Football in Scotland is wildly unique in its own special way.
Often battled out at the top by powerhouses Celtic and Rangers, newly invested Hearts have enjoyed a brilliant campaign to this point, with all three teams now battling to become champions.
But why do they play each other three times, and why does the league split in half? FourFourTwo explains all here...
How does the league split work in Scotland?
To make it simple when explaining, the Scottish Premiership 'splits' after 33 games played, with two breakout divisions therefore forming.
This has happened ever since 2000, when the division expanded from 10 teams to 12, in which prior, each team played either four times and ended after a 36-game season.
Following the expansion, an issue occurred, with each team therefore required to play 44 league games in a single season.
In order to work around the issue, the current split system was introduced at the time of the expansion and allows each team to play each other 3 times, then after 33 games, the table is split into two groups.
Two individual groups are made, one named the Championship Group and the other the Relegation Group, each with six teams. Each team within a section will then play the other teams in their section once, for a total of 5 additional games.
This, therefore, brings the total number of games in a season to 38.
It is also important to note that once the split occurs after 33 games, a team from the bottom six cannot finish ahead of a team in the top six, even if they have more points at the end of the season. So strange, we know.
Why did they introduce the split?
All in the name of further competition, apparently.
With the table being split, the top teams will have to continue to perform well against the best teams in the league if they wish to win the league, and so on at the other end.
It gives bottom table teams more of a chance of avoiding relegation and makes the relegation battle more exciting, but the Scottish league is like no other when it comes to this peculiar format.
Of course, there have been plenty of critics who voiced their opinions against the fixture disparity, which leads to fewer home games, and the fact that teams in the lower half of the table can finish with more points than teams in the top half.
This season, it looks as though a three-way title race is set to play out, with Hearts, Celtic and Rangers all separated at present by only six points.
