As I understand it, when the Premier League was formed, we resigned from the Football League, therefore surely they would have had their share back at that point. As the PL and FL are seperate entities, I wouldn't have thought we'd have needed the FL share to play in the Premier. So therefore, the share would not have been issued until 2001 when we were relegated? This is purely speculative, and a guess, rather than a factual assumption mind you.
If anybody else knows any differently, then I stand to corrected of course