Has there ever been a more dramatic fall from grace?

Stade Reims, but I do not know when they started to fall.

 

I'm loving it.

I feel sorry for David Healy though. He did his best but the rest of his side let him down, badly.

 

David Icke. One minute he's talking about "in five minutes, sking from Verbier" the next he's wearing purple shell suits telling everyone he's the son of god.

 

Hard to top Leeds fall. Here are some others.

Manchester City won the title in 1936-37 and were relegated the following year.
They didn't return to the first division until 1947-48, though that was largely due to the war.

Bradford, who were relegated from the Prem in 2001, will be in League Two next season. Other teams have dropped from the first to the fourth level fairly swiftly but this may be a record descent.

 

Leeds are still paying the massive wages of players they had during the 'glory days', they gave away some massive contracts...

 

I saw Leeds play at Chelsea in 2002 when they still had mark Viduka, Harry Kewell, Alan Smith, Paul Robinson, Jon Woodgate and on and on...........

Sad to see what has happened to them....

 

Well there's Napoli, who fell after Maradona left from Scudetto winners and UEFA Cup champions to Serie B and became a yo yo club for over a decade, and then the fall to Serie C1 because of bankruptcy. But now they are on the rise and may rediscover paradise very soon.

 

Thanks, I had almost managed to forget about those years...

 

don't worry, I'm pretty sure next season you will have completely forgotten those years.

 

Nottingham Forest won the European Cup twice and when they were relegated to the 3rd tier a few years back it was the first time any European Cup winner ever had been. They also won the old First Division.

Still, they were never a "big club" and their wins were all bunched in a few years in the late 70s, so it was nowhere close to as fast or as unexpected as the Leeds collapse

 

I sure know of one in particular from a few years back. Let's just say Cecchi Gori is STILL Satan.

 

Would Paris FC count? In 1978, they were in the top flight and they were playing in the Parc des Princes. In 1985, they were in the fifth division, and eventually were kicked out of the Parc des Princes by PSG and now play in a 2,000 seater stadium. They are currently in Div. 3.

 

Leeds, Napoli and Fiorentina make good cases but Notts Forest get my vote. At least Forest won two European cups in a row. That makes their fall more dramatic. Leeds, Napoli and Fiorentina may have had more cash but Notts Forest had reach the very top at club level and nothing is bigger than the European Cup/Champions League.

Racing Club Paris had a big fall from grace too.

 

Reims played (and lost) two C1 finals in 1956 and 1959 (aaah, Kopa, Fontaine, Janvion...), was relegated in D2 in 1979 and D3 in 1990. They're now navigating in the middle-table of D2.

There's Paris FC, founded in 1969 and never a great fate, and RC Paris, what was the great Paris team in the 40-60's. RC Paris was bought by Jean-Luc Lagardère in 1986 and renamed Matra Racing. Despite of a few good players (Enzo Francescoli, David Ginola, Vincent Guérin, Maxime Bossis) they never became the 2nd big Paris club Lagardère wanted and were relegated in D3 in 1990.

The best French example I know is Marseille: C1 winner in 1993, relegated in D2 in 1994 for corruption, Tapie emprisoned.

 

Well, most East German teams. Current division and number of championships:

3rd division:

Dyn. Dresden (8)
Magedburg (3 + 1 cup winner's cup)
Erfurt (2)

4th division:

BFC Dynamo (10)
Sachsen Leipzig (2)
Zwickau (2)
Chemnitzer FC (1)
Halle (2)

5th division:

Frankfurt/Oder (6)

6th division:

VfB/Lok Leipzig (no championship, but 5 cup wins)

 

In 1987 we won the cup winners cup by beating Lokomotief Leipzig in the final

They heve been relegated 6 (!) times since then?

 

They went bankrupt in 2004 while playing in the 4th division and restarted in the lowest division. Then, through a merger with a club playing a bit higher, they jumped up a few levels and where promoted into the 6th division last season.

 

Locomotive Leipzig

Won the german league in the early 20th century as VfB Leipzig. Then after re-unification of Germany played a couple of years in 2nd Bundesliga (i think) before going bankrupt and being unable to gain a licence and so were dissolved and had to restart in the german 11th or 12th division as Locomotive (the name they used when part of the D.D.R.)

Now thats a fall!!

 

Weren't they mentioned already?

Actually, that's not the same club. VfB Leipzig was dissolved in 1945. btw, there was no German league when VfB won their championships, this was a knock-out tournament until 1963. Lokomotive Leipzig was founded in 1966 and changed their name into VfB Leipzig in 1991.

As mentioned, they went bankrupt. Not getting a license would just have sent them down one division. They also had played one season in the first division during the 90s, but by the time the club was dissolved they were in the 4th.

Although I mentioned them as well, it's also interesting to note that officialy the current Lokomotive Leipzig is a completely new club, therefore, if you are pendantic, they actually don't cary the record of VfB and the old Lokomotive anymore.

 

Forest's drop took much longer than Leeds. Granted they fell from a higher peak, but they were still one of England's better clubs into the early 90s and it's been a slow fall from grace over the past decade or so.

 

But Napoli won't ever be able to play in the Premiership. To me, they seem pretty far from Heaven.

Revelian

 

All teams are far away from heaven. There isn't a league like the Serie A of the 1990s.

I interpreted "dramatic fall" as a huge fall regardless of time. If I had taken time in consideration, Leeds and Fiorentina have had the biggest falls. Like you have said, Forest dropped from a higher peak. Leeds and Fiorentina never had the joy of winning two consective European Cups/CL titles.

 

if time isn't a factor then Preston, Sheffield United, Burnley, Huddersfield, Portsmouth and Wolves have all dropped to the 4th tier after being champions in England. Wolves got relegated 3 years in a row in the mid 80s.