Leicester City’s relegation back to the third tier is the product of years of compounding errors on and off the pitch. “This kind of low is going to sting for a few days,” Leicester City manager Gary Rowett generously predicted. “I will look in the mirror and take the responsibility,” Rowett fronted up once Championship demotion was provisionally confirmed with a draw against Hull City on Tuesday night. Barring a dramatic points deduction for West Bromwich Albion, who are facing a sanction and sit 10 clear of the Foxes with two games to play, this will be the club’s second ever season in League One.

Financial choices help explain why. Wages to revenue turnover moved widely across the decade: 62% in 2015–16, 48% in 2016–17, rising through 75% (2017–18), 84% (2018–19), 105% (2019–20), 85% (2020–21 and 2021–22), peaking at 116% in 2022–23 before 102% in 2023–24 and 82% in 2024–25. By the time Leicester slipped out of the Premier League in 2023, “for every $1 they earned, $1.16 was being spent only on wages.”

On the field recruitment and poor timing compounded the finances. Brendan Rodgers warned in the summer of 2022: “When you want to compete, you have to add quality. But in the last two windows, we haven’t been able to do that.” The club spent heavily in search of quality yet failed to convert that into sustained Champions League qualification despite 567 combined days in the top four across 2019–20 and 2020–21.

Ruinous recruitment left gaps and lost value. Jonny Evans, Youri Tielemans, Çağlar Söyüncü and Ayoze Pérez all left Leicester in the summer of 2024 for a combined transfer fee of precisely $0, and eight first-team players from the current roster will also leave the club for free this summer.

Boardroom and leadership issues have been present since the tragic passing of owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha in October 2018. “He was so influential,” former Leicester defender Robert Huth said of the late owner in an interview with BBC Sport. “He had a ‘get stuff done’ attitude.” Huth also reflected on the burden placed on Vichai’s son: “Top is younger than me,” Huth continued. “He lost his dad, he now has to run King Power. The spotlight is on him. It’s very easy to criticize. He lost his father in public surroundings and it’s going to have an effect. He had to take over the company when he was 33. You’re a young man, you look at your dad for guidance, and it was taken away from him overnight.”

Enzo Maresca aside, the rogues gallery of coaches since Rodgers’s exit has failed to find stability. The three interim appointments epitomize the chronically unsuccessful nature of Leicester’s appointments. Defensively the team has suffered too: only two teams conceded more set-piece goals than Leicester, and the club has dropped 30 points from winning positions this season, the most of any team in England’s second tier.

At the start of last season Tottenham Hotspur were ranked by England’s leading soccer think tank as the “best run club” across the nation’s entire pyramid. Fewer than two years later the club faces the prospect of its first relegation in almost half a century and a dramatic revenue collapse.

Financial estimates put the potential shortfall between $311–372 million (£230–275 million) when comparing a 2025–26 Premier League season to a 2026–27 Championship campaign. Data estimated by BBC Sport and Swiss Ramble and converted from pounds to dollars show broadcast income falling from $173 million to $73 million, Champions League broadcast revenue dropping from $96 million to zero, matchday receipts falling from $177 million to $107 million and commercial income easing from $377 million to $303 million. The total moves from $823 million to $483 million in the projections.

Tottenham’s most exposed income stream is broadcast money. The club stands to earn around $178 million from Premier League television money this term; the Championship offers nothing like that figure. Parachute payments would offer roughly $61 million and the EFL central distribution is listed at $6.8 million, but those sums are small compared with Premier League receipts.

Commercial deals also risk reduction because sponsors such as Nike and AIA have clauses that could push payments down, potentially by about 20 percent. Matchday income could fall by about 40 percent as ticket prices and attendances adjust to a lower division.

The club reported the ninth highest revenue in its last released accounts and is set to report higher figures this season after a run to the Champions League last 16. Even after a projected drop of around 41 percent seen in recent relegations, Tottenham would still exceed the Championship record revenue posted by Leeds United in 2024–25.

“I reckon it’s going to be somewhere in the region of £250 million to £275 million compared to the current season,” soccer finance expert Kieran Maguire predicted on The Sports Agent podcast earlier this month. “That’s taking into consideration the fact that Spurs have the second highest yield in terms of how much they extract per fan, per match. It’s a very sophisticated operation they have … Then, of course, there won’t be the participation in Europe next season.”

Reports say Daniel Levy added a 50% wage cut clause in player contracts for relegation. Professor Rob Wilson warned: “Some other clubs could even have 90% relegation clauses or agreements for players to move,” Wilson told The i . “But because Spurs have been relatively stable in the Premier League, they don’t have the clause they would need in order to properly survive.

“It’s nowhere near enough. You need a minimum 75% relegation clause in order to balance your books when you go down.”

Frank Lampard has framed Coventry City’s return to the top flight as a triumph that comes “very, very close” to the high of his 2012 Champions League success with Chelsea, which he still calls “the best night” of his life. After 25 years away from the summit of the English pyramid, Coventry became the first second-tier club to confirm their involvement in the 2026–27 Premier League campaign.

“We came into a bit of an unknown 15 or so months ago when we arrived in a people carrier,” Lampard reflected on the modest beginning to a rapid recovery. “We’ve fallen in love and this is right up there with what I have achieved.” The promotion was effectively secured a week before the 1–1 draw with Blackburn that rubber-stamped the result.

Lampard admitted he was taken aback by his own reaction at full time. “I’m more emotional than I thought I would be and the final whistle just caught me,” he said. “It just dawned on me then what this achievement means to our fans.

“Winning the Champions League with Chelsea was the best night of my life, but this comes very, very close.”

He allowed the squad “a bit of a party” after a goalless stalemate with already-relegated Sheffield Wednesday, only to find training standards had dropped the following week and, by his own admission, he had “the hump” with the brief lapse. Overall, Lampard’s tenure has been characterised by a close relationship with the squad and a shared focus on consistency.

“People just see him as a gaffer because they don’t know him as a person but he’s more than just a gaffer,” Jack Rudoni told BBC Sport . “He has a great relationship with everyone—he’s a good person as well.

“You can come to him with anything and he will sit there and talk to you and give you advice whether it’s football or not. There’s no-one better to learn from—he’s been brilliant with me on and off the pitch.

“He and I have a good relationship, and we talk closely. He’s always helping me with little bits and pieces, timing of runs, areas to get into, even down to shooting techniques and stuff we spoke about.

“He’s been brilliant, and it’s great to have someone of that quality that can guide me and give me tips, and I’m just happy it’s worked out for me on the pitch, which then kind of repays him working with me with the results.”

Rudoni has seven goals from midfield. U.S. men’s national team striker Haji Wright leads the club with 16 league goals and there are seven players with seven or more this season; no other Championship team has more than four. Coventry have combined careful play through the thirds with rapid transitions, exploiting errors or choosing moments to press. Lampard’s promotion completes his first successful return to England’s top flight after previous playoff disappointments and a 2020 FA Cup final with Chelsea, when they were beaten by Arsenal in front of an empty Wembley Stadium.