The 2000–01 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 99th season of top-tier Italian football, the 69th in a round-robin tournament. It was contested by 18 teams, for the 13th consecutive season since 1988–89.
Roma won its first Scudetto since 1982–83, its third title overall. Juventus finished second, and these two teams automatically qualified for the first group stage of the 2001–02 UEFA Champions League. Lazio, the defending champions, and Parma finished third and fourth respectively, to enter the third qualifying round of the same competition. Internazionale and Milan finished fifth and sixth respectively, and qualified for the 2001–02 UEFA Cup along with Fiorentina, the winners of the Coppa Italia. Brescia gained entry into the 2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup.
Vicenza, Napoli and Bari were automatically relegated to Serie B. Reggina and Hellas Verona were forced to contest a relegation tie-breaker after finishing level on points, with Verona winning on away goals to relegate Reggina.
Rule changes In the middle of the season, the old quota system was abolished, meaning that each team was no longer limited to having no more than five non-EU players and using no more than three in each match.
Passport scandal Concurrent with the abolition of the quota system, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) investigated footballers from South America and Cameroon who had used fake passports in order to enable their teams to field them as Europeans. Alberto, Warley, Alejandro Da Silva and Jorginho of Udinese, Fábio Júnior and Gustavo Bartelt of Roma, Dida of Milan, Álvaro Recoba of Inter, Thomas Job, Francis Zé and Jean Ondoa of Sampdoria, and Jeda and André Leone of Vicenza were all handed bans in July 2001, ranging from six months to one year. However, most of these bans were subsequently reduced.
Personnels and sponsoring
Team Head coach Kit manufacturer Shirt sponsor Atalanta* Giovanni Vavassori Asics Ortobell Bari Arcangelo Sciannimanico Lotto TELE+ Bologna Francesco Guidolin Umbro Granarolo Brescia* Carlo Mazzone Garman Ristora Fiorentina Roberto Mancini Diadora Toyota Hellas Verona Attilio Perotti Lotto NET Business Internazionale Marco Tardelli Nike Pirelli Juventus Carlo Ancelotti Lotto TELE+/sportal.com (in UEFA matches) Lazio Dino Zoff Puma Siemens Mobile Lecce Alberto Cavasin Asics Banca 121 Milan Cesare Maldini Adidas Opel Napoli* Emiliano Mondonico Diadora Peroni Parma Renzo Ulivieri Champion Mr.Day (Home)/Parmalat (Away) Perugia Serse Cosmi Galex Daewoo Matiz Roma Fabio Capello Kappa INA Assitalia Reggina Franco Colomba Asics Caffè Mauro Udinese Luciano Spalletti Diadora Telit Vicenza* Edoardo Reja Umbro Artel Clima (*) Promoted from Serie B.
Managerial changes Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position in table Incoming manager Date of appointment Fiorentina Giovanni Trapattoni End of contract 30 June 2000 Pre-season Fatih Terim 1 July 2000 Perugia Carlo Mazzone 30 June 2000 Serse Cosmi 1 July 2000 Brescia Nedo Sonetti 30 June 2000 Carlo Mazzone 1 July 2000 Napoli Walter Novellino 30 June 2000 Zdeněk Zeman 1 July 2000 Internazionale Marcello Lippi Sacked 10 October 2000 15th Marco Tardelli 11 October 2000 Napoli Zdeněk Zeman 14 November 2000 18th Emiliano Mondonico 15 November 2000 Lazio Sven-Göran Eriksson Resigned 9 January 2001 5th Dino Zoff 10 January 2001 Parma Alberto Malesani Sacked 10 January 2001 10th Arrigo Sacchi (caretaker) 10 January 2001 Parma Arrigo Sacchi End of caretaker spell 29 January 2001 8th Renzo Ulivieri 30 January 2001 Fiorentina Fatih Terim Sacked 27 February 2001 10th Luciano Chiarugi (caretaker) 28 February 2001 Fiorentina Luciano Chiarugi End of caretaker spell 6 March 2001 11th Roberto Mancini 7 March 2001 Milan Alberto Zaccheroni Sacked 12 March 2001 9th Cesare Maldini 13 March 2001 Udinese Luigi De Canio 20 March 2001 12th Luciano Spalletti 21 March 2001 Bari Eugenio Fascetti 8 May 2001 18th Arcangelo Sciannimanico 9 May 2001
League table
Results
Overall records Highest number of wins: Roma (22) Lowest number of losses: Juventus, Roma (3 each) Highest number of draws: Atalanta, Brescia (15 each) Lowest number of wins: Bari (5) Highest number of losses: Bari (24) Lowest number of draws: Bari, Udinese (5 each) Highest number of goals for: Roma (68) Lowest number of goals against: Juventus (27) Lowest number of goals for: Bari (31) Highest number of goals against: Bari (68) Best goal difference: Roma (35) Worst goal difference: Bari (−37)
Relegation tie-breaker
Reggina relegated to Serie B.
Top goalscorers RankPlayerClubGoals1 Hernán CrespoLazio262 Andriy ShevchenkoMilan243 Enrico ChiesaFiorentina224 Gabriel BatistutaRoma205 Christian VieriInternazionale186 Dario HübnerBrescia177 Marco Di VaioParma15 Giuseppe SignoriBologna Roberto SosaUdinese10 David TrezeguetJuventus1411 Francesco TottiRoma13 Vincenzo MontellaRoma13 Cristiano LucarelliLecce12 Marco MaterazziPerugia15 Filippo InzaghiJuventus11 Davor VugrinecLecce
Attendances
Source:
# Club Avg. attendance Highest 1 AS Roma 67,270 77,120 2 Internazionale 55,582 78,054 3 AC Milan 52,304 81,954 4 SS Lazio 47,492 75,000 5 Juventus FC 41,273 63,548 6 SSC Napoli 38,890 67,927 7 ACF Fiorentina 29,463 39,241 8 Bologna FC 25,786 34,631 9 Reggina Calcio 24,113 28,000 10 Udinese Calcio 20,613 30,031 11 Parma AC 19,008 29,173 12 Atalanta BC 18,662 34,000 13 US Lecce 18,117 30,201 14 Hellas Verona 17,777 26,483 15 Brescia Calcio 16,261 20,819 16 Vicenza Calcio 15,193 18,461 17 AS Bari 13,833 33,900 18 AC Perugia 11,119 28,140
References and sources Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio – La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005
See also Tim Parks, A Season with Verona (London: Vintage, 2002) – A personal account by a celebrated English author and fan of the fortunes of Hellas Verona that season, including the team's narrow avoidance of relegation.
Footnotes
External links
– All results on RSSSF Website. 2000/2001 Serie A Squads – (www.footballsquads.com)