SPFL: New Scottish league brands unveiled

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SPFL logo

The Scottish Professional Football League has revealed the names of its league competitions.

The new top-flight will be called the Scottish Premiership, with the old First Division renamed the Scottish Championship.

Divisions Two and Three will now be known as Scottish League One and Scottish League Two.

"A mountain of work has been done over the summer to get to this point and I believe there is much more that can be done," said SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster.

"The new league set-up reflects very much the recommendations Henry McLeish made in his report for the future of Scottish football.

"To have clarity on the names of each division and to have a logo that demonstrates the passion, the excitement and the drama of Scottish football, I'm thrilled."

Pressed on the branding's similarity with the English Premier League, Doncaster said: "People are certainly familiar with what it represents and when the names changed in England we saw the Championship being elevated in terms of stature within the game.

"And our sincere hope is that will also be the case here. So many of the changes we've created in terms of redistribution - around £1.5m being re-distributed away from the top division into the second tier; to have play-offs to keep the division alive within the Scottish Championship right the way to the end and so much of the benefit will be about the Championship clubs and ensuring full-time professional football is viable at that level."

Asked about the search for a new sponsor for the league, Doncaster said: "We've only been in existence for three weeks and have the clarity and certainty as to the structure that people would be investing in. We've now got the branding and the names that people can now start associating with the different tiers of football in this country; let's see where we get to.

"With the benefit of four years of clarity and certainty with broadcasters, with Sky Sports and BT, that puts us in a very good place for conversations with partners and sponsors moving forward.

"Today gives us the chance to think about all the positivity that should be ahead and a real, exciting season, I hope at every level of the game. We should see a stronger, more vibrant championship and more vibrant bottom of the table in the Premiership with play-offs now introduced.

"I'm really excited about the future and confident we can look forward to a season ahead where we can concentrate on the football rather than all the off-field matters that have dominated the agenda for so long."

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443 comments

  • Comment posted by TheFamousAberdeen, at 11:33 24 Jul 2013

    Wow, how original!

    "Will we just copy the English leagues?"

    "Aye, what's for lunch?"

  • Comment posted by Southern Wolf, at 12:39 24 Jul 2013

    Actually it's not as straight forward as you may think. Before coming up with this, several options needed to be eliminated, options not taken forward were

    La Scottish Liga
    Fußball-Bundesliga Scotland
    Ligue 1 Scotland
    Scottish Eredivisie

    I find the notion that the names were thought up quickly and without thought a little surprising.

  • Comment posted by Nick, at 11:58 24 Jul 2013

    Here's an original idea. Why not call the four leagues what they are;

    First Division
    Second Division
    Third Division
    Fourth Division

    Radical or what?

  • Comment posted by Brummerdickens, at 12:18 24 Jul 2013

    ""A mountain of work has been done over the summer to get to this point" said SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster."

    Reaaaaaaaally?

  • Comment posted by The Oracle, at 11:41 24 Jul 2013

    This doesn't actually work- The Championship is the top tier in EFL as the EPL operates as a seperate entity, hence why it is the Championship. Our Championship is the 2nd tier so it doesn't make sense.

    Further testament to the fact that the people running our game don't have a scooby.

  • Comment posted by Rob, at 12:54 24 Jul 2013

    If the first tier is called the Premiership, and the second tier is called the Championship, shouldn't the third tier be called the Receivership, because of Rangers' participation?

  • Comment posted by alfie_langlands, at 11:31 24 Jul 2013

    Premiership
    Championship
    League One
    League Two

    ...where have I heard that before? Bet those numpties spent hours coming up with it.

  • Comment posted by Scorpion, at 12:22 24 Jul 2013

    So the best they could do is copy the English leagues, whose descriptions make no sense anyway. Calling your second division "Championship" is plain stupid, but not as dumb as calling your third division "League One". What was wrong with Divisions One, two, Three & Four - or is that too straightforward?

  • Comment posted by gazbo1988, at 12:14 24 Jul 2013

    a lot of work has been done over the summer to come up with the exact same leagues england have.

    this proves yet again that they get overpaid for very little effort and work

  • Comment posted by plath, at 12:49 24 Jul 2013

    Hahahaha. The Scottish football associations are a joke that keeps on giving.

  • Comment posted by U15735528, at 12:42 24 Jul 2013

    Once again, Doncaster and his cronies have confirmed what every Scottish football fan already knew... that he and the rest of the blazers at Hampden are completely and utterly clueless.

    Seriously Neil, the best you could do was to rip off the names of the bigger leagues down south? How unimaginative!

    Different name... same old rubbish!

  • Comment posted by Skibs, at 11:55 24 Jul 2013

    Frankly this is crap, I hope they've not spent a lot of time and money 'researching' this. We now have the one body governing all the leagues so a simple Div 1/2/3/4 would make sense. Instead we get these sexed up titles. I don't care whether its 'English' or not, that doesn't enter the equation for me, its just unnecessary.

  • Comment posted by Joe King, at 12:51 24 Jul 2013

    SPFL? What's that the Singapore Professional Football League? Given the new logo, you would think so!

    Looks like the ad agency has simply copied the Singapore national lion logo and changed the colour. That'll be £125,000 please Mr Doncaster!!!

  • Comment posted by U15664716, at 12:23 24 Jul 2013

    So much for listening to their customers/the fans*

    When these names were rumoured the backlash was obvious. To still go ahead with it is arrogance and ignorance personified. No wonder Scottish football is in the mess it is.

    *delete where appropriate when being either condescending or ripping them off.

  • Comment posted by Slenderman, at 13:08 24 Jul 2013

    Most will still call 'Scottish Championship' the First Division.

    I know I will.

  • Comment posted by U14473972, at 13:00 24 Jul 2013

    Hmmm.. seems like they've put loads of effort into that one ... or maybe just spent shedloads of money with a branding company!!

    I have to say that if there is an 'organisation' (if you can call it that) that is any less competent than the FA its the SFA.

  • Comment posted by U15798916, at 12:18 24 Jul 2013

    Why does a country with 5m people have to accommodate 42 teams? The ratio of teams/population puts us in 26th (out of 28) place in Europe behind only Iceland and Slovenia. But the ratio of attendance/population is 12th place. There is a demand to attend live football but the revenues are being spread across too many clubs. We need mergers or teams will fold - why do the authorities not see this?

  • Comment posted by SirLimpsalot, at 19:16 24 Jul 2013

    Why not call it "Top Table", "Cafeteria", "Piece Box" "Free school milk " leagues...
    Or am I being obtuse....??

  • Comment posted by peasfrog, at 15:01 24 Jul 2013

    Amazingly inspired stuff! Our football is run by true pioneers of the game! Original, progressive and in no way exactly the same as the English!!

    Why can't we go back to 1,2,3,4? Or even just 1 and 2 while we're at it? You can polish a .... but it's still a ....

  • Comment posted by Jimain, at 13:52 24 Jul 2013

    @177
    Oh I agree StrikeAyr, which is why our game needs so much more imagination than these clowns can provide.
    I'm usually a pretty level headed poster but I am speechless at this. Its so sad its funny.
    It just invites ctriticism and of course, scorn from English football.
    Oh, and Brinsley, do you have nothing better to do than appear on Scottish fitba blogs winding people up ?

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