Four teams that were relegated due to off-the-field issues

After years of a seemingly uninterrupted upward trajectory under Sheikh Mansour and the City Football Group, the reigning Premier League champions have been brought back to earth with a bang. 

The English club have been imposed with a two-year ban from all European competitions for a breach of the Financial Fair Play rules. 

The news has been in the headlines almost every day and new updates are getting added to the list.

There’s also the looming possibility of a points deduction in the Premier League for their alleged sins and that is just what everyone knows at the moment. 

Things may get better with the ban being reduced or getting overturned but there is also a chance that it gets worse. 

The worst-case scenario which may happen with City is called ‘automatic relegation’. It seems extreme but this is not the first time this would happen. 

Here is the list of some successful clubs who were relegated and how they fared following their demotion. 

1. Juventus 

In the Fabio Capello era, he started with leading the Bianconeri to consecutive Serie A titles in his first two campaigns that took their tally to 29. Then, ‘Calciopoli’ happened. 

At the end of the 2005/06 season, Juventus were stripped of both Scudetti they won under Capello following an investigation by police forces. 

Club officials were reported to be caught pressuring referees to favor to the Turin side and the league’s governing body was left fuming.  

Juventus were relegated to Serie B and they started the new campaign with -9 points. 

The Old Lady kept roaring back and many of their best players like Gianluigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini, Alessandro Del Piero, and Pavel Nedved opted to stay despite the embarrassing relegation. 

2. Rangers 

54 Scottish League titles, 60 domestic cups and a European Cup Winners’ Cup had brought fame and fortune to Rangers yet financial mismanagement in the 21st century led to undo all their good work. 

In February 2012, the Ibrox outfit succumbed to their monetary issues just four months later as they went into liquidation. 

They were sent to the fourth tier of Scottish football but the fan-base struck by their side. However, by that point rivals Celtic had taken a stranglehold on the Scottish Premiership. 

3. Marseille 

To ensure their players were not sapped of energy ahead of the 1993 Champions League final, Marseille’s president and the general manager went and used some very unjust tactics. 

Bernard Tapie and Jean-Pierre Bernes tried to bribe several players from the Valenciennes’ squad and asked them to underperform. 

The plan shattered when one of the paid players spoke out, leading to an investigation that resulted in a relegation to the second division in 1994/95. 

Since the promotion, Les Olympiens have only added one more top-tier trophy to their cabinet since promotion in 1995.  

4. Parma 

In May 2002, Parma sealed their third Coppa Italia success but with the lack of money, top players like Gianluigi Buffon, Lilian Thuram and Fabio Cannavaro had to be sold. 

It backfired tremendously as the performance levels dropped leading the team to be dragged deep into financial turmoil. 

Parma were unable to pay their debts, living an uncertain existence for years and finally, they were liquidated and sent into the fourth tier in 2015. 

That helped the team as a turning point, as they gathered momentum and secure three back-to-back promotions to gloriously return to Serie A in 2018.