2000–01 Scottish Premier League

2000–01 saw the Scottish Premier League (SPL) expanded from 10 to 12 clubs, which was part of the agreement reached between the clubs in the SPL and the Scottish Football League when the top-tier clubs broke away in 1998.^[1]

With the expansion of the league, the league 'split' was introduced to avoid the need for clubs to play 44 fixtures in a season,^[2] which would be the case if the quadruple round-robin format of the previous season was followed. Instead, after 33 rounds of matches, by which time all clubs had played each other three times, the league split into a 'top six' and 'bottom six' with clubs only competing against teams within their own section for the final five fixtures. Points achieved during the first phase of 33 matches were carried forward to the second phase but after the first phase was completed, clubs cannot move out of their own section in the league, even if they achieved more or fewer points than a higher or lower ranked team, respectively.^[3] The new format received widespread criticism from SPL managers.^[4]

Results in European competition over the previous five years saw the league move up from 21st to 15th in the UEFA country coefficient ranking. This meant that the league was granted an additional berth in the UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds for the following season.^[5]

Twelve clubs competed in the league, all of the participants in the 1999–2000 Scottish Premier League and the top two clubs in the 1999–2000 Scottish First Division. A play-off was due to take place between the bottom club of the Premier League (Aberdeen) and the second- and third-placed club of the First Division (Dunfermline Athletic and Falkirk, respectively), but as Falkirk's stadium did not meet the minimum SPL seating requirements, this play-off did not take place, and Aberdeen and Dunfermline were automatically placed in the Premier League.^[6]

St Mirren were promoted to the league as champions of the 1999–2000 First Division, securing the championship on 29 April 2000 with a 3–0 victory over Raith Rovers at Love Street. This was to be their first season at the top level of Scottish football since 1991–92.

Aberdeen	Celtic	Dundee	Dundee United
Pittodrie Stadium	Celtic Park	Dens Park	Tannadice Park
Capacity: 20,866[7]	Capacity: 60,411[8]	Capacity: 11,506[9]	Capacity: 14,223[10]
Dunfermline Athletic	Aberdeen Dundee Dundee United Dunfermline Athletic Hearts Hibernian Kilmarnock Rangers Celtic Motherwell St. Johnstone St Mirren class=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2000–01 Scottish Premier League		Heart of Midlothian
East End Park			Tynecastle Park
Capacity: 12,509[11]			Capacity: 17,420[12]
Hibernian			Kilmarnock
Easter Road			Rugby Park
Capacity: 16,531[13]			Capacity: 17,889[14]
Motherwell	Rangers	St Johnstone	St Mirren
Fir Park	Ibrox Stadium	McDiarmid Park	Love Street
Capacity: 13,677[15]	Capacity: 50,817[16]	Capacity: 10,696[17]	Capacity: 10,800[18]

Team	Manager	Kit manufacturer	Kit sponsor
Aberdeen	Ebbe Skovdahl	Puma[19]	Atlantic Telecom
Celtic	Martin O'Neill	Umbro[20]	ntl:
Dundee	Ivano Bonetti	Xara[21]	Ceramic Tile Warehouse
Dundee United	Alex Smith	TFG Sports[22]	Telewest
Dunfermline Athletic	Jimmy Calderwood	TFG Sports[23]	Auto Windscreens
Heart of Midlothian	Craig Levein	Erreà[24]	Strongbow
Hibernian	Alex McLeish	Le Coq Sportif[25]	Carlsberg
Kilmarnock	Bobby Williamson	Puma[26]	scotlandonline.com
Motherwell	Billy Davies	Xara[27]	Motorola
Rangers	Dick Advocaat	Nike[28]	ntl:
St Johnstone	Sandy Clark	Xara[29]	Scottish Hydro Electric
St Mirren	Tom Hendrie	Xara[30]	LDV Group

Team	Outgoing manager	Date of vacancy	Manner of departure	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Celtic	Kenny Dalglish	1 June 2000[31]	Caretaker spell ended	Pre-season	Martin O'Neill	1 June 2000[31]
Dundee	Jocky Scott	10 July 2000[32]	Contract expired		Ivano Bonetti	10 July 2000[32]
Dundee United	Paul Sturrock	7 August 2000[33]	Resigned	12th	Alex Smith	8 August 2000[34]
Heart of Midlothian	Jim Jefferies	8 November 2000[35]	Mutual consent	5th	Craig Levein	1 December 2000[36]

The 2000–01 title was won by Celtic – their first SPL title, and their first Scottish title since winning the 1997–98 Premier Division – in Martin O'Neill's first season as manager of the club. Celtic also went on to win the 2000–01 Scottish Cup and the 2000–01 Scottish League Cup, completing a domestic treble.^[1] Henrik Larsson won the 2000–01 European Golden Shoe for his goalscoring, scoring 35 league goals and 53 goals in all competitions over the course of the season. The 35 goals Larsson scored in the league this season was a Scottish Premier League record.

Defending champions Rangers finished second, 15 points behind their Old Firm-rivals. Celtic secured their title on 7 April 2001, with a 1–0 victory over St Mirren at Celtic Park.^[37] The aforementioned match had the highest attendance of any match in SPL history. As champions, Celtic qualified for the Champions League, as did second-placed Rangers. Third-placed Hibernian and fourth-placed Kilmarnock qualified for the UEFA Cup, while Dundee became the first SPL club – and the first Scottish club since Partick Thistle in 1995 – to qualify for the UEFA Intertoto Cup.

The record for the highest transfer fee ever paid by a Scottish club was broken twice over the course of the season. Firstly, by Chris Sutton's transfer from Chelsea to Celtic on 10 July 2000 for £6 million.^[38] Then, on 23 November 2000, the £12 million fee paid by Rangers to Chelsea for Tore André Flo became the highest transfer fee ever paid by a Scottish club,^[39] and is a record which still stands as of 2023.^[1] The signing of Claudio Caniggia for Dundee in October 2000 was also seen by many as a major coup for the club,^[40] and was just one of many signings of international players made under the management of Ivano Bonetti.

St Mirren were relegated in what was their debut season in the SPL and their first appearance in Scotland's top division since 1991–92. Their relegation was mathematically confirmed on the final day of the season with a 3–3 draw against Motherwell, leaving them five points below 11th-placed Dundee United.^[1]

During matches 1–22 each team played every other team twice (home and away).

During matches 23–33 each team played every other team once (either at home or away). This means that during matches 1-33 each team played every other team 3 times (either 1 home, 2 away or 2 home, 1 away).

During matches 34–38 each team played every other team in their half of the table once (either at home or away).