Leicester City’s defeat at The Stadium of Light on Saturday saw them slip to 17th, just two points above the relegation zone.
The Champions were well distanced from talk of the drop at the start of the season, but Claudio Ranieri’s men are on a current run of form that sees them creeping more and more towards having to come to terms with a relegation battle.
It is a sheer fall from grace for last year’s unlikely Premier League champions, especially when you consider how well they have performed in their Champions League bow this season.
But, as you will see here, it is not the first time a football team has met huge high with greater lows.
MANCHESTER CITY
You have to go back nearly 80 years to find the last, and only, time a team have gone from top division champions to immediate relegation in English football. The 1936-37 season could hardly have gone better for Manchester City, not only did they win their first ever First Division league title but rivals Manchester United were also relegated.
The next season would see dreams quickly turn into nightmares for the club, as their torrid defensive record saw them relegated to the Second Division, finishing second bottom and only above last-placed West Brom. To make the turnaround even more bizarre, the Sky Blues finished the season having scored more goals than anyone else in the league (80), and with positive goal difference (+3). To add insult to injury there was double joy for the red side of Manchester as United were promoted back up to the First Division the same season.
Manchester City 1937 .. #ManCity #MCFC pic.twitter.com/AnCwfJA89J
— Classic Football (@classic1904) February 19, 2016
FC TIROL INNSBRUCK
2001-02 [AUSTRIAN BUNDESLIGA)
Perhaps the most extreme case on this list is that of FC Tirol Innsbruck. Unlike Manchester City, the Austrian side did not get relegated the season after winning the title, they ceased to exist entirely.
In 2002 FC Tirol Innsbruck were riding high. They were the strongest side in the Austrian Bundesliga, having won three consecutive league titles and, under future World Cup winning coach Joachim Low, ince again made it to the qualifying round of the Champions League. The heavy financial incentives that had brought them so much success would prove their downfall, as a wage budget of more than €10 Million and a brand new 18,500 seat stadium proved too much for Innsbruck with their average home attendance of 10,000. In June 2002 the club were declared bankrupt with debts of over €16 Million, lost their license with the league and the club collapsed.
A new club was created in 2002, FC Wacker Tirol, which formed an alliance with another local team, WSG Wattens, armed with a license in the third division of Austrian Football. The club returned to the top division two-years later in 2004, and has since flittered between the Bundesliga and the Erste Liga. They were renamed FC Wacker Innsbruck in 2007 and currently sit 6th in Erste Liga.
JUVENTUS
2005-06 [SERIE A]
Probably the most notorious fall from grace in recent memory, Juventus weren’t relegated due to poor performance or bankruptcy, but because of a scandal that ripped Italian football apart from within.
Juve claimed the 2005-06 Serie A title in comprehensive style, losing just once and winning 27 times in the 38 match season. Soon after being crowned champions, however, Italian football was thrown into disarray by a scandal centred around the Turin based team.
Juventus general managers Antonio Giraudo and Luciano Moggi were accused of influencing decisions around which referees would officiate Juve’s matches. A huge fall-out ensued and widespread match fixing was uncovered across the top tiers of football in the country.
The Old Lady were stripped of their 2005-06 championship, as well as eventually their 2004-05 title, and relegated to Serie B. A number of big name players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Fabio Cannavaro left the club as a result, but in spite of a nine-point deduction, Juventus won the Serie B title in 2006-07 and were promoted back to Serie A.
HERFOLGE BOLDKLUB
2000-01 [DANISH SUPERLIGA]
Herfolge Boldklub won the Danish Superliga in 1999-2000, finishing two points clear at the top with a goal difference of just +3, the lowest of any team to win the title. The club, based in the city of Koge, won 16 of their 33 matches with strikers Jasper Falck and Kenneth Jensen scoring 10 goals each.
It proved to be only in a flash in the pan, as the following season saw the club relegated to Danish football’s second tier having won only seven times and conceded 65 goals, the second worst defensive record in the league.
NURNBERG FC
1968-69 [BUNDESLIGA]
Nurnberg FC’s Bundesliga win in 1968 was their 10th German top division title. Their title charge was led by a deadly striking duo who scored 43 goals between them – 25 for Franz Bungs and 18 for Heinz Strehl.
Manager Max Mayer overhauled his title winning team ahead of the subsequent season, bringing in 13 new players and replacing many of the key senior players with young talent. This would prove his downfall as Nurnberg slumped to the bottom of the league by the midway stage of the season and Mayer was sacked by mid-March.
The appointment of new manager Kuno Klotzer Nurnberg did mount a resurgence, but it was too little too late and Nurnberg were relegated on the last day of the season.
