1999–2000 FA Cup


The 1999–2000 FA Cup was the 119th staging of the FA Cup. Both the semi-finals and final of the competition were played at Wembley Stadium for the last time before reconstruction work began. The competition culminated with the final between Chelsea and Aston Villa. The game was won by a goal from Chelsea's Roberto Di Matteo, giving them a 1–0 victory.
The title holders Manchester United, withdrew from the 1999–2000 competition due to their participation in the 2000 FIFA Club World Championship in South America, to take place in early 2000, thus becoming the first FA Cup winners not to defend their title. Despite this being at the request of the Football Association, they received criticism from journalists and television pundits. To keep the competition running smoothly, the FA chose to draw one team from among those lower-division teams defeated in the second round to progress as "lucky losers" to the third. Darlington were the team drawn.
The main competition started in November 1999 for clubs from the Football League and Premiership.

Calendar

RoundDateMatchesClubsNew entries this roundPrize money
Preliminary Round21 August 1999166558 → 392161: 227th-387th£1,000
First Round Qualifying4 September 1999116392 → 27666: 161st-226th£2,250
Second Round Qualifying18 September 199980276 → 19644: 117th-160th£3,750
Third Round Qualifying2 October 199940196 → 156none£5,000
Fourth Round Qualifying16 October 199932156 → 12424: 93rd-116th£10,000
First Round Proper30 October 199940124 → 8448: 45th-92nd£16,000
Second Round Proper19 November 19992084 → 64none£24,000
Third Round Proper11 December 19993264 → 3243: 2nd-44th£40,000
Fourth Round Proper8 January 20001632 → 16none£60,000
Fifth Round Proper29 January 2000816 → 8none£120,000
Sixth Round Proper19 February 200048 → 4none£300,000
Semi Finals2 April 200024 → 2none£900,000
Final20 May 200012 → 1none£1,000,000

Manchester United, who were the winners the previous season, did not enter.

First round proper

This round is the first in which teams from the First Division and Second Division compete with non-league teams.
‡ - Oxford City's replay with Wycombe Wanderers was abandoned after extra time due to a fire within the stadium. The score was 1-1.

Second round proper

= Darlington advanced as lucky losers

Third round proper

This round marked the first time First Division and Premier League teams played.
----
----
----

Semi finals

Aston Villa booked their first FA Cup final appearance since 1957 by beating Bolton Wanderers on penalties after a goalless draw, while Chelsea reached their first final after just three years with a narrow 2-1 win over Newcastle United.
----

Final

The 2000 FA Cup Final was contested between Chelsea and Aston Villa at Wembley Stadium, with Chelsea coming out 1-0 winners. Roberto Di Matteo scored the winning goal 17 minutes from the end, three years after he had opened the scoring within the first minute of Chelsea's last FA Cup final win. This was Villa's first FA Cup final for 43 years.

Media coverage

In the United Kingdom, ITV were the free to air broadcasters for the third consecutive season while Sky Sports were the subscription broadcasters for the twelfth consecutive season.
The matches shown live on ITV Sport were: Huddersfield Town 0–2 Liverpool ; Arsenal 0–0 Leicester City ; Aston Villa 3–2 Leeds United ; Tranmere Rovers 2–3 Newcastle United ; Bolton Wanderers 0–0 Aston Villa ; and Chelsea 1–0 Aston Villa