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1999–00 in English football


The 1999–2000 season was the 120th season of competitive football in England.

Manchester United were crowned FA Premier League champions with an 18-point margin over runners-up Arsenal and with just 3 league defeats all season. This was despite their failure to retain the European Cup and withdrawal from the FA Cup in order to compete in the FIFA Club World Championship — a campaign which was short lived. Andy Townsend also once said in The Sun that Manchester United should be "banned for life" from the FA Cup. Their season after the domination of 1998–99 was seen as a relative failure by the tabloids. Man United's failure in the FIFA Club World Championship, was surprisingly compounded by the press even more when David Beckham's wife Victoria, admitted on The Big Breakfast that he enjoys wearing her thongs. It was during this tournament he was sent off against Mexican team Club Necaxa, which was seen as the starting point in his team's first-round exit.

Sunderland made an impressive Premiership comeback by finishing seventh and just missing out on a UEFA Cup place, in part due to 30 goals from prolific striker Kevin Phillips.

Watford went down in bottom place with a record Premiership low of 24 points. Sheffield Wednesday were next to go down. On the last day of the season, Wimbledon lost 2–0 at Southampton and Bradford City achieved a shock 1–0 home win over Liverpool thanks to a goal by David Wetherall. This meant that Bradford had survived the drop and Liverpool had surrendered a UEFA Champions League place to Leeds United. It also meant that Wimbledon's 14-year spell in the top flight was over and they were relegated to Division One 12 years to the day that they had beaten Liverpool to achieve a shock FA Cup triumph.


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