Falkirk F.C Confirmed As Scottish Championship Winners!
A look at how Championship winners have fared following promotion
With this evening’s 3-1 victory over Hamilton, Falkirk have FINALLY been confirmed as Scottish Championship winners. The Bairns will be rewarded with automatic promotion to the Scottish Premiership, ending their 15-year hiatus from the top flight, following their relegation from the SPL with 31 points in 2010.
It’s the fourth time Falkirk have won their division this century - including the infamous 2003 First Division title win which resulted in the bairns becoming the first team in history not to gain automatic promotion after winning the second tier since automatic promotion was introduced. This was due to the SPL rules at the time demanding 10,000 capacity all-seater stadium for all top tier clubs; rules which were widely criticised and later amended down to a requirement of 6,000 seats.
THE TROPHY
The Scottish Championship trophy awarded to Falkirk F.C tonight by SPFL CEO Neil Doncaster is the original trophy used in the Scottish top flight for more than 100 years. After the first season of Scottish League Football in 1890/91, it was inscribed with the names of the joint winners Rangers and Dumbarton. The two teams finished level on points after the league season before the league deciding playoff match finished 2-2. Penalty shootouts to decide the winners of a tied playoff match had not yet been invented, and there were no more dates to play the match before the end of the season - and so there were two winners of the inaugural trophy.
The name of the champions was inscribed on the trophy itself all the way until the 1959/60 season, when Heart of Midlothian became the last name to be engraved - because the trophy was now full. After that, the winning team had their name inscribed onto the base of the “Scottish Football League Division One Championship” trophy up until 1998. This was of course the last season before 10 clubs broke away from the SFL to form the new SPL, and so the original trophy was instead given to the winners of the second tier. Hibs were the first club to receive the trophy as second tier winners in 1999, a tradition which has now continued to the present day.
FALKIRK ABSENCE ENDED
Since Scottish football expanded in 1975, moving away from just two leagues of 16 teams to a three tier 10-14-14 setup, there have been multiple teams that were relegated from the top tier, only to climb back up in subsequent seasons.
However since 1975, there are only NINE previously relegated top flight clubs that have yet to play in the Premiership since the creation of the SPFL in 2013 (including phoenix clubs such as Gretna 2008). Falkirk’s back-to-back promotions means that list reduces to eight teams - including Falkirk’s rivals Dunfermline: