Leicester have been relegated from the Sky Bet Championship after a 2-2 draw against Hull.

Gary Rowett’s side sat 23rd in the table, eight points from safety, prior to kick-off, following a run of just two wins in their last 19 league games.

They needed to beat the Tigers in order to fight another day, and they fought back from a goal down to lead. But Oli McBurnie’s strike sealed their fate.

Relegation to the third tier comes just shy of a decade after Leicester beat odds of 5,000/1 to win the Premier League title under Claudio Ranieri.

In 2026/27, the Foxes will play in the third tier of English football for only the second time in their 142-year history.

How Leicester were sent down

Leicester were masters of their own downfall as they laid Hull’s opener on a plate in the 17th minute.

Goalkeeper Asmir Begovic, playing out from the back, passed straight to Millar, who composed himself and fired home.

Leicester came agonisingly close to an equaliser before the break as Patson Daka slid Thomas’ cross just wide.

But they were a completely different side after the interval and turned the game around in just 92 seconds.

They were awarded a penalty when Issahaku Fatawu was tripped by Lewis Koumas, with James converting emphatically from 12 yards in the 52nd minute.

Then from the next attack Thomas got on the end of Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s cross to make it 2-1 and the great escape was on.

But only for all of nine minutes as Hull levelled in the 64th minute.

Having seen their manager Sergej Jakirovic sent to the stands for his protests at the penalty award, Millar caused trouble down the left and teed up McBurnie, who rifled home from 16 yards.

Leicester threw everything forward in a bid to keep themselves alive.

Daka hit the crossbar with an acrobatic effort from close range and then Aaron Ramsey shot over from Stephy Mavididi’s cross.

Semi Ajayi produced a brilliant goal-saving tackle, but in the end Hull should have won it when John Egan burst through but shot straight at Begovic.

Leicester’s players collapsed to the ground at full-time, with the third tier awaiting.

Leicester’s league positions since winning the Premier League

The most embarrassing season in club history – and it could get worse’

Jordan Halford from the Big Strong Leicester Boys podcast:

“It’s a disgrace. I’ve said the players were not only an embarrassment to the shirt, but I think they’re an embarrassment to their profession. It’s the highest paid team to get relegated to the third tier. Leicester have only been in the third tier once in 142 years and we’ve never suffered back-to-back relegations before.

“When we got relegated in 2008, that had been coming for a while, but it was almost the reset that we needed. But we’re not the same football club that we were back then.

“We’ve won the Premier League and the FA Cup and we’ve played in Europe for two or three seasons. We’re a bit more of a juggernaut now. The training ground cost nearly £100m, the wage bill was more than Everton’s last season and it’s the highest in the Championship. You can’t run a club our size on the revenue that you get in League One.

“This season is the most embarrassing in the club’s history – and I think this could just be the start. I wouldn’t bet against them getting relegated next season either.

“I can’t think of a fall from grace in English football like this. Not in my lifetime, anyway.”

Leicester finances will take ‘significant hit’ in League One

Sky Sports News’ Rob Dorsett:

Leicester will see a significant hit in income next season in League One, with revenues predicted to fall by around 50 per cent compared with the Championship – and they would be earning less than a third of what they were in the Premier League this time last year.

For a club which won the Premier League 10 years ago, and the FA Cup just five years ago, the collapse in income will be particularly marked. While they enjoyed annual revenues of £187m in the top division, it is likely to be just over £100m come the end of this Championship season, and would fall to a predicted £60m per year in League One.

Despite the crash in income, it would still make Leicester far-and-away the biggest earners in the division next season, with the average revenues of a League One club one-sixth of Leicester’s, at around £10m.

Leicester’s speedy fall from grace will at least mean they have some cushion financially as a result of their Premier League parachute payments, designed to soften the blow of top flight relegation in 2025. That entitlement would not change, even if the club suffers a second consecutive demotion.

However, those parachute payments reduce over time, and so that too will be much lower – around £10m lower in Leicester’s case – for next season. Any club which drops out of the top division receives roughly 55 per cent of their Premier League entitlement in year one, 45 per cent in year two, and 20 per cent in year three.

That means even if Leicester were to bounce back to the Championship at the first attempt in the next 12 months, their parachute payments will drop still further for the start of the 2027/28 season.

Leicester’s wage bill would have to fall by about 30-40 per cent – some of that will happen naturally, with relegation clauses in players’ contracts. But there is also likely to be a huge churn in the squad, with large numbers of players becoming unaffordable for a League One club, or simply seen to be of too high a calibre to be content to play in England’s third tier.

The most obvious of those is Abdul Fatawu, who Leicester could have cashed in for around £35m when they were relegated from the Premier League last summer.

A number of top tier clubs were prepared to pay that for him at the time, Sky Sports News was told. Now, with Leicester in League One, his market value is likely to be much lower – maybe £10m-15m lower, for any potential buyer – although you’d expect Leicester to fight for the best price they could.