He took over as manager of English club Fulham in April 2000 and helped them to promotion from the Division One to the FA Premier League as champions in his first full season. They finished 13th in their first top flight season for more than 30 years and qualified for the UEFA Cup (via the Intertoto Cup), but was sacked in April 2003, even though Fulham weren't in danger of going down at this stage. The club later took him to court, claiming he had wrongly overpaid for certain players such as Steve Marlet, but the charges were dropped. Tigana then took Fulham to court for wrongful dismissal and won, winning a payout of over £2 million.