Financial dominance of the Old Firm in the Scottish Premiership

This season the Scottish Premiership features the closest competition between a non-Old Firm club in decades. Defending champions Celtic will face Hearts in the final game of the season to determine the 2025-26 champions. Should the Edinburgh side draw or win against the Glasgow giants, they would become the first team outside the Old Firm to win the top flight in more than 40 years. This dominance of Celtic and Rangers is compounded by the huge financial differences between the clubs.

Celtic's annual turnover for the 2025-26 season was £143.6m - almost six times as much as Hearts' in the same period. Rangers recorded the second highest revenue last year at £94.2m, taking the gap between the Old Firm and Hearts - the next highest rated team - to almost £70m. The difference in revenue between Celtic and the lowest-earning club, Falkirk, is almost £140 million, with the Glasgow club taking in more than 30 times as much money.



Additionally, the financial gap between the Old Firm teams and the rest of the league is also reflected in the transfer market. While Celtic spent comparatively modestly during the summer transfer window, they still generated the highest income from departures. Rangers' spending, the highest in the league, was almost nine times that of Hearts. Four teams recorded no spending at all on new signings, although some fees may not have been disclosed. Two of these clubs, Dundee and Falkirk, also reported no financial income from departures.

Another point is the stadium infrastructure: Celtic Park has the largest capacity of any stadium in Scotland at 60,411 seats, surpassing the national stadium Hampden by almost 9,000 seats and is the tenth largest stadium in the entire United Kingdom. Rangers' stadium, Ibrox, is the second largest in the league with 50,817 seats. The nearest stadium, Aberdeen's Pittodrie, has a capacity of 20,866 - less than half that of Ibrox. The lowest capacity stadium, Falkirk's, could fill Celtic Park seven times.

The full list of stadium capacities is as follows:
- Celtic Park: 60,411
- Ibrox (Rangers): 50,817
- Pittodrie (Aberdeen): 20,866
- Easter Road (Hibernian): 20,421
- Tynecastle (Heart of Midlothian): 19,852
- Rugby Park (Kilmarnock): 15,003
- Tannadice (Dundee United): 14,223
- Fir Park (Motherwell): 13,677
- Dens Park (Dundee): 11,775
- Almondvale (Livingston): 8,716
- St Mirren Park: 7,937
- Falkirk Stadium: 7,937.