The 1999–2000 Football League (known as the
Nationwide Football League for sponsorship reasons) was the 101st completed season of
The Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...
.
The 1999–2000 season saw the league dispense with the traditional 1–11 numbering of players’ shirts in favour of squad numbers, a system that had been adopted by the
Premier League
The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
a few seasons before. This also meant that players’ names appeared on the back of their shirts for the first time since the league’s inception.
The three promotion places in
Division One went to champions
Charlton Athletic, runners-up
Manchester City
Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...
and playoff winners
Ipswich Town.
1999–2000 also saw some of Division One’s biggest clubs miss out on promotion — the biggest of these were
Blackburn Rovers (11th) and
Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football.
Founde ...
(14th).
Steve Coppell ended his fourth spell as
Crystal Palace manager after doing wonders to keep a virtually bankrupt club clear of the Division One relegation zone.
Going down were
Walsall
Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...
,
Port Vale and
Swindon Town
Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system.
Founded as Swindon A ...
.
West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...
just missed out on the drop zone thanks to a late turn-around in form during the final weeks of the season which followed the appointment of
Gary Megson as manager.
David Moyes, 37, showed promise as one of the league’s most highly rated young managers after he guided
Preston North End to the
Division Two championship.
Stan Ternent’s two-year rebuilding project at
Burnley
Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...
paid off as they finished runners-up in the division and would establish themselves as a second tier side for nine years until promotion to the Premier League happened at the end of the
2008–09 season. Joining them in Division One were
Peter Taylor’s
Gillingham, who had reached the upper half of the league for the first time in their history.
Going down were
Cardiff City,
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...
,
Scunthorpe United and
Chesterfield. Narrowly avoiding the drop were
Oxford United, who struggled all season long despite the club’s financial crisis being eased by the arrival of new
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
n chairman
Firoz Kassam.
Swansea City,
Rotherham United,
Northampton Town
Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the English football league system.
Founded in 1897, the c ...
and
Peterborough United occupied the four promotion places in
Division Three.
Chester City were relegated on the last day of the season, ending their 69-year league career and would be relegated from the League again nine years later while
Shrewsbury Town and
Carlisle United saved themselves from Conference football.
First Division
Location of clubs
Play-offs
Results
Second Division
Location of clubs
Play-offs
Results
Third Division
Locations of clubs
Play-offs
See also
*
1999-2000 in English football
*
1999 in association football
The following are the association football events of the year 1999 throughout the world.
Events
*Manchester United F.C., Manchester United won the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final, UEFA Champions League, 1999 FA Cup Final, FA Cup and 1998–99 ...
*
2000 in association football
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:1999-2000 Football League
English Football League seasons
2