The Biggest Fallen Giants In Football

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Nottingham Forest, the ghosts of European glory, a club that won back-to-back European Cups in 1979 and 1980 under Brian Cloff, beating everyone and then spent the next four decades wondering what the hell happened. Late 1970s, Forest were untouchable. Promoted from the second division in 1977, won the First Division in 1978, then won the European Cup in 1979, beating Malmo 1 to0. Defended it in 1980, beating Hamburg 1 to zero. two European Cups in a row with a squad from Nottingham, a city nobody expected to dominate Europe.

[00:00:33]Brian Cloff was a genius, tactical mastermind, charismatic leader, alcoholic, absolutely brilliant at getting the best out of players nobody else rated. When he retired in 1993, Forest fell apart, relegated from the Premier League in 1993, came back up, went back down in 1997, then spent 23 years in the championship. European champions reduced to third tier football at one point. Financial struggles, terrible ownership, managerial chaos.

[00:01:01]Forest became a cautionary tale about how quickly glory can disappear. Then 2022 happened. Promoted back to the Premier League via playoffs, stayed up, then 2024 25, finished seventh, qualified for Europe for the first time since 1996, lost to Aston Villa in the Europa League semi-final, but they were back now in 2025 26. 16th in the Premier League, Nottingham Forest. Two times European champions, 23 years in the wilderness, finally clawing their way back. The ghosts are stirring. Leads United living the dream, paying the price. Leads United were Don Revy's machine. First division titles, FA Cups, a European Cup final in 1975. The kind of club the whole country either loved or absolutely hated. And that second group was massive. By 2001, they were in the Champions League semi-finals. Young squad, Ellen Road rocking Europe paying attention. Leads were back. Then chairman Peter Ridzdale decided to live the dream. His words actual quote. The plan, borrow 100 million pounds against future Champions League revenue, spend it on players, qualify every year, pay it back. Genius, foolproof. They missed the Champions League in 2002. Then 2003, the whole thing collapsed. Fire sale.

[00:02:13]Ferdinand, Keen, Woodgate, all gone for whatever anyone would pay. Relegated in 2004. Then in 2007 they dropped into League One, the third tier for the first time in 40 years. Ellen Road where they once stopped Barcelona hosting Stockport on a Tuesday night. 16 years out of the Premier League. Ownership chaos administration points deductions. Then Beelsa arrived, rebuilt everything, promoted in 2020, stayed up two seasons, relegated again in 2023. Classic leads back up in 2025, currently 14th in the Premier League. Safe, solid, nothing spectacular. After everything this club has been through, Stable feels like a trophy. Hamburg SV, the clock that lied.

[00:02:52]Hamburg SV had a clock, a literal countdown clock in their stadium, ticking away every second they'd never been relegated from the Bundesliga.

[00:02:59]Founded in 1963, never dropped, not once. Keegan played here. Beckenbower played here. In 1983, they won the European Cup, beating Juventus in the final. The clock kept ticking. The pride kept building. Then the 2000s and 10s arrived and Hamburg slowly, painfully became a mid-table mess. Near relegations every season, desperate playoff wins, ownership chaos, manager after manager after manager. The clock kept ticking. Everyone knew it was coming. A founding member of Germany's top flight in 1963, a club simply too grand, too solid to go down until mediocrity began to set in. In May 2018, they were relegated for the first time in 55 years. Fans threw fireworks onto the pitch. The clock stopped. Seven years in the second Bundesliga followed seven. At one point they thought they were promoted in 2023. They beat Sandhausen on the final day to move into the top two, but Hidenheim scored a 99thminute winner in their game to Leapfrog Hamburg, who lost the promotion playoff to Stoutgart. Brutal. Finally in 2025, they thrashed M 6 to1 and went up.

[00:04:00]Back in the Bundesliga, finished 13th this season. The clock is ticking again.

[00:04:04]Kaiser's Lern, the greatest miracle, then nothing. Kaiser's LDN are a small city club from the Rhineland with a stadium on top of a hill and an ego the size of Bayern Munich. Four Bundesliga titles, two DFB cups, Champions League quarterfinals in 1999. But the moment that defines them happened in 1998. They became the first team in Bundesliga history to win the league as a newly promoted side. Just promoted, nobody gave them a chance. Won the whole thing.

[00:04:30]Miraculous. Then came the 2006 World Cup. Germany won the hosting rights.

[00:04:35]Kaiser Slaughter was chosen as a venue and the club decided to renovate their stadium. Bad investments in players, the collapse of the Kirch Media Group and the 3.6 million euro annual stadium costs all hit simultaneously. A club playing in the second division simply couldn't sustain it. Relegated in 2006, constantly on the brink of bankruptcy, briefly back in the Bundesliga in 2010, straight back down in 2012. Then the real nightmare, officially declared bankrupt in 2020 during the pandemic.

