Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic After the 12 Premiership clubs were given permission to restart full-contact training by the Scottish Government from 29 June 2020, it was announced that an Aberdeen player had tested positive for
COVID-19 two days later. The identity of the player was not disclosed but the club said that he was asymptomatic and self-isolating. Nine days prior to the start of the season on 1 August, it was reported on 23 July that seven members of St Mirren's coaching staff had tested positive. As a result, a pre-season friendly between St Mirren and St Johnstone on 25 July was cancelled and Hamilton Academical, who had played St Mirren in a friendly on 18 July, confirmed that all of their players and coaching staff had subsequently tested negative. The following day, St Mirren announced that after the seven positive tests were retested, only one came back as positive with the other six negative. On the opening day of the season Rangers defeated Aberdeen 1–0 at
Pittodrie Stadium and after the game, eight members of the Aberdeen squad went out to a pub in the city. Later in the week, the pub was linked to an outbreak of COVID-19 in
Aberdeen which led to a lockdown of the city. Two of the group subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 and the eight players were put into self-isolation. Aberdeen manager
Derek McInnes was critical of the group of players - namely
Bruce Anderson,
Craig Bryson,
Sam Cosgrove,
Michael Devlin,
Jonny Hayes,
Matty Kennedy,
Dylan McGeouch and
Scott McKenna - who apologised for a "huge error of judgement". The following weekend, defending champions Celtic drew 1–1 with Kilmarnock at
Rugby Park on 9 August. Defender
Boli Bolingoli was in the Celtic match squad and came off the bench during the match, but was found to have travelled back from Spain a few days earlier – at that time, a 14-day quarantine was required for anyone travelling to Scotland from that country. Celtic manager
Neil Lennon said Bolingoli "went rogue" and the club were unaware of his actions before it came to light on 10 August. Bolingoli (who tested negative for the virus) was subsequently fined £480 by the police for his breach of quarantine rules. The
Scottish Football Association (SFA) and
Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) introduced new rules following the breaches of COVID-19 rules which meant Bolingoli and the "Aberdeen eight" were charged by both governing bodies. An SFA hearing was held on 28 August which resulted in a three-match ban with a further two-match ban suspended for Bolingoli. The "Aberdeen eight" were each given a three-match suspended ban. The suspended bans would be triggered if a player was again charged with "bringing the game into disrepute" before 28 February 2021. Three fixtures (
Kilmarnock v
Motherwell,
St Mirren v Motherwell and St Mirren v
Hamilton) during the autumn were postponed after Kilmarnock and St Mirren told the SPFL that they could not fulfil them as scheduled due to COVID-19 outbreaks. The SPFL initially awarded 3–0 victories to their opponents; but that decision was overturned after an appeal to the
Scottish Football Association.
League table Positions by round The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. To preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included in the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards. For example, if a match is scheduled for round 13, but then postponed and played between rounds 16 and 17, it is added to the standings for round 16. ==Results==