side Queen of the South also qualified for the UEFA Cup after reaching the Scottish Cup Final. Gretna were relegated after just one season in the SPL and were replaced by First Division champions Hamilton Academical for the following season.
The championship was determined on the final day of the season. Leaders Celtic travelled to Tannadice to play Dundee United knowing that a win would secure the title. They achieved this with a 1–0 victory following Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink's second-half header. Rangers needed to win or draw their final match of the season against Aberdeen at Pittodrie and hope that Celtic at least drew or lost respectively. But Aberdeen F.C. won the game 2-0 thanks to goals from Lee Miller and Darren Mackie.
Promotion and Relegation from 2006–07
Promoted from First Division to Premier League
Relegated from Premier League to First Division
Notable events
League table
Source: BBC Sport
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
Gretna: 10 points were deducted from Gretna for going into administration. They subsequently resigned from the Scottish Football League because the administrator concluded that the club could not continue to run as a business.
Intertoto Cup: The highest-placed team who applied for the Intertoto Cup and not in an automatic UEFA Cup spot was awarded a place in that competition, Falkirk and Hibernian were the applicants.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.
Matches 1–22
During matches 1–22 each team played every other team twice (home and away).
Source: BBC Sport
1 ^ The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.
Matches 23–33
During matches 23–33 each team played every other team once (either at home or away).
Source: BBC Sport
1 ^ The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.
Matches 34–38
During matches 34–38 each team played every other team in their half of the table once.
Kits and shirt sponsors
For the first time in the SPL, certain teams also carried secondary sponsors on the back of their jerseys, above the players' names.
Attendances
Source: SPL official website
1 Gretna were sharing Motherwell's stadium whilst Raydale Park was being upgraded. However, in March the Fir Park pitch was considered unplayable so the game between Gretna and Celtic was played instead at Almondvale, the home of First Division club Livingston.
Broadcasting rights
Setanta Sports provided domestic TV live coverage and highlights as in previous seasons, with STV and BBC Scotland also broadcasting free-to-air highlights. BBC Radio Scotland continued to provide domestic radio coverage, with many games also available internationally, and all domestically, through their website. The BBC held rights to show highlights online and do so through the BBC Sport website. Internationally, the Premier League's overseas television broadcasting partner was TWI, with coverage of the SPL available in over 100 territories worldwide.[1]