In decades gone by, there have been clubs that have fallen from the top divisions and fallen away through the lower leagues. Ferencvaros of Hungary reached the final of the 1968 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (predecessor to the UEFA Cup/Europa League), as well as the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1975, before their presence in Europe gradually dimished and they haven't qualified for the final stages of any European competition since 2004.
A more famous and a more recent example is that of Parma, who once challenged the best in Serie A in the late 90s, before liquidating in 2015 and starting as a phoenix club in Serie D. Closer to home, Luton Town couldn't stay in the top flight long enough to see the birth of the Premier League, and gradually slid towards the conference by 2009.
One of the first major examples of a fallen giant was Nottingham Forest, who won the European Cup (now the Champions League) twice in a row- Liverpool are the only other English club to have done so- in 1979 and 1980. They found themselves bouncing between the Premier League and the Championship in the 90s before going down in 1999, they haven't been seen in the top flight since and spent a three-year period in League One.
But a serious contender for the most spectacularly catastrophic downfall has been the case of Leeds United. With a proud history already behind them- consistently challenging for silverware in the '60s and '70s and won the last First Division title before the Premier League in 1992- they made it to the semi-final of the UEFA Cup in 2000, followed by that of the Champions League in 2001. Three years later, they were a club relegated to the Championship with virtually no players left. Skip forward another three years and they were rooted to the bottom of League One with -15 points, for breaches of insolvency rules. Following the Leeds' example, it's not been uncommon for similar falls from grace- in football- to be known as 'doing a Leeds'.
Although they returned to the Championship in 2010, their recovery- if you can still call it that- has stagnated somewhat. They finished 7th in their first season back, three points off the playoffs. However, poor ownership reared its ugly head once again and affected results on the pitch. Between 2011 and 2016, the club had seen three different owners, a delay in paying the players' wages and two owners driven out by fan protests.
The club's fortunes changed in the 2016/17 season. Although this initially appeared to be the result of Massimo Cellino- the club's eccentric owner at the time, called "a man with marked criminal tendencies" by a judge in 2014- taking a back seat, it became apparent that there was a new face at corporate level.
Andrea Radrizzani, a successful media tycoon, had made an expression of interest to Cellino over the summer of 2016 with regards to investment in the club. The club's fortunes on the pitch improved drastically and Radrizzani bought a 50% stake in the club in January 2017. He completed a full takeover in the summer- after Leeds had failed to make the playoffs at the last hurdle- the day before he and everyone connected with Leeds United received a nasty shock...
A more famous and a more recent example is that of Parma, who once challenged the best in Serie A in the late 90s, before liquidating in 2015 and starting as a phoenix club in Serie D. Closer to home, Luton Town couldn't stay in the top flight long enough to see the birth of the Premier League, and gradually slid towards the conference by 2009.
One of the first major examples of a fallen giant was Nottingham Forest, who won the European Cup (now the Champions League) twice in a row- Liverpool are the only other English club to have done so- in 1979 and 1980. They found themselves bouncing between the Premier League and the Championship in the 90s before going down in 1999, they haven't been seen in the top flight since and spent a three-year period in League One.
But a serious contender for the most spectacularly catastrophic downfall has been the case of Leeds United. With a proud history already behind them- consistently challenging for silverware in the '60s and '70s and won the last First Division title before the Premier League in 1992- they made it to the semi-final of the UEFA Cup in 2000, followed by that of the Champions League in 2001. Three years later, they were a club relegated to the Championship with virtually no players left. Skip forward another three years and they were rooted to the bottom of League One with -15 points, for breaches of insolvency rules. Following the Leeds' example, it's not been uncommon for similar falls from grace- in football- to be known as 'doing a Leeds'.
Although they returned to the Championship in 2010, their recovery- if you can still call it that- has stagnated somewhat. They finished 7th in their first season back, three points off the playoffs. However, poor ownership reared its ugly head once again and affected results on the pitch. Between 2011 and 2016, the club had seen three different owners, a delay in paying the players' wages and two owners driven out by fan protests.
The club's fortunes changed in the 2016/17 season. Although this initially appeared to be the result of Massimo Cellino- the club's eccentric owner at the time, called "a man with marked criminal tendencies" by a judge in 2014- taking a back seat, it became apparent that there was a new face at corporate level.
Andrea Radrizzani, a successful media tycoon, had made an expression of interest to Cellino over the summer of 2016 with regards to investment in the club. The club's fortunes on the pitch improved drastically and Radrizzani bought a 50% stake in the club in January 2017. He completed a full takeover in the summer- after Leeds had failed to make the playoffs at the last hurdle- the day before he and everyone connected with Leeds United received a nasty shock...