Scottish Premiership's crime count - Celtic impressive card stat, Hibs surprise, foul to yellow card ratio

This week in Scottish football has been dominated by Aberdeen, Graeme Shinnie and the failed appeal with the Scottish FA adding an extra game to the Dons midfielder’s ban.

The red card was the result of an intervention from VAR which has had an impact on the number of red cards with more shown this season with six rounds of fixtures remaining than any of the previous seven campaigns. A big offshoot of the technology has been penalties and red cards with Rangers boss Michael Beale noting it has “cleared up a lot of heavy tackles and off-the-ball stuff across football”.

How do the 12 Premiership teams compare when it comes to discipline? Who can be regarded as the top-flight’s ‘bad boys’ and who are the saints? Using information from the official SPFL stats centre on fouls, yellow cards and red cards the Scotsman prescribed each with a value. Fouls earn one point, yellow cards four points and red cards three points.

Before we look at the totals for each team, let’s look at some of the higher and lower values from each metric. In terms of fouls, St Mirren lead the way with 422, one ahead of Motherwell, while Hibs, at 403, the only other team to have committed more than 400 fouls. At the other end of the scale Celtic have committed the fewest which makes sense considering they dominate possession on a weekly basis. Their 317 is slightly lower than Dundee United (320) and Hearts (329). Rangers are next on 342.

As for yellow cards, St Johnstone lead the way with 81 with Hibs (75) and St Mirren (71 the only other sides with more than 70. Celtic have the fewest with 39. No other team has fewer than 50. Hearts are next with 55, followed by Aberdeen and Rangers who have both been shown 58. It means the Scottish league leaders average a yellow card every 8.7 fouls. Kilmarnock and Ross County average 6.5 and 6.3 respectively with Rangers and St Mirren next with 5.9 fouls. St Johnstone earn a yellow card every 4.4 foul.

When it comes to red cards, every Premiership side has had at least two sendings off. Livingston and Hearts have the most with seven each.

Scottish Premiership discipline table

Celtic – 514 points (338 fouls, 39 yellow cards, 2 red cards)

St Mirren and Celtic are at the opposite end of the Premiership crime count. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

Rangers – 594 points (342 fouls, 58 yellow cards, 2 red cards)

Aberdeen – 609 points (317 fouls, 58 yellow cards, 6 red cards)

Dundee United – 610 points (320 fouls, 65 yellow cards, 3 red cards)

Hearts – 619 points (329 fouls, 55 yellow cards, 7 red cards)

Ross County – 668 points (378 fouls, 60 yellow cards, 5 red cards)

Kilmarnock – 679 points (389 fouls, 60 yellow cards, 5 red cards)

Livingston – 717 points (383 fouls, 66 yellow cards, 7 red cards)

Hibs – 723 points(403 fouls, 75 yellow cards, 2 red cards)

Motherwell – 743 points (421 fouls, 73 yellow cards, 3 red cards)

St Johnstone – 744 points (360 fouls, 81 yellow cards, 6 red cards)

St Mirren – 766 points (422 fouls, 71 yellow cards, 6 red cards)

(Foul = 1 point, yellow card = 4 points, red card = 10 points)