Season 2015–16 Dates 1 Aug 2015 – 22 May 2016 Goals scored 478 Relegated Dundee United F.C. | Champions Celtic Champion Celtic F.C. Location Scotland, United Kingdom Matches played 170 | |
 | ||
Top goalscorer Leigh Griffiths
(31 goals) Biggest home win Celtic 8–1 Hamilton Academical
(19 January 2016) Biggest away win Kilmarnock 0–4 Dundee
(1 August 2015)
Kilmarnock 0–4 Ross County
(22 August 2015)
Aberdeen 1–5 St Johnstone
(3 October 2015)
Partick Thistle 0–4 Heart of Midlothian
(31 October 2015)
Kilmarnock 0–4 Aberdeen
(19 December 2015) Highest scoring Celtic 8–1 Hamilton Academical
(19 January 2016) Similar 2016–17 Scottish Premiership, 2015–16 Maltese Premier L, 2015–16 Slovenian PrvaLiga, 2015–16 Danish Superliga | ||
The 2015–16 Scottish Premiership (known as the Ladbrokes Scottish Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is the third season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The season began on 1 August 2015. Celtic are the defending champions.
Contents
Twelve teams contest the league: Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee, Dundee United, Hamilton Academical, Heart of Midlothian, Inverness CT, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Partick Thistle, Ross County and St Johnstone.
Teams
Promoted from Scottish Championship
Relegated from Scottish Premiership
Basic
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.
Promotion and relegation
Heart of Midlothian were promoted as 2014–15 Scottish Championship winners. On 2 May, bottom club Dundee United were defeated 2–1 away to their city rivals Dundee, a defeat which confined them to relegation of the Championship. Craig Wighton, a local Dundee fan, scored the winning goal in the 92nd minute of the game. The champion of that league will be promoted to the Premiership for the 2016–17 season. The team that finishes 11th in the Premiership will play the winner of the Championship playoffs (teams that finish 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the Championship) in two playoff games, with the winner securing a Premiership spot for the 2016–17 season.
Matches 1–22
Teams play each other twice, once at home and once away.
Source: Scottish Premiership
1 ^ The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Matches 23–33
Teams play every other team once (either at home or away).
Source: Scottish Premiership
1 ^ The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Matches 34–38
After 33 matches, the league splits into two sections of six teams each, with teams playing every other team in their section once (either at home or away). The exact matches are determined upon the league table at the time of the split.
Top scorers
As of matches played on 15 May 2016Play-offs
The quarter-finals were contested between the 3rd and 4th placed teams in the Scottish Championship; Hibernian and Raith Rovers. Hibernian, the winners, advanced to the semi-finals to face the 2nd placed team in the Championship; Falkirk. Falkirk, the winners, advanced to the final to play-off against the 11th placed team in the Premiership, Kilmarnock, with the winners securing a place in the 2016–17 Scottish Premiership.