Ajax & Lyon: 5 big clubs that have gotten relegated recently

As two historical European giants Ajax and Lyon languish in the doldrums of their respective leagues, here are five big clubs who have surprisingly gotten relegated despite their status.

Just about three months into the European football season, some league tables make for an interesting read especially due to a pattern of historically big teams struggling.

Olympique Lyon for example are currently bottom of the French Ligue 1 with just three points from a possible 27 this season so far.

The seven-time French champions are on the only team still yet to win a game in Ligue 1 this season and are on course for a rather shocking relegation if things do not change soon.

The same goes for Ajax who are second from bottom in the Eredivisie with just one win from seven games so far.

The thought of these two teams getting relegated seems unfathomable but once in a while, these things do happen and history has shown that big teams like Lyon and Ajax can indeed get relegated.

Here are five big teams that have previously gotten relegated from European leagues much to the surprise of everyone.

Blackburn Rovers 1998/99

Younger football fans might not fully grasp the idea of Blackburn on such a list as they have not played top-flight football since the 2011/12 Premier League season.

However, it was their last relegation before that in the 1998/99 season that qualifies them for this list of big teams surprisingly getting relegated.

Rovers finished 19th in that relegation season which was especially surprising as they finished sixth the season before that.

In fact, the shocking relegation came just four seasons after their historic Premier League title triumph in 1994/95.

They were very much an established Premier League team by the time they got relegated and even though they found their way back to the top flight two seasons later, it was never quite the same again as they never really hit their previous levels again.

Leeds United 2003/04

Between 1994 and 2002, Leeds United only finished outside of the Premier League top five twice. Establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with in English football.

A third-place finish in the 1999/00 season earned them a spot in the UEFA Champions League where they almost went all the way but for a semi-final defeat to Valencia in 2001.

Three years after that Champions League semi-final appearance, Leeds United were relegated from the Premier League.

The financial strain of assembling their competitive squad eventually became too much to bear and they never recovered from it.

They spent the next 16 seasons yoyo-ing between the Championship and League One after which they got promoted to the Premier League again in 2020 but have gone right back down three seasons later.

Villarreal 2011/12

Villarreal’s relegation in the 2011/12 season is as strange as it gets considering the Yellow Submarine also played Champions League football that year.

They qualified for the Champions League having finished fourth in La Liga the season before and no one could have predicted how bad they turned out to be just one season later.

Not only did they finish 18th in La Liga to get relegated, Villarreal also lost every game in the Champions League group stages to finish dead bottom behind Bayern Munich, Napoli and Manchester City in that order.

To prove that the relegation was just a blip, Villarreal gained promotion instantly and finished sixth in their first season back in La Liga in 2013/14.

Schalke 04 2020/21

Schalke's relegation to the second tier of German football in 2021 was a big shocker as they were one of the traditional big teams in the Bundesliga.

The last time Schalke had been relegated prior to 2021 had been back in 1988 and in that period, they consistently finished in the European places although never winning the Bundesliga.

Their atrocious form during the 2020/21 season saw them win just three games all season, being relegated with 16 points.

An immediate promotion to the Bundesliga the following season was followed by another relegation immediately after.

Leicester City 2022/23

Leicester City are not a traditional big club in England, that is a status they earned by winning the Premier League against all odds in the 2015/16 season.

However, seven years after that historical triumph, the Foxes are back in the English Championship for the first time in nine years, much to the surprise of many football fans.

Their abysmal form throughout the second half of the 2022/23 campaign saw them battling relegation for the remainder of the season, with the Foxes eventually going down on the final day after losing 2-1 to West Ham United.

The general consensus was that they were too good to go down and this was just a freak occurrence. An assertion which is being proven right by their immediate domination of the second tier.

Honourable mention - Juventus

Juventus actually won the Serie A in the 2005/06 season with  27 wins, 10 draws and one defeat to achieve their total of 91 points.

However, they were stripped of their title and relegated to Serie B for their involvement in the Calciopoli scandal which is why they did not originally make this list as their relegation was not exactly from football activities.

The star-studded team dominated the second division as one would expect and were immediately promoted back to Serie A and the rest they say is history.

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