Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west. Scotland has a population of 5.29 million people and the capital is Edinburgh. The Scottish Football Association is the governing body of football in Scotland and is based at Hampden Park in Glasgow. The SFA has the overall responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. It is responsible for the operation of the Scotland national football team, the annual Scottish Cup and several other duties important to the functioning of the game in Scotland. The organisation was founded in 1873 and became affiliated to FIFA in 1910 and to UEFA in 1954. Members of the SFA include clubs in Scotland, affiliated national associations as well as local associations. The highest ranked competition in Scotland is the Premier League which was founded in 1998 after Scotland's top clubs broke away from the Scottish Football League. The Scottish Premier League is contested between 12 clubs each season. Despite the organisational split, promotion and relegation of clubs still takes place between the SPL and the Scottish Football League. The Scottish Football League now ranks second in the hierarchy of Scottish football since the split of nation's top clubs in 1998 to form the SPL. The SFL has 30 member clubs evenly divided among three divisions, currently named the First Division, Second Division and Third Division. Promotion and relegation between these divisions is a central feature of the League and also allows the top First Division clubs to exchange places with the lowest placed clubs in the SPL. There is no provision for relegation from the Third Division into the regional or junior leagues, but there have been changes of membership due to clubs going out of business. The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the Scottish Cup, is the main national cup competition in Scottish football. It was established in 1874 and is run by the Scottish Football Association. Some 84 clubs enter the competition from the SPL (12 clubs), SFL ( 30 clubs) and the remainder from the Highland League and qualifying Junior clubs. | The Scottish Football League organises two knock-out cup competitions, namely the Scottish League Cup and the Scottish Challenge Cup. The League Cup was established in 1946 and is open to all SFL and SPL clubs. The Scottish Challenge Cup was instituted in 1990 and is only for 30 clubs belonging to the SFL, plus 2 Highland Football League clubs. Since 1890/91, a total of 11 clubs have been crowned champions of the Scottish football system. The most successful club is Rangers, followed by Celtic. These two clubs far outstrip Heart of Midlothian, Aberdeen and Hibernian. The most successful club in the Scottish Cup since it was first held in 1874 has been Celtic, closely followed by Rangers. The only other club to reach double figures is Queen's Park. |
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