2000 in Russian football

2000 in Russian football saw the eighth title for FC Spartak Moscow and the third Cup for FC Lokomotiv Moscow. The national team began qualification for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

National team

Russia national football team began qualification for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

Date	Venue	Opponents	Score^1	Competition	Russia scorers	Match Report
23 February 2000	Qiryat Eliezer Stadium, Haifa (A)	Israel	1–4	F	Vladimir Beschastnykh	Sport-Express
26 April 2000	Dynamo Stadium, Moscow (H)	United States	2–0	F	Egor Titov, Valery Karpin	Sport-Express
31 May 2000	Dynamo Stadium, Moscow (H)	Slovakia	1–1	F	Vladimir Beschastnykh	Sport-Express
4 June 2000	Stadionul Republican, Chişinău (A)	Moldova	1–0	F	Maksim Buznikin	Sport-Express
16 August 2000	Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow (H)	Israel	1–0	F	Maksim Buznikin	Sport-Express
2 September 2000	Hardturm, Zurich (A)	Switzerland	1–0	WCQ	Vladimir Beschastnykh	rsssf Sport-Express
11 October 2000	Dynamo Stadium, Moscow (H)	Luxembourg	3–0	WCQ	Maksim Buznikin, Dmitri Khokhlov, Egor Titov	rsssf Sport-Express

1. Russia score given first

Key

• H = Home match
• A = Away match
• F = Friendly
• WCQ = 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying, UEFA Group 1

Leagues

Top Division

First Division

Sokol and Torpedo-ZIL were promoted to the Top Division for the first time after occupying two top positions in the First Division.

			P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
P	1	Sokol	38	28	5	5	78	27	+51	89
P	2	Torpedo-ZIL	38	24	8	6	62	28	+34	80
	3	Rubin	38	24	6	8	61	28	+33	78
	4	Shinnik	38	20	11	7	58	33	+25	71
	5	Kristall	38	19	4	15	63	49	+14	61
	6	Amkar	38	17	9	12	53	38	+15	60
	7	Gazovik-Gazprom	38	18	5	15	55	52	+3	59
	8	Lokomotiv Chita	38	16	5	17	50	51	–1	53
	9	Lada	38	14	10	14	58	49	+9	52
	10	Tom	38	14	10	14	36	28	+8	52
	11	Arsenal	38	13	13	12	45	39	+6	52
	12	Baltika	38	15	6	17	40	46	–6	51
	13	Volgar-Gazprom	38	13	12	13	46	39	+7	51
	14	Metallurg Krasnoyarsk	38	15	5	18	40	49	–9	50
	15	Spartak	38	13	9	16	37	44	–7	48
R	16	Nosta	38	12	10	16	44	51	–7	46
R	17	Zhemchuzhina	38	12	7	19	48	70	–22	43
R	18	Metallurg Lipetsk	38	10	9	19	43	53	–10	39
R	19	Spartak-Chukotka^1	38	4	4	30	29	115	–86	16
R	20	Lokomotiv Saint Petersburg	38	3	4	31	30	87	–57	7^2

¹ Spartak-Chukotka withdrew after 19 rounds. Their opponents were awarded 3–0 wins in the 19 remaining matches.
² Lokomotiv Saint Petersburg were docked 6 points for failing to pay a transfer fee.

Andrey Fedkov of Sokol became the top goalscorer with 26 goals.

Second Division

Of six clubs that finished first in their respective Second Division zones, three play-off winners were promoted to the First Division:

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
FC Severstal Cherepovets (West)	3–3	FC Khimki (Centre)	1–0	2–3
FC Svetotekhnika Saransk (Povolzhye)	0–1	FC Kuban Krasnodar (South)	0–1	0–0
FC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk (Ural)	4–1	FC Metallurg Novokuznetsk (East)	2–0	2–1

However, later Severstal refused promotion, and their place was taken by Khimki.

Cup

The Russian Cup was won by Lokomotiv Moscow, who beat CSKA Moscow 3–2 after extra time.

UEFA club competitions

UEFA Cup 1999-2000

Spartak Moscow played in the third round of the UEFA Cup 1999-00, where they lost to Leeds United A.F.C. on away goals.

UEFA Intertoto Cup 2000

Zenit Saint Petersburg reached the final of the UEFA Intertoto Cup 2000 after eliminating NK Primorje, Tatabánya FC, and Bradford City A.F.C. In the final, Zenit lost 3–4 on aggregate to Celta de Vigo.

UEFA Champions League 2000-01

Lokomotiv Moscow failed to qualify for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League 2000-01, losing 1–6 on aggregate to Beşiktaş J.K. in the third qualifying round.

Spartak Moscow, who qualified for the group stage automatically, finished in the second position, one point behind Real Madrid in Group A which also contained Bayer Leverkusen and Sporting Clube de Portugal.

UEFA Cup 2000-01

Of the four Russian clubs which played in the UEFA Cup 2000-01, only Lokomotiv Moscow qualified for the second round. Torpedo Moscow lost 2–5 on aggregate to Lausanne Sports, CSKA Moscow 0–1 to Viborg FF (after extra time), and Spartak Vladikavkaz 0–5 to Amica Wronki.

Lokomotiv overcome PFC Naftex Burgas in the first round and FK Inter Bratislava in the second round, qualifying for the spring phase of the UEFA Cup.

References

• National team fixtures (Russian)
• League and cup results
• UEFA Champions League results
• UEFA Cup results: 1999-00 2000-01
• UEFA Intertoto Cup results