The 10 longest top-flight stays to have ended in 2025-26: Wolfsburg, West Ham… | OneFootball

Admit it, we all spent most of the second half of the season wondering what if Tottenham got relegated.

It would have been a massive story. For a time, it even looked likely. One of the Premier League’s most powerful clubs could have ended up in the Championship.

They ultimately avoided the drop on the final day, but relegation has become a reality for some other established clubs across Europe.

We’ve taken a look at the longest top-flight stays that have come to an end this year.

10. Antalyaspor – 11 years

One of two Turkish sides losing their Super Lig status after 11 years, Antalyaspor returned to the top flight in 2015 and marked the occasion by signing Samuel Eto’o.

More recently, they were the club that Coventry City signed Haji Wright from.

But things have unravelled for the Antalya-based side, who finished one place above the relegation zone last season and one place inside it this time around.

With a squad featuring Hull City loanee Abdulkadir Omur, they finished one point away from safety.

9. Kayserispor – 11 years

Joining Antalyaspor in the Turkish second tier next season will be Kayserispor, who previously won the league at that level in the year both were promoted.

Kayserispor have never really managed to progress beyond the bottom half of the Super Lig table and finished three points from safety.

They have a couple of English players among their ranks; striker Sam Mather and defender Jadel Katongo are products of the Manchester United and City academies respectively.

8. Shkupi – 11 years

Chances are you’ve never heard of Shkupi, unless you’re a Rangers fan who remembers playing them in the 2018-19 Europa League qualifiers.

Based in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, Shkupi were formed in 2012 by a merger between the top-flight FK Sloga Jugomagnat and lower-level FC Albarsa.

They rose to the Macedonian First Football League in 2015 and won the whole thing by 2022.

Chaos has clouded them in recent years, though. Their president and main sponsor quit in November 2024 and several first-team players moved on too.

This season, VAR was introduced to the Macedonian First Football League, but Shkupi’s stadium wasn’t suitable for the technology and they had to forfeit some matches.

Shkupi finished bottom of the league on just one point (from a possible 99). Ouch.

7. Nantes – 13 years

The club that produced the likes of Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps and Claude Makelele, Nantes were promoted from Ligue 2 in 2013.

You’d probably recognise a few of their players nowadays too. Francis Coquelin used to be at Arsenal, Frederic Guilbert at Aston Villa and Remy Cabella at Newcastle.

It’s been a turbulent season for the eight-time Ligue 1 winners, whose manager Vahid Halilhodzic will now be leaving after returning for his second spell in charge in March.

Nantes’ last match of the season against Toulouse was abandoned after a pitch invasion, with ultras throwing flares and breaking through barriers.

6. West Ham United – 14 years

While Tottenham did eventually stay in the Premier League, it was at the expense of another London giant: West Ham.

This wasn’t in the plan when they moved into the city’s old Olympic Stadium 10 years ago. It wasn’t where things were heading when David Moyes took them to back-to-back top-seven finishes.

It certainly wasn’t what they’d have envisaged after winning the Conference League three years ago.

But West Ham’s 14-year stay in the Premier League has come to an end after they finished two points behind Spurs.

Their previous drop to the second tier, back in 2011, only lasted a year. They will be hoping the same rings true this time as they brace themselves for the sorry sight of their 62,500-capacity venue not hosting top-flight football.

Biggest stadium in the Championship, you’ll never sing that. Unless you’re Spurs and you do actually get relegated one day.

5. Bala Town – 17 years

Runners-up of the Welsh top flight as recently as 2022, Bala Town suffered late heartbreak on the final day of the Cymru Premier season.

They needed to win to have a chance of staying up – and were doing just that, with another result going their way, until the 89th minute of their game against Briton Ferry.

A late collapse saw them suffer a 2-1 defeat and join Llanelli Town in going down.

4. Spartak Subotica – 17 years

The current club of former Everton, Middlesbrough and Sheffield United player Muhamed Besic (you knew that, right?), Spartak Subotica have dropped out of the Serbian Superliga for the first time since 2009.

As recently as 2018, they were playing in Europa League qualifiers. But they only won four games this season.

3. Glenavon – 21 years

It’s been more than two decades since Glenavon didn’t feature in Northern Ireland’s top flight. In the time since, they’ve had four forays into Europe, never making it past the first qualifying round of the Europa League.

This season, they gained no points from their first 11 games. They made a decent effort of a great escape towards the end of the season, but it was in vain.

2. Rabotnicki – 28 years

Back to the Macedonian First Football League we go and that’s what Rabotnicki will be hoping to say in a year’s time after losing top-flight status for the first time in 28 years.

After promotion to the top flight in 1998, Rabotnicki won four league titles. They have had European games against Bolton in 2007 and Liverpool in 2010.

But they could only muster 33 points from 33 games this season, leading to their fall to the Macedonian Second League.

1. Wolfsburg – 29 years

Now here’s an interesting one. Wolfsburg were Bundesliga winners back in 2008-09, inspired by their strike partnership of Grafite and Edin Dzeko.

They played in the Champions League as recently as 2021 and have a squad including Christian Eriksen.

But they won’t be in the Bundesliga next season. They finished third from bottom and subsequently lost their relegation play-off to Paderborn.

Curiously, Wolfsburg replaced most of their staff last year with generative AI tools. If this is what it leads to, we might be safe from the whole robot takeover thing for a while longer yet.