Leicester City relegated to third tier just 10 years after shock English Premier League title win

LONDON – Former English Premier League champions Leicester City said they will have to learn and “rise again”, as they were relegated to the third tier for only the second time in their history after a 2-2 draw against Hull City on April 21.

Gary Rowett’s side needed a victory at the King Power Stadium to keep alive their slender hopes of avoiding relegation. But the Foxes were denied and condemned to League One just 10 years after they were crowned English champions in a fairy-tale triumph.

Second-bottom Leicester are seven points from safety with just two games left. They will play in the third tier next season for the first time since 2008-09 following an astonishing decline over the last five years.

“We have to learn. The club have to accept this is the horrible part of the journey of a football club,” Rowett said. “This club won the Premier League not too many moons ago. That was an incredible high at the time.

“I think everyone saw that as an amazing achievement. I think we can be equally as disappointed with how poor this moment is.”

It is a third relegation in four seasons for Leicester, who dropped out of the Premier League in 2023 and 2025.

After Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kante and company defied odds by winning the Premier League in 2016, Leicester reached the Champions League quarter-finals the next season and won the FA Cup in 2021.

But their golden era is a distant memory as they face the unpalatable prospect of playing the likes of Bromley, Mansfield Town and Wycombe Wanderers next season.

“The bigger picture is you don’t get relegated over three or four games, you get relegated over a season,” Rowett added. “The club has to rise again but it has to learn its lessons because it’s certainly been a season of an awful lot of regret.”

Crashing out of the Premier League in limp fashion three years ago should have been a wake-up call for Leicester’s Thai owner Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha and sporting director Jon Rudkin.

But the hierarchy were painfully slow to address numerous flaws on the pitch, while the club’s ruinous finances have cost them with a six-point deduction this season for breaching spending rules.

Vardy’s departure at the end of last season severed the last tie with the title-winning squad.

Marti Cifuentes, hired to lead a promotion push, struggled to rebuild an unbalanced and inexperienced squad before his sacking in January.

Interim boss Andy King was unable to turn the tide and relegation fears began to mount after Leicester blew a 3-0 half-time lead in a dismal 4-3 defeat by Southampton.

By the time Rowett was hired in February, the Foxes were two points from safety and the former Leicester defender has mustered only one win from his 12 matches since.

Boardroom blunders have been the defining influence on Leicester’s plummet towards League One.

Claudio Ranieri, architect of their title-winning campaign, was sacked just months after lifting the trophy, with Craig Shakespeare and then Claude Puel proving inadequate replacements.

Brendan Rodgers, who masterminded the club’s FA Cup triumph and two fifth-place finishes in the Premier League, was dismissed as relegation beckoned in 2023.

While Leicester have got things wrong with a second straight relegation, Coventry City clinched the Championship title with a 5-1 rout of Portsmouth on April 21.

Frank Lampard’s side had already sealed promotion back to the top flight after a 25-year absence with a draw at Blackburn Rovers on April 17. AFP