'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/2wBDAAYEBQYFBAYGBQYHBwYIChAKCgkJChQODwwQFxQYGBcUFhYaHSUfGhsjHBYWICwgIyYnKSopGR8tMC0oMCUoKSj/2wBDAQcHBwoIChMKChMoGhYaKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCj/wgARCAAGAAoDASIAAhEBAxEB/8QAFQABAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAX/2gAIAQEAAAAAjD//xAAUAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAF/9oACAECEAAAABf/xAAUAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAE/9oACAEDEAAAAHf/xAAiEAACAgAFBQEAAAAAAAAAAAACAwEEAAUGESESEyIxQWH/2gAIAQEAAT8Ay1dll/LUOTVib4Meo4nee4M9GxePr9jnD9XaHBzBtVc+CxBTDASpRAJfYGZPmMf/xAAXEQEBAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACAQAE/9oACAECAQE/AOxsE03f/8QAGxEAAQQDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgABBBIiUbH/2gAIAQMBAT8Am4lUdv1f/9k='%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
With all football matches suspended for the near future, this seems to be an opportune time to look back at how football has evolved over the last two decades. During the 1999-2000 season, current English champions Manchester City were languishing in the second division whereas most of the Chelsea supporters had never heard of Roman Abramovich.
The world record transfer fee was €32 million that Internazionale had paid Lazio for Christian Vieri, which prompted a Vatican newspaper to print that the transfer was 'An offence against poor people'. Considering that Manchester City paid double that fee for buying Rodri last year and that Neymar cost Paris Saint-Germain six times that fee and you get the context of how far the transfer fees have rocketed.
This article takes a look at the top three leagues in the world and how they played out 20 years ago.
#1 English Premier League | Manchester United dominates
The English Premier League (EPL) had not yet distanced itself from La Liga and the Serie A as the undisputed leader in exorbitant wages when the 1999-00 season came about. Manchester United had just brought the Champions League home with that famous victory over Bayern Munich the previous season.
United were the undisputed heavyweights of the league and they earned their sixth Premier League title in 99-00 season, finishing a whopping 18 points clear of Arsenal. In an era when only the top 3 qualified for the Champions League, Liverpool would be pipped to third place by Leeds United when the Reds lost to relegation-threatened Bradford City 1-0 on the final day of the season. That result also saw Wimbledon being relegated to the second tier after 14 years in top flight.
The season was also notorious for United's decision to skip the FA Cup to play in the inaugural Club World Cup, which ultimately blew up in their face when they were eliminated in the group stages, losing to Romario's Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama and finishing below Mexican club Necaxa on goal difference. A pre-Abramovich Chelsea would win the FA Cup and Leicester City won the League Cup. Current superpower Manchster City weren't even in the Premier League in the 99-00 season.
20 YEARS LATER
Sir Alex Ferguson would continue to manage United for more than a decade, but with his retirement, United lost their position as the premier club in England, not winning the league after 2013. Arsenal also would lose their position in the top two, resigned to finishing outside the top four in recent years.
Leeds United and Bradford City would be relegated in the subsequent seasons, with Leeds sitting top of the seond tier Championship in 2020 where as Bradford City resides in the fourth tier of the English league. Liverpool won the Champions League in 2019 and sit atop the league standings in 2020, with United currently 37 points behind them.
#2 La Liga | Deportivo de La Coruña's sole title
La Liga season in 1999-00 was memorable for a variety of reasons. Neither Barcelona nor Real Madrid won the title and the season saw the lowest point tally ever amassed by a championship winning side. Deportivo La Coruña won their only first division title, finishing with just 69 points in a tightly contested league which separated the top six by just eight points.
'Super Depor' was coached by Javier Irureta and fired on by goals from Dutch striker Roy Makaay. It was a golden period for Deportivo as they would win the Copa Del Rey in the following seasons while consistently finishing near the top of the table. The 99-00 season saw Barcelona and Valencia finish 2nd and 3rd whereas Real Zaragoza beat Real Madrid to the fourth spot. Espanyol would win the Copa Del Rey beating Atlético Madrid in the final.
20 YEARS LATER
Deportivo's golden period ended in the 2010s as they would suffer relegation from the top flight on three separate occasions, the last being in the 2017-18 season. They haven't been in La Liga since and currently languish in 19th spot in the second tier, which would result in relegation to the third tier if their position does not improve.
Real and Barça would continue to dominate La Liga, with only Valencia and Atlético Madrid winning the league other than the Big Two since Deportivo's triumph. Real Zaragoza are currently second in the Spanish second division whereas Espanyol are still in the top tier, albeit occupying 20th spot in the league table, firmly staring at relegation.
#3 Serie A | Lazio wins the treble
Before he was ridiculed by the unforgiving English press despite a decent performance as English manager in the first decade of the 2000s, Sven Goran-Eriksson had built a reputation as an astute manager, guiding IFK Goteburg to a UEFA Cup win, before winning titles with Benfica, Roma, and Sampdoria. But his coup de grace came in the 1999-2000 season when he delivered an unprecedented treble for Società Sportiva Lazio in the club's centenary year.
First was a victory over Champions League winners Manchester United to win the UEFA Super Cup. The Copa Italia came to Rome next with a 3-1 aggregate win over Internazionale, but the biggest triumph was the Scudetto.
That Lazio side consisted of superstars like Pavel Nedvěd, Alessandro Nesta, Diego Simeone, Juan Sebastian Veron, Marcelo Salas, and Siniša Mihajlović with the Rome based club engaged in a neck-to-neck battle with Juventus for the Serie A title. Juventus seemed to have wrapped the championship up with a five-point lead over Lazio with just three games to go. But the tables had turned by the final day of the season as Lazio beat Reggina whereas a stuttering Juve lost to Perugia 1-0 on a rain-soaked pitch to hand Lazio the title by two points.
20 YEARS LATER
Lazio would not win the Serie A again, but they would win eight more titles in the next 20 years, winning the Copa Italia and the Super Cup. The 2019-20 season seems to be going the way of the 99-00 season though, with Lazio trailing Juvetus by just a point with 12 games to go, until the league was suspended due to the coronavirus epidemic.
Juventus have consolidated their position as the top club in Italy, having won the Scudetto every season since the 2011-12 season. They have won 35 Italian Championships to date, way ahead of every other side.
