The fairytale of Leicester City winning the Premier League at odds of 5000/1 is one of the greatest stories ever seen in English football.
But just a decade on from Claudio Ranieri’s men making history and Andrea Bocelli performing “Nessun Dorma” as they lifted an improbable title, the Foxes will find themselves playing League One next season after their relegation from the Championship was confirmed.
Leicester had to beat promotion-chasing Hull City on Tuesday to keep their slim survival chances alive, but a 2-2 draw at the King Power Stadium means they will drop down to the third tier for just the second time in their 121-year league history.
It confirms a remarkable fall from grace for the 2015-16 Premier League champions, who were hit with a six-point deduction earlier this season for breaching financial rules. The club had bid to overturn the penalty, but an independent appeal board upheld the punishment.
Leicester are the first former champions of England to drop into the third tier since Blackburn Rovers were relegated to League One in 2017. The Foxes were relegated from the Premier League for the second time in three years last season, but this has been a troubled campaign with just one win in their last 18 Championship fixtures.
Leicester had more success following their Premier League title victory and reached the Champions League quarter-finals the following season. Under Brendan Rodgers, Leicester won the FA Cup for the first time in 2021 when they defeated Chelsea at Wembley, and came close to a return to the Champions League, finishing fifth two years in a row.
They paid the price for a dismal 2022-23 season and were relegated to the Championship, seven years on from lifting the title, with Everton staying up ahead of them on the final day. They bounced straight back, winning the Championship under Enzo Maresca, but were relegated again last season, with Ruud van Nistelrooy unable to stop their slide.
They appointed QPR boss Marti Cifuentes before the start of the season but he was sacked in January and their form has not improved under his replacement Gary Rowett. Even without the six-point deduction, Leicester would still be in a survival scrap with Blackburn and would be two points from safety with two games remaining.
