The Growing Gulf In The Scottish Premiership

Are the "financial top five" pulling away from the rest of the league?

Much is made of the forty years that have passed since a club outside of Celtic or Rangers last won the top flight in Scotland, when Sir Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen lifted the trophy in 1985. The financial gap between the Old Firm and the rest has grown exponentially since then, and so despite the footballing intellect of Tony Bloom now starting a new chapter at Hearts - there’s little sign of that changing anytime soon.

Celtic clinched their fourth consecutive title in May, securing their 13th championship in 14 seasons. With regular Champions League qualification, they’ve now built an income that is 40% higher than even Rangers, never mind the rest of the league. But setting aside the Old Firm for once, it’s also notable that no club outside of Hibs, Hearts, or Aberdeen have finished third in the Scottish Premiership since Motherwell in 2020. The financial gap between the top two and the rest is vast, but the now five-year stranglehold that Scotland’s “next three” have on third place is telling in itself.

This recent closed shop at the top is undoubtedly driven by financial advantage, as shown by club annual reports. The great thing about annual reports, is they give exact, audited figures. The frustrating thing is - they are always historic. The ‘year end’ for most clubs was two weeks ago, but we won’t see these 24/25 annual reports for at least another 3 months. When released those figures will already be at least 12 months out of date too, detailing the transfer spend of last summer and the league position of last season - which will of course be long forgotten about.

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