Ten years ago, Leicester City were the greatest underdog story football had ever seen — a 5,000-1 Premier League title win that stopped the world. Today, the club is staring down something far more extraordinary in the worst possible sense: a simultaneous relegation of both its men's and women's teams, a collapse so total it has left supporters, analysts, and even broadcast journalists struggling for adequate language to describe it.
The men's side has already been confirmed for League One following a second consecutive relegation — dropping from the Premier League to the Championship and now to the third tier in back-to-back seasons. The women's team, meanwhile, sits at the bottom of the Women's Super League after a 7-0 thrashing by Arsenal on April 29, 2026, a result that confirmed their last-place finish with two games still to play. BBC Radio Leicester reporter Zoe McGrady has described the prospect of a double relegation as "a complete PR disaster" for the club — and that may be underselling it.
The Men's Second Consecutive Freefall
When Leicester City were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2023-24 season, there was a reasonable expectation that the Championship would serve as a reset — a chance to stabilise, rebuild, and mount a credible promotion challenge. Instead, the 2025-26 campaign became a second act of the same collapse. The club will travel to Ewood Park on May 2, 2026, for a final Championship fixture against Blackburn Rovers (kick-off 12:30pm, live on Sky Sports+), but the result is a formality — the destination is already decided. League One football is coming to the King Power Stadium.
Two consecutive relegations is a fate that befalls clubs in serious structural distress. The finances that powered the title-winning era, and later the brief Premier League return, have not translated into sustainable management at a lower level. The club spent heavily to get back up, failed to stay up, and is now carrying significant wage obligations into a division that generates a fraction of the revenue. That arithmetic does not resolve itself quickly.
The immediate transfer consequences are significant. Abdul Fatawu, the Ghanaian winger who has been one of Leicester's most electric players, is widely expected to leave — and his numbers suggest he would be an instant success at a club like Everton. Midfielder Jordan James is also anticipated to depart, and Harry Winks — a player whose salary profile simply does not fit League One economics — is likely to be moved on as the club works to balance its books.
Yet there is a genuine silver lining buried in the wreckage. A drop to League One creates a pathway for young prospects who might otherwise wait years for first-team exposure. Names like Sammy Baybrooke, Kirsten Ochere, Amani Richards, Lorenz Hutchinson, and Jake Evans now have a legitimate chance to develop in competitive senior football rather than loan moves to non-league or reserve football. That is the trade-off every relegated club faces — painful short-term, potentially valuable long-term.
The Women's Season: A Structural Failure
If the men's story is a slow-motion implosion, the women's is something more acute. Leicester City Women entered the 2025-26 WSL campaign under conditions of chaos that made a difficult season almost inevitable.
Manager Amandine Miquel departed just 10 days before the season started — an extraordinary piece of timing that left the club scrambling. Former West Ham assistant Rick Passmoor was brought in as interim and subsequently appointed permanently, inheriting a squad mid-preparation with no pre-season relationship with his players and no established tactical identity on the pitch.
Compounding the transition, Yuka Momiki and Ruby Mace — two of the women's better players — departed for Everton in the summer. January reinforcements arrived in the form of Alisha Lehmann, Rachel Williams, and Ashleigh Neville, but the damage was already systemic by that point. The squad had lost its spine, its manager, and its confidence simultaneously.
The numbers tell a stark story. Nine consecutive WSL defeats. Just 10 goals scored across the entire season — a figure that reflects not just a struggling attack but a team that could not create or convert at any reliable rate. Shannon O'Brien is the top scorer with just four goals. The 7-0 loss to Arsenal on April 29 was not an anomaly; it was the season in concentrated form.
The May 23 Play-Off: A Lifeline the Women Must Not Waste
Here is where the women's story diverges from simple automatic relegation — and why May 23 matters enormously. The WSL is expanding from 12 to 14 clubs for the 2026-27 season, which means the bottom-placed team faces a relegation play-off rather than dropping straight down. Leicester Women will contest that play-off on Saturday, May 23, 2026.
The play-off opponent and format matter enormously. If Leicester face a Championship side that has momentum and quality, the structural problems of the WSL season will be very hard to paper over in a one-off fixture. Passmoor's side has nine straight defeats as recent form, which is not a preparation that builds belief. However, one game is one game — and the expansion of the league means survival is still possible even from a genuinely catastrophic season.
The stakes could not be higher. Dropping out of the WSL would set the women's programme back years, potentially decades. WSL status attracts better players, better sponsorship, and higher-profile fixtures. Without it, the gap between Leicester Women and the top clubs becomes structural rather than just seasonal.
