What is Scottish Premier League?
'''Scottish Premier League''' (SPL) is the top-tier football league in Scotland. == Competition format == === League === The SPL is in a league format – each team gains points by playing another team in the league. Three points are awarded to each team for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Once all the games have been played, if two or more teams are equal on points, then the difference between goals scored and goals against is considered. The season runs from August until May each year. Each club will play each other at least three times before the table splits in half for the last part of the competition. Each club will then play five more games against clubs in their half of the table. Each team plays a total of 38 games. ==== Split ==== Once every team has played each other three times the league splits into two halves for another five games. This means that the top six teams play each other once, and the bottom six teams play each other once. Many people do not like the SPL splitting. Many managers such as [[Jim Jeffries]], the manager of Hearts at the time, have publicly asked for the split to be removed.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/8622884.stm |title=Hearts boss Jim Jefferies urges SPL to scrap split |work=BBC Sport | date=15 April 2010 |publisher=BBC |access-date=14 July 2011}}</ref> The man in charge of the SPL, the Chief Executive, said that 11 of the 12 SPL teams would need to agree and, of eight teams asked, five said they wanted the split kept.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/scot_prem/8619954.stm |title=Attempts to ditch the SPL split would not find majority |work=BBC Sport|publisher=BBC |date=15 April 2010 |access-date=14 July 2011}}</ref> Teams cannot move between the two splits, meaning that even if a team in seventh place has more points than the team in sixth or higher they will not move above them in the league. This happens often, for example in the 2005–06 season,