From miracle to misery: Leicester City relegated to England's third tier, a decade after winning Premier League

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Leicester City had been relegated for the second season in a row, falling into the third tier of English football, and another remarkable chapter had been written into the story of the football club that won the Premier League in 2016 with the same 5,000-1 odds as Elvis being found alive. The greatest miracle of the Premier League era, they called it, and who could disagree after watching Leicester’s 2015-16 side hold off the great and the good, the rich and the super-rich, to be crowned as the champions of England? It was one of the more implausible success stories in the history of the sport — any sport, indeed — a real-life fairytale that brought the city to the attention of millions of people worldwide. “Les-tah”, as the T-shirts say, may never throw a more colourful, vibrant party. Now, though, there were angry, mutinous outbursts rather than the tears of joy and the outpouring of love that was afforded to Claudio Ranieri and his players a decade earlier. Leicester’s only hope of remaining in the Championship, English football’s second tier, was to beat Hull City at the King Power Stadium on Tuesday night. It ended 2-2. The players were booed off and Leicester’s fixture list next season will include Doncaster Rovers, Wycombe Wanderers and a Bromley side that have spent 132 of their 134 years in existence playing non-League football. The local derby? Take your pick from Peterborough, Mansfield Town, Burton Albion or, potentially, Notts County. Nor should anyone think it will be a cakewalk for Leicester to bounce back up. Not when there is so much evidence of a broken, dysfunctional club. Not when the place reeks of apathy and so many changes will have to be made behind the scenes. From miracle to misery, Leicester have become only the fifth club since the Premier League’s formation to drop from the first to third levels of English football in successive seasons. It happened with Swindon Town in 1994-95. Wolves had back-to-back relegations in 2012-13, as did Sunderland in 2017-18 and Luton Town 12 months ago. Yet the story feels even more remarkable in Leicester’s case bearing in mind what happened 10 years ago and the fact it is only five years since they won the FA Cup. This is, in fact, their third relegation in four years. Add in their 2024 promotion, under the management of Enzo Maresca, and it is a wild graph of exhilarating highs and excruciating lows. “It (the title) was such an incredible achievement, so to have this kind of low is going to sting for a few days,” said their manager, Gary Rowett. “A lot of people are going to be very angry because they love their club.” Rowett took over as manager in February, replacing the sacked Marti Cifuentes, and is in the ignominious position whereby he may have contributed to two relegations from the Championship this season. His previous club, Oxford United, are currently one place above Leicester, looking increasingly precarious after being beaten at home by Wrexham. “I will take accountability for my part,” he said. “I will look in the mirror and take the responsibility.” As for the Leicester fans, their mood could be summed up by the boos that greeted the players when they came out before kick-off. Yes, before kickoff — unprecedented, surely, in the club’s 142-year history. As the public announcer read out the players’ names, there was more of the same. Perhaps wisely, the announcer refrained from naming the substitutes, sparing Harry Winks — the player who was filmed swearing at a Leicester fan after their defeat by Portsmouth at the weekend. Otherwise, large swathes of the stadium’s blue seats were empty. Those supporters who did turn up, however, made their feelings known. And the songbook became increasingly voluble after the tragicomedy nature of the opening goal, when Leicester’s goalkeeper, Asmir Begovic, gave the ball straight to Liam Millar then watched helplessly as Hull’s No 7 slotted it into an exposed net. “King Power, get out of our club.” This was the theme of the evening. Winks came off the bench for a warm-up, just after the half-hour mark, and the volume went up again. “You’re not fit to wear the shirt.” Briefly, there was hope. At the start of the second half, Leicester surprised everyone by scoring twice in three minutes, first via a Jordan James penalty and then a volley from Luke Thomas. Winks came on to loud boos and not long afterwards Oli McBurnie rattled in Hull’s equaliser. Silence descended for a few minutes as the crowd took in what it meant. In happier times, Mexican waves snaked around this ground. The owners of the Blaby Chippy turned the sausage batter blue in honour of their heroes. The city centre was illuminated in club colours and there was a pie named after Ranieri in the window of one butcher’s. Concerts were arranged. Ranieri watched on, dewy-eyed, as the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli sang to the crowd and his players lifted silverware. Then Ranieri, the miracle-worker, the history-maker, was sacked the following season amid reports of the players turning against him. “It’s sad to see what’s happened,” Dean Holden, Hull’s assistant manager. “They (Leicester) were everyone’s second team when they won the league ten years ago.” Next month, nostalgia will be in the air when Leicester host a “5,000-1” charity match to mark the anniversary. Ranieri will be back to manage a team of Leicester City Legends against an All-Star XI. And, for one night, all the happy memories will come back. Kasper Schmeichel, Danny Simpson, Wes Morgan, Robert Huth, Christian Fuchs, Danny Drinkwater, N’Golo Kante, Riyad Mahrez, Marc Albrighton, Shinji Okazaki, Jamie Vardy. What a bond that team had with the club’s supporters, going all the way to the Champions League quarter-finals. What a sense of togetherness, nothing like the fractured outfit we see now. “I know this has been a tough period for every Leicester City supporter and I understand the strength of your feelings,” the chairman, Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha, wrote in the matchday programme. Many of the chants were directed at him, even more for chief football officer Jon Rudkin. The club made the unusual decision to release a statement after relegation had been confirmed. Following confirmation of Leicester City’s relegation to League One, Chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha has issued the following statement: Relegation to League One is now confirmed. As Chairman, that responsibility sits with me. There are no excuses. We have… pic.twitter.com/rKzmniJ34G — Leicester City (@LCFC) April 21, 2026 It was an angry crowd, rather than a tearful or upset one. Leicester would be in the relegation zone even without the six-point penalty the club incurred earlier this season for financial breaches. There were angry scenes outside the stadium’s main entrance, too, long after the final whistle. And the saddest thing, perhaps, for Leicester’s supporters is that their club have reverted to type. Ten years ago, the whole of football was looking admiringly, enviously even, in their direction. Yet if you were to find a copy of The Fox fanzine — a part of the scene at Leicester since the 1987-88 season — from the relevant period, you will get a better understanding why long-term Leicester followers knew from experience that the joy might be short-lived. “It takes more than eight months to wipe out the mindset of a lifetime of supporting Leicester and the things drummed into you ever since you were a kid,” Gary Silke, the fanzine editor, wrote at the time. “As my boss used to say in the mid-80s: ‘City will always let you down.’” Spot the pattern. 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