 After a lengthy appeals process with the Scottish Football Association, including a situation where the following season's fixture list was released and the draw for the 2003–04 Scottish Challenge Cup was made without knowing all of the participants (the fixture list and cup draw referring to Motherwell or Falkirk's place as "Club X"), it was confirmed that Falkirk would not be accepted into the SPL, sparing Motherwell from relegation.In the initial phase of the season, each of the twelve teams play the other eleven teams three times.After 33 rounds, the league splits into two sections, a top six and a bottom six, with each team playing all the other teams in their section once.