The 2000–01 season was the 121st season of competitive
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
Rangers played a total of 56 competitive matches during the 2000–01 season.
Rangers went into the season looking to clinch a third consecutive
Scottish Premier League
The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...
title, as well as trying to successfully defend the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,League Cup and make an impact in the
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...
. Despite further heavy investment in the team, which included paying a £12 million fee for striker Tore Andre Flo in November, Rangers were unable to win the title and finished the season without winning any trophies.
Despite a good start to the season, a 6–2 loss against
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foot ...
in the first
Old Firm
The Old Firm is a collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply embedded i ...
derby saw the beginning of inconsistent league form for Rangers throughout the rest of the season, including a 3–0 loss at home to
Kilmarnock
Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...
. The loss to Kilmarnock brought a conflict between club captain Lorenzo Amoruso and manager
Dick Advocaat
Dirk Nicolaas "Dick" Advocaat (; born 27 September 1947) is a Dutch former association football, football player and coach. He is currently the manager of the Curaçao national football team.
Advocaat was successful as a football player and as a ...
to a head, resulting in Amoruso being stripped of the captaincy and 22-year-old Barry Ferguson being given the arm band. A 5–1 victory over Celtic in November gave hope for revival but Rangers were unable to put up any serious challenge and finished the season 15 points off top spot.
In the domestic cup competitions Rangers lost 3–1 to Celtic in the semi-finals of the League Cup and also surrendered their Scottish Cup crown with a 1–0 loss away to Dundee Utd.
In Europe, Rangers qualified for the group stages of the
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...
for the second consecutive time after two qualifying rounds and were drawn alongside Sturm Graz, Galatasaray and
AS Monaco
Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club, commonly referred to as AS Monaco (), is a professional football club based in Fontvieille, Monaco. Although not in France, they are a member of the French Football Federation (FFF) and currently ...
. Rangers made a good start to the group with six points from two matches, including a 5–0 win at home to Sturm Graz and 1–0 win away to Monaco. However, they only picked up two points from the remaining four games and failed to qualify for the next phase of the competition, finishing third and therefore dropping into the
UEFA Cup
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star.
Computer scientists and Mathematici ...
. The last match at home to Monaco saw Rangers leading 2-1 which would have seen them go through but a late Monaco goal denied Rangers a place in the next round. In the UEFA Cup Rangers drew
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern (; ) is a town in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, 666 kilometers (414 m ...
and despite winning the first leg 1–0 at home, they exited European competition before Christmas after a 3–0 loss in Germany.