How the ‘Foxes’ fell from Premier League champions to the third tier within a decade

It is widely considered one of the greatest “underdog” stories in sporting history when back in 2016, Leicester City won the Premier League title under Italian coach Claudio Ranieri.

At the beginning of that season, bookmakers had given Leicester odds of 5,000–1 to win the league, as they had narrowly avoided relegation the previous year.

Boosted by the goals from Jamie Vardy along with a team featuring the likes of Wes Morgan, N’Golo Kante, Kasper Schmeichel and Riyad Mahrez, the Foxes stunned the sporting world in early May, when a draw between Chelsea and Tottenham saw Leicester crowned 2015/16 champions.

Fast forward a decade and on Tuesday night, a 2-2 draw at home to Hull City secures a relegation from the Championship to third tier League One next season.

The decline over a decade

After a golden era that also included an FA Cup win in 2021 and a Champions League quarter-final appearance, the club’s foundations began to crumble due to a ballooning wage bill and stagnant recruitment.

This instability led to their first relegation in 2023, and although they briefly returned to the top flight, they were relegated again in 2025. The departure of club legend Jamie Vardy that summer marked the symbolic end of their greatest era, leaving a leadership vacuum that the club proved unable to fill.

The final descent into the third tier was cemented during a disastrous 2025/26 Championship campaign defined by managerial churn and a six-point deduction for breaching Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR). Despite a promising start under Martí Cifuentes, the team’s form plummeted in 2026, culminating in a run of only one win in 18 matches. The 2-2 draw against Hull City officially condemned the Foxes to League One for only the second time in their history.

The former Premier League champions will now face trips to the likes of Mansfield Town and Bromley, and the Leicester City story serves as a modern cautionary tale of how quickly a lack of long-term financial planning and poor boardroom decisions can dismantle a legacy of historic success.

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