The Scottish Premiership has been one of Europe's most compelling top flights this season, and what promises to be a dramatic finale will unfold once the league splits into two halves.

Hearts, Rangers and Celtic are locked in a three-way title battle, with Motherwell and Hibernian set to join them in a high-stakes run-in.

Newly-promoted Falkirk look all but certain to complete the top six. Dundee United, currently seventh, would need to overturn a six-point deficit and an eight-goal swing across just two games to displace the Bairns.

Here's a breakdown of how the split — a fixture of Scottish football since the 2000-01 season — will play out.

After 25 years, you might expect the format to feel second nature — yet the split still manages to cause its share of confusion.

The league divides after 33 rounds of fixtures. The final first-phase matches are scheduled for the weekend of 11-12 April, by which point all 12 clubs will have faced each other three times.

From rounds 34 to 38, the top six sides play each other once more, as do the bottom six — five additional games per team, all against sides in their own half of the table.

Those final fixtures determine the title, European qualification places and, at the other end, relegation. Simple enough in theory — but in practice, the scheduling can get complicated.

The SPFL cannot predict at the start of a season which teams will end up in which half of the table, so home and away fixture allocations for the first 33 rounds are based on the previous campaign's finishing positions. The result is an inherent imbalance heading into the split.

Teams that have played 17 home games before the split would nominally expect two more at home afterwards. Those with 16 home games would expect three.

Hearts, Rangers, Motherwell and Falkirk will each have played 17 home games by round 33. Celtic and Hibs will have played 16.

Here's where it gets complicated.

To balance home and away derbies — particularly with the title race so finely poised — Hearts will travel to both Easter Road and Celtic Park after the split, while Rangers face away trips to Celtic and Hearts, having already hosted both sides twice in the league this season.

Falkirk, however, will make a third league visit to Tynecastle, having already been to Hearts twice in the first 33 rounds.

Celtic, meanwhile, will welcome both Hearts and Rangers, as well as hosting Falkirk — despite the Bairns having already visited Celtic Park twice this term.

Rangers, despite having hosted Hibs, Falkirk and Motherwell only once each, will have just two home games in the post-split phase. Motherwell face a similar situation, having hosted Falkirk, Hibs and Rangers twice each, yet they too can only expect two home fixtures in the run-in.

It is a scheduling headache for the SPFL, and one that is unlikely to satisfy every set of supporters.