Ten years after their Premier League championship, Leicester officially drops to the Third Division

Leicester City's decline has reached its lowest point as "The Foxes" officially fall to League One, the third tier of English football, just ten years after the miraculous Premier League title win in the 2015/16 season.

One of the greatest fairy tales in football history has now concluded with a bitter reality.

The 2-2 draw against Hull City in the decisive round officially extinguished all hopes of Leicester staying in the Championship. The Midlands club needed a victory to cling to a slim chance, but Oli McBurnie's equalizer in the 63rd minute plunged them into the abyss. With this result, Leicester sits second from bottom in the Championship and cannot avoid relegation for the second consecutive time.

This is a major shock when looking back at Leicester's journey over the past decade. In 2016, under the guidance of manager Claudio Ranieri, they wrote a legendary story by winning the Premier League with odds of 5,000/1—something almost unimaginable in modern football. Just one year prior, Leicester was struggling in a relegation battle.

After the historic peak, Leicester maintained a respectable position for several subsequent seasons. They reached the Champions League quarter-finals, won the FA Cup in 2021, and frequently competed for European qualification. Names like Jamie Vardy, James Maddison, and Youri Tielemans were symbols of that flourishing period.

The sorrow of Leicester

However, the decline began in the 2022/23 season when Leicester dropped out of the Premier League. Despite quickly earning promotion back the following season by winning the Championship, the club could not maintain stability. Constant changes in the coaching staff, from Enzo Maresca to Ruud van Nistelrooy and then Gary Rowett, only added to the chaos.

The 2025/26 season witnessed Leicester's unstoppable slide. They won only 2 out of 20 matches from the start of 2026, losing 30 points from leading positions. The attack continued to score regularly, but the defense played loosely, rendering all efforts meaningless.

One of the key reasons leading to this tragedy was a 6-point deduction penalty for violating the league's financial regulations. Although Leicester appealed, the decision remained unchanged, pushing them deeper into the relegation zone. Without the point deduction, they would still face significant risk, but at least they would have had a chance to fight until the last minute.

Chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha apologized to the fans: "There is no excuse. We have experienced the highest peaks and now the deepest lows. This pain belongs to all of us." These words clearly reflect the disappointment enveloping a club once seen as a symbol of resilience.

Falling to League One is not only a shock in terms of reputation but also a severe financial blow. Television revenue in the third tier is much lower than in the Championship and far less than in the Premier League, making the rebuilding process more difficult than ever.

In their 142-year history, Leicester has only played in the third tier once, and that was nearly two decades ago. But this time, the situation is much more complex as the club faces a comprehensive crisis from professional to administrative aspects.

From English champions to a third-tier club within just a decade, Leicester has experienced one of the most astonishing free falls in modern football history. And now, the biggest question is no longer why they declined, but whether "The Foxes" can rise once again.