Scottish Football League
Founder members in 1890, and the shared first title.
The Scottish Football League was the top level of Scottish football from its foundation in 1890 until the breakaway Scottish Premier League was formed in 1998. Rangers were one of its eleven original members, alongside Abercorn, Cambuslang, Celtic, Cowlairs, Dumbarton, Heart of Midlothian, Renton, St Mirren, Third Lanark and Vale of Leven, and shared the very first championship with Dumbarton in 1890-91 after the two finished level on 29 points and drew a play-off 2-2.
Quick Facts
- Pixels
- 200
- Founded
- 1890
- Folded
- 2013
- Champions
- Partick Thistle
- Season
- 2012–13
- Most successful club
- Rangers (47 titles)
Reader's Guide
The league was inaugurated on 30 April 1890 after Renton's secretary invited thirteen clubs to discuss forming one; Queen's Park and Clyde declined. Goal average was introduced to separate level teams in 1921-22 and goal difference in 1971-72. In 1975 the top flight was renamed the Premier Division and the First Division became the second tier. The league was reorganised into four divisions of ten in 1994, when three points for a win was adopted, and it carried sponsors' names from 1985-86: Fine Fare, B&Q, Bell's and Irn-Bru. After 1998 it ran levels two to four, and in June 2013 it merged with the SPL to form the Scottish Professional Football League. It also ran the League Cup, founded in 1946, and the Challenge Cup.
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