From 5,000-1 to League One: Understanding the Collapse
Context matters here, and the context is remarkable. In 2016, Leicester City won the Premier League at 5,000-1 odds — an achievement so improbable that it remains the defining footballing miracle of the modern era. Claudio Ranieri's side, built on Jamie Vardy's pace, N'Golo Kanté's engine, and Riyad Mahrez's creativity, galvanised a global fanbase and put Leicester on the world football map in a way no mid-table club had ever managed.
What followed was years of mid-table Premier League existence, a Champions League run, FA Cup success in 2021, and then a gradual financial overextension as the club tried to sustain ambitions that outstripped its revenue base. The Premier League relegation in 2024 triggered a financial correction that the squad — still carrying large wages — could not absorb in the Championship. The second relegation is, in structural terms, almost predictable in retrospect, even if the speed of the fall still shocks.
The comparison to the title-winning era is not just nostalgic. It illustrates how quickly football clubs can cycle between triumph and crisis without long-term institutional planning. Leicester built something extraordinary on a tight budget in 2015-16. The subsequent decade's spending never quite recaptured that coherence.
What the Double Relegation Means for Leicester City
The phrase "complete PR disaster" from BBC Radio Leicester's Zoe McGrady is accurate but undersells the financial and sporting implications. A men's team in League One generates roughly one-fifth of the broadcasting revenue of a Championship club and a fraction of Premier League income. The wage bill must be dramatically restructured. Season ticket revenue will fall. Commercial partnerships will be reassessed.
For the women's team, WSL status is genuinely existential in terms of the club's credibility as a top-tier women's football destination. Losing that status — in addition to the men's double relegation — would represent a total retreat from top-flight English football across both programmes simultaneously.
The rebuilding task is significant but not impossible. The young men's players who step up in League One could form the nucleus of a future promotion challenge. Passmoor, if given the resources and stability the women's programme was denied this season, could rebuild with proper pre-season preparation. But both scenarios require patience and investment from an ownership group that will be under enormous financial pressure.
The fundamental challenge is that League One is not a soft landing. It is a competitive division with well-run clubs. The route back to the Championship, let alone the Premier League, requires consistent management, sensible recruitment, and the ability to hold onto promising young players once they attract attention from larger clubs — exactly the cycle Leicester will face with players like Baybrooke and Evans if they develop quickly.
For fans who remember the police-escorted scenes at Jamie Vardy's title party a decade ago, the current moment is almost incomprehensible. The structural logic is visible in hindsight. Living through it is another matter entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has Leicester City been relegated to League One?
Yes. Leicester City men's team has been relegated to League One for the 2026-27 season, confirmed during the 2025-26 Championship campaign. This is their second consecutive relegation after dropping from the Premier League in 2024.
When is Leicester City's last Championship game?
Leicester City play their final Championship match on May 2, 2026 against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park. Kick-off is at 12:30pm and the match is broadcast live on Sky Sports+. The result has no bearing on their League One fate, which is already confirmed.
Will Leicester City Women be relegated from the WSL?
Leicester City Women finished bottom of the WSL after their 7-0 defeat to Arsenal on April 29, 2026. However, they will not face automatic relegation. Because the WSL is expanding from 12 to 14 clubs for 2026-27, Leicester will instead play a relegation play-off on May 23, 2026, with the winner retaining or gaining top-flight status.
Why did Leicester City Women struggle so much this season?
Multiple compounding factors. Manager Amandine Miquel left just 10 days before the season started, forcing the club to appoint Rick Passmoor as interim with no proper pre-season. Key players Yuka Momiki and Ruby Mace departed to Everton in the summer. The resulting squad lacked cohesion, finishing with nine consecutive defeats, only 10 goals scored all season, and a bottom-place WSL finish.
Which Leicester City men's players are leaving after relegation?
Abdul Fatawu and Jordan James are both widely expected to depart following relegation to League One. Harry Winks is also anticipated to leave as the club addresses its wage structure for third-tier football. Young academy prospects including Sammy Baybrooke, Kirsten Ochere, Amani Richards, Lorenz Hutchinson, and Jake Evans are among those expected to benefit from increased first-team opportunities.
What Comes Next
May 2 brings the curtain down on a Championship season that confirmed what many feared. May 23 determines whether the women's programme survives its own crisis. Neither fixture changes the severity of what Leicester City are facing as an institution — but the play-off, at least, offers the women a route out that the men never had once their fate was sealed.
The club that gave football its greatest modern fairytale now faces the unglamorous work of institutional reconstruction. The 5,000-1 story happened because Leicester found the right players, the right manager, and the right moment simultaneously. Doing it again — or even just rebuilding to Championship competitiveness — requires the same alignment. Right now, with both teams heading in the wrong direction, that alignment looks a long way off. But football has shown, repeatedly, that the distance between catastrophe and recovery can be shorter than it appears — if the foundations are laid properly this time.
