Leicester City confirmed for League One after 2-2 draw seals relegation to third tier

Leicester City are preparing for life in League One next season after suffering back-to-back relegations, their fate sealed by a 2-2 draw with Hull City at the King Power Stadium. The result confirmed their place in the third tier for only the second time in the club's 142-year history, marking a sharp decline from their position as Premier League champions just under a decade ago.

In May 2016, Leicester held aloft the Premier League trophy, defying 5,000/1 odds in what was one of the most extraordinary underdog stories in the history of English football. The Foxes began the 2015/16 season as 5,000/1 outsiders to win the Premier League, having consolidated their top-flight status the previous season by just six points after securing promotion from the Championship.

Under Italian manager Claudio Ranieri, the Foxes defied the odds from the start of the 2015/16 campaign, suffering just one defeat in their opening 17 league fixtures. They were top of the table by mid-January and never relinquished the position, storming to the title and finishing 10 points clear of runners-up Arsenal, having lost just three league games all season. Striker Jamie Vardy, one of the poster boys of that success, finished on 24 league goals and became the first player to score in 11 straight Premier League matches – a record that still stands.

Champions League football came the following year, where Leicester progressed further than any other English team that season before exiting at the hands of Spanish side Atletico Madrid in the last eight.

However, tragedy struck on 27 October 2018, little over two years after their league triumph. Leicester had netted a late equaliser in a home game against West Ham to send fans inside the King Power Stadium into raptures. But joy would turn to horror just hours later when five people – including the club's billionaire owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha – were killed in a helicopter crash outside the ground, in what was described as the "darkest day" in the history of the club.

All five victims were travelling on board the helicopter, which an inquest later found had suffered a mechanical failure that caused it to spin out of control. After buying Leicester for £39m in 2010, Mr Srivaddhanaprabha cleared the club's debts before overseeing one of the greatest sporting stories of all time six years later.

Following Vichai's death, his son Aiyawatt – known as "Top" – took charge of the club. Since then, Leicester have failed to sustain the same level of success. After lifting the FA Cup for the first time in the club's history in 2021 – courtesy of a Youri Tielemans goal in a 1-0 win over Chelsea at Wembley – Leicester, under boss Brendan Rodgers, finished eighth in the league the following year and also reached the semi-finals of the inaugural Europa Conference League.

But the season after, the Foxes struggled. Rodgers was dismissed in April 2023, and the team ultimately failed to avoid relegation to the second tier. They returned to the Premier League after just one season away but came straight back down again in 2025.

Since Rodgers's exit, the club has failed to establish stability in the dugout, having churned through six different permanent managers in just three years. On-field issues have swiftly been followed by problems off it. In February this year, Leicester were deducted six points as punishment for exceeding the maximum loss threshold by more than £20m over the three-year assessment period ending in 2024. Last month, the club reported another significant pre-tax loss of £71.1m during the 2024/25 season.

In recent years, Aiyawatt has wiped out hundreds of millions of pounds of the club's debt. But that, as well as having one of the Championship's highest wage bills and boasting a squad brimming with international pedigree, could not save Leicester from slipping further down England's footballing pyramid. Relegation to the third tier will have additional financial implications for the club and heap more misery onto an already frustrated fanbase.