Memorable relegations for some of the biggest clubs
Even the most important teams in the world have had their dark periods and, in some cases, these periods are not just a bad streak of matches, a painful defeat or a period without titles. On occasions, they have had to fall to the lower divisions, sometimes due to purely sporting situations and for some others due to non-sporting matters.As a fun fact, in most cases, these teams that have a winning mentality find in these setbacks a motivation that leads them to experience periods of success once they return to the first division.
Atlético Madrid
In Spain, only Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao have never played in the lower divisions and Atlético Madrid are only a couple of seasons away from being part of that select group. The current situation of the Madrid club and the reality during the last decade, since the arrival of Simeone in the club, is very different from what it was at the beginning of the century.At the end of the 80s, Jesús Gil came to power at Atlético Madrid, managing the club in a private way and with certain eccentricities although with sporting results such as winning the league title in 1996. In 1999, due to investigations of embezzlement of funds, the club entered administration by the government and that had a hard impact on the club, leading to relegation in mid-2000. The club would spend two seasons in the Second Division, returning to La Liga in 2002, and has from that point developed into a top club that nowadays is the only realistic contender to Barcelona and Real Madrid season after season.
Liverpool
Every major English club has gone through the lower divisions at some point in their history, which includes a European giant like Liverpool. The Red club had a season in the second tier in 1895-96 and then again in 1904-05. However, the season of1953-54 was the start of a period when Liverpool really hit rock bottom. After finishing last in the First Division, they began an 8-year period in the second tier. In 1959, Bill Shankly took over as manager of the Reds, beginning one of the club's most important eras of success, which was accompanied by a huge reconstruction of the entire club.
Rangers
Rangers is one of the two members of the Old Firm and Scotland's top league title winner, and they had never stepped foot in the lower divisions until 2012 when the club was unable to pay the debts it had accumulated over years of mismanagement.Rangers went into administration and the club's assets were put up for sale and the team was rejected by the rest of the clubs to participate in the Scottish Premier League, reaching the point of the administrative disappearance of the club. The club was founded once again but had to start in the 2012-13 season from the Third Division (fourth tier). After three promotions in four years, the club returned to the highest tier anbd becoming champions again in 2020-21.
AC Milan
At the end of the 70s, AC Milan was one of the most powerful teams in Italy, having won Serie A in 1979. However, one season later and despite having finished third, the team was relegated to Serie B due to the Totonero case, a match-fixing affair that involved several clubs and players from Serie A and B. They would only remain in the second tier for one year as they would win the championship and return to Serie A quickly, only to be relegated again. However, this time they were relegated because they ended up among the last third in the league.Once again, they would win the Serie B title in their first season, thus returning immediately to the Italian first tier. Just a couple of years later, Berlusconi would take over the club and begin Milan's most successful period in its history. As a curiosity, one of the greatest legends of Italian football and one of the most recognized defenders worldwide, Franco Baresi, was part of the two Milan teams that played in Serie B.
River Plate
Club Atletico River Plate is the winningest club at the national level in Argentina and the most important club with the largest fanbase in the country along with Boca Juniors. It is the club that has historically contributed the most players to the Argentina national team and the club with the most members on the American continent. In 2011, after a not very good management, River found itself in a quite complicated situation since it was in relegation positions, remembering that at that time, these positions were defined by the average points achieved by each team in the last three seasons, which already suggests that the club was coming from several difficult years.At the end of the Clausura 2011 tournament, River was in the play-off positions for remaining in the first tier, which meant a two-legged confrontation with the team that occupied fourth position in the Primera B Nacional tournament (second tier), at that time, in that case, Belgrano de Córdoba. The first leg was a 2-0 in favor of Belgrano at the Gigante de Alberdi stadium in Córdoba and the second leg was 1-1 at the Monumental stadium, where many altercations and problems occurred with the fans including an invasion on the pitch. Just one year later, River would win the Primera B Nacional and return to the first tier to experience one of its most successful decades.
Juventus
Juventus is the club with most Serie A titles in history (36) and is alongside with AC Milan and Inter the largest in Italy and a world power within football. Juve has been characterized by always being one of the protagonists of the Italian championship and even, in many times, the base of the Italy national team; however, in 2006 they were relegated to Serie B, in a curious context since Italy had just become world champion when the relegation was made public.Juventus was the main protagonist of the Caliopoli case (a match-fixing scandal in Italian football) through one of its most influential managers, Luciano Moggi. The sanction for the Turin club was to finish last in the 2005-06 Serie A and therefore be relegated to Serie B in addition to a deduction of points at the start of said championship. Several of the club's main stars such as Gianluigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero (both recent world champions), Pavel Nedved (winner of 2003 Ballon d'Or) and David Trezeguet (1998 World Champion), decided to stay to return Juventus to the first tier, something that they achieved by winning the 2006-07 Serie B.