[00:05:04]four years in the Third Liga, former Bundesliga champions hosting third tier Sunday football. Back in the second Bundesliga since 2022, they even reached the DFB Cup final in 2024, losing narrowly to buyer Leverkusen. In 202526, they finished sixth promotion just out of reach. The miracle of 1998 feels like a different planet, but they're still fighting. Deportivo Laoruna, the club that beat Aim Milan, then disappeared.

[00:05:29]Deportivo come from Akarunia, a port city of 250,000 people on the northwestern tip of Spain. Nobody expected them to ever challenge Real Madrid or Barcelona. In the 1999 2000 season, they won La Liga, making Akarunia the smallest city ever to produce a Spanish champion. Jalmina, Valeron, Maka, Tristan, a squad that genuinely shouldn't have existed at that level. Then 2004 happened. Champions League quarterfinals 4 to1 down against AC Milan. After the first leg, everyone assumed it was over. Deportivo won four to zero at Riazor, one of the great upsets in Champions League history. They reached the semi-finals. A club from a fishing port city in the last four of Europe's biggest competition. Then the money ran out. Debts amounting to over 100 million euros sent the club spiraling towards the trapdo. Relegated in 2011, back up, relegated again in 2013. Back up, relegated again in 2018.

[00:06:21]Yoyo football, ownership chaos, slow institutional collapse. Eventually, they dropped into the third tier. La Liga champions playing regional football now in 2026. They're second in the Sagunda division. Three points clear of Almaria with two games to go. La Liga is right there. 25 years after beating everyone in Europe, they're fighting for the right to exist in the top division. But they're close. Really close. Shala04 165 million in debt. Shala are Germany's second biggest club. 155,000 members.

[00:06:50]Champions League semi-finalists in 2011.

[00:06:53]Gellz and Kirkin's entire identity built around this one club. For 30 consecutive years, they never left the Bundesliga.

[00:06:59]Then 202021 happened. Five coaches, 41 players fielded, three wins all season, relegated. Fans chased the squad after the final whistle. Actual chasing. Then it got worse. Gasprom, their main sponsor, was a Russian state company.

[00:07:13]Gone overnight after the Ukraine invasion. A loss of nearly€100 million in player sales over 7 years. Debt spiraling towards 165 million. Ownership chaos, no direction. Back in the Bundesliga in 2022, straight back down in last place in 2023. Three seasons grinding through the second Bundesliga.

[00:07:31]Wondering if this club would ever find its way back. So what did they do to rebuild? Signed Eden Joeko and Loris Karas. Yes, that Loris Karus, the goalkeeper who had the Champions League final of his nightmares against Real Madrid in 2018. And somehow it worked.

[00:07:46]In 2025 26, they won the second Bundesliga and are back where they belong. Jo, carious and all. You genuinely couldn't make this up. Parma, Buffon, Duram, Canavaro. Then the fourth division. Parma are a club from a city famous for ham and cheese. In the 1990s, they were famous for something else entirely. In just 10 years, from 1992 to 2002, they won eight trophies, three Capa Italy, two UEFA cups, a cup winners cup, a super cup, and a European super cup. Buffon trained here. Thuram, Canavaro, Crespo, Zola all wore that yellow and blue shirt. a small city club punching at the absolute top of European football. The whole thing was bankrolled by Parmalot, a dairy company. When Parmalot collapsed in what became Europe's biggest ever private company bankruptcy, Parma collapsed with it, sold players, fell into administration, scraped survival for years. Then in 2015, they finished bottom of Siri A, declared bankruptcy with debts of €200 million, and were dumped into the Italian fourth division. Amateur football, a club that beat Juventus in cup finals, playing in front of a few hundred people. What followed was remarkable. Three consecutive promotions brought them back to Sira A in 2018.

[00:08:54]Relegated again in 2021, back up in 2024, and in 2025 26, they finished 13th in Siraa. Stable, alive, a club that literally died and came back. Bordeaux from Zidane to amateur football.

[00:09:08]Bordeaux are six-time league 1 champions. The kind of club that defined French football for decades. Zidane came through here. Lizarazzu, Dugar, Chuamani. Their golden era came in the 1980s with three titles and their last championship arrived in 2008 to 2009 under Lauron Blancc back when PSG were still nobody, a proper historic club.

[00:09:29]Then three ownership changes in a row, each worse than the last. In 2021, the American owner King Street simply stopped sending money, forcing the club into administration. A new owner arrived, made a mess, and in 2022, Bordeaux finished dead last in League 1, relegated for the first time in their history, conceding 91 goals along the way in one season. Two years in League Two going nowhere. Then Liverpool's owners, Fenway Sports Group pulled out of takeover talks at the last moment.

[00:09:56]The financial watchdog stepped in and Bordeaux were administratively relegated to the fourth division and filed for bankruptcy in 2024. a club that reached the UEFA Cup final in 1996 playing amateur football. In 2025-26, they finished second in the fourth division, three points short of the promotion.

[00:10:12]Still climbing. Still fighting.