As with many sport competitions, the name of the SPL has been sold to a sponsor, currently the Clydesdale Bank, a Scottish Bank. The Clydesdale Bank bought the name in the 2007–08 season for £8 million, taking over from another Scottish bank, the Bank Of Scotland. The SPL is now known as the ""Clydesdale Bank Premier League"".
Until the start of the 2012-13 season the two Glasgow football clubs known as the Old Firm played in the SPL, Rangers and Celtic. The Old Firm was criticised by some due to the fact that they held such a strong position in Scottish football. The amount of money they made was very large compared to the other teams in Scotland. In 2001 their income was £90 million, almost double the income of the other ten teams, whose income was £48 million combined. Every year since the SPL started one of the Old Firm has won the league. Only once, in the 2005–06 season, did the Old Firm clubs not come first and second in the SPL.
Rangers entered administration in 2012 because they owed money which they could not afford to repay. Some of this money was owed to HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) as Rangers had not paid the tax they should have. Rangers asked HMRC if they would take only some of the money owed to them, called a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) however HMRC demanded the full amount and Rangers were closed. The people who owned Rangers have set up a new company ('newco') and bought Ibrox stadium, the training buildings and other things. This 'newco' was forced out of the SPL moved to the Scottish Third Division from the 2012-13 season.
Although the two teams had a strong position over other Scottish teams, they still cannot compete with other leagues for players because other leagues, particularly the English Premiership, have a lot more money to spend. There were rumours about the Old Firm splitting from the SPL, and joining the English Premiership, but this was stopped by FIFA.
These teams play in the Scottish Premier League in the 2012–13 season:
These are previous members of the SPL in reverse order of them losing membership.
Inverness Caley Thistle and St Mirren are the only clubs to have been promoted into the SPL twice. Dunfermline Athletic are the only club to have been relegated from the SPL twice.
"Updated on 28 October 2009; and partly on 07/10/12"
Metropolitan county
There are six metropolitan counties in England, which each cover large urban areas, typically with populations of 1.2 to 2.8 million. They were created in 1974 and are each divided into several metropolitan districts.
There are no county councils any more since 1986. Most of their functions were taken over by the individual boroughs. So the boroughs became unitary authorities. The remaining functions were taken over by so-called "joint-boards".
The metropolitan counties have population densities of between 838 (South Yorkshire) and 28 (West Midlands) people/km². Individual metropolitan districts range from 4 people/km² in Liverpool to only 500 people/km² in Doncaster.
The six metropolitan counties and their metropolitan districts are:
The structure of Greater London is similar to the metropolitan counties, but it is not one. It was created earlier in 1965, by the London Government Act 1963.
The idea for creating administrative areas based upon the large conurbations outside London based on the model of the County of London or Greater London.
The metropolitan counties were established by the Local Government Act 1972, the county councils were first elected in 1973, and were formally established in April 1974.
Since 1995, the cities of Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield have come together in the "English Core Cities Group". This organisation has no distinct legal status but seems to move towards a role of these cities as regional capitals outside of London.
Unitary authority
A unitary authority is a type of local authority that is responsible for all local government functions within its area. This is different from a system where local government functions are divided between different authorities.
Typically unitary authorities cover large towns or cities, which are large enough to be independent of county or regional administration. Sometimes they consist of counties which have no lower level of administration.
In the United Kingdom, "Unitary Authorities" are English councils which are responsible for almost all local government functions within their areas.
This is opposed to the system of local government which still exists in most of England, where local government functions are divided between county councils and district councils.
Until 1996 a similar system existed in Scotland and Wales but this has now been replaced by a fully unitary system. The unitary system has existed in Northern Ireland since 1973. when the administrative responsibilities of the were replaced by a system of 26 unitary authorities.
Some cities, large towns and groups of neighbouring towns are unitary authorities and independent from county councils and some English counties, such as Rutland, Herefordshire and the Isle of Wight, have so small populations that the entire county is a unitary authority.
In practice most unitary authorities in the UK are not entirely unitary, as they often run some services on a joint basis with other authorities, these typically include policing, fire services, and sometimes waste disposal and public transport. In addition some unitary authorities contain civil parishes, which effectively form another limited of local government
When the metropolitan councils were abolished in 1986 their functions were given to the boroughs. These became unitary authorities in all but name.
Similar institituions exist in other countries, which although not called unitary authorities, are similar in concept.
In the United States an Independent city or a consolidated city-county is roughly equivalent to a unitary authority. The city might be separate from any county government, as in Virginia, or merged with a county government, as in San Francisco, California, or as is common in Florida. Another type of local government that is roughly equivalent to a unitary authority is a county when there are no municipal or township governments in the county. That is the case in Arlington County, Virginia, and Baltimore County, Maryland.
Unitary authorities or "single-tier municipalities" exist as a single level of government in a province that otherwise has two levels of local government. One should not confuse municipalities in provinces with no upper-level of local government as single-tier municipalities, as these are the "only" level of local government in that province.
In Germany a kreisfreie Stadt is the equivalent term for a city which is responsible for the local and the Kreis (district) administrative level.
Administrative division
Administrative division is a term for an administrative region within a country that is created for the purposes of managing of land and the affairs of people. The area typically has a local government with a certain degree of autonomy, and is on a level below that of the sovereign state.
County council
A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.
County councils were responsible for more strategic services in a region, with smaller urban district councils and rural district councils responsible for other activities. The new system was a major modernisation, which became necessary because of the increase of functions carried out by local government in late Victorian Britain.
In England and Wales, a county council is the local government that governs a county.
County Councils were introduced in 1889 in England and Wales by the "Local Government Act 1888". They took over the administrative functions of the unelected "Quarter Sessions".