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In the 2015/16 season, Leicester City achieved a modern football miracle, becoming English champions for the first time in the club’s history. Ten years later, Leicester were relegated for the second consecutive year and will play in the third-tier League One for the first time since 2008/09 in the 2026/27 season. In this article, we analyze what is financially behind Leicester’s downfall and take a look at what might happen next for the Foxes.
The Golden Era
In 2010, Leicester City are in the second tier Championship and are acquired by a Thai consortium Asian Football Investments led by Vichai Srviaddhanaprabha. A year later, Srviaddhanaprabha even becomes president of the club. Under his leadership, the club managed to return to the Premier League relatively quickly in 2014. At times in the second division, Leicester are not in a financial glory. In the 2012/13 and 2013/14 seasons, the club made a high loss with only low sales. Sales in 2012/13 amounted to 22.75 million euros, and the loss was 46.5 million euros, making the loss approximately twice as high as sales. In the following season, sales increased to 36.2 million euros, but the loss remained at 24.2 million euros. These are shockingly weak financial figures that would not have been manageable without the financial help of the new investors. However, with promotion to the Premier League, Leicester City immediately became profitable again. This means that Vichai Srviaddhanaprabha’s investment can be described as worthwhile. Even then, the Premier League was the league with the most TV money thanks to revenue from international TV marketing (an explanation of how the Premier League could earn even more TV money with PL+ can be found here). In the first season of 2014/15, Leicester City’s turnover almost tripled and increased to 121.5 million euros. The club also finally made a profit of 36.1 million euros.
The sporting successes then reached their peak in the following season, when Leicester City became English champions, thus creating a modern football miracle. At that time, the club was at its sporting but also financial peak. In the 2015/16 championship season, Leicester achieved sales of 149.8 million euros and a profit of 23.3 million euros. However, Leicester could not achieve the steady increase in revenue solely through promotion to the Premier League. The successes alongside and on the pitch were largely based on a clever recruiting strategy in which players such as Kante, Mahrez and club legend Jamie Vardy were bought in cheaply and developed further within the club. In the 2016/17 season, Leicester City were allowed to compete in the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history. In addition to expensive player sales, this resulted in a then record turnover of 267.8 million euros and a profit of 93 million euros. In the following years, the club was unable to continue to perform among the top clubs in the Premier League and sales fell to 184.8 million euros in the 2017/18 season. In the same season, Leicester could only make a profit from further player sales, which further reduced player quality.
In addition, a major accident occurred on October 27, 2018, in which owner Vichai Srviaddhanaprabha crashed his private helicopter near the stadium and died. His son Aiyawatt Srviaddhanaprabha subsequently took over the business. Under his leadership, the club managed to become a top English club again, resulting in two consecutive 5th-place finishes in the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons. Leicester also crowned its performance with another title, the 2020/21 FA Cup victory. Financially, the 2019/20 season was a tough one for the club due to the Corona pandemic, resulting in a loss of 69.9 million euros. With the Srviaddhanaprabha family making most of their wealth through the King Power Group, the Corona pandemic also hit the club’s owner family hard, making the pandemic twice as difficult for Leicester City. Thanks to sporting successes and player sales, Leicester was able to recover financially in the following season and achieved high sales of 263 million euros, which nevertheless shows the financially difficult situation for the club through high costs and a loss of 36.3 million euros.
For readers who want to relive Leicester City’s incredible Premier League title run in full detail, the book Fearless offers the definitive inside story of the club’s miracle season — from dressing‑room moments to the tactical evolution that shocked world football.
The Downfall
The Corona pandemic and the second peak in the sporting field also mark the beginning of Leicester City’s downfall. Parallel to the sporting successes, the club’s economic problems and their owners are pushing for the good players to be sold more and more in order to offset the club’s losses. Although the club still achieved a respectable eighth place in the 2021/22 season, Leicester has made a loss of €107.6 million this season, marking almost half of their total turnover. Leicester City will even be relegated the following season and will again have a huge loss of 104.4 million euros in the 2022/23 season. After sales fell from 249.7 million euros in the 2021/22 season to 206.4 million euros in the following season. In the second division season, sales fell again to 122.6 million euros, which again led to a loss of 22 million euros. However, Leicester City managed to return to the Premier League as first from the Championship. However, the club was immediately relegated back to the second division. Sales rose again to €217.1 million due to the Premier League season and the associated additional revenue, but expenses also increased massively, resulting in another loss of €82.9 million. Since the FA only allows a loss of 230 million euros in three years, this resulted in a point deduction of 6 points. We have explained the Premier League’s new financial rules in the following article. This point deduction ultimately led to the next relegation and thus to a minor disaster for Leicester City.
The Current Crisis and What Comes Next
The current situation for Leicester City is extremely difficult. The club has arrived in League One after two consecutive relegations. Financially, things are also looking very bleak, as Aiyawatt Srviaddhanaprabha has taken over the club and the King Power company from his father. However, the consequences of the Corona pandemic have also caused King Power financial problems, which is why Leicester City does not receive financial support from its owners. Many fans are now calling for the club’s shares to be evicted and sold. The problem is that the club built a very modern training center for €117 million. The financing of the training center under construction and now in ongoing operation leads to further high extra costs, which Leicester cannot bear, especially in the third division. Selling to a new owner would hardly get Leicester promoted. The club must return to the methods that made it so successful. In recent years, Leicester have spent too much money on players who are no longer of an advanced age. Here, the club urgently needs a change of strategy to buy players cheaply, develop them further, and sell them at a high price (you can read here how RC Lens achieved the French runner-up title last season with a similar strategy). Only in this way can the club become profitable again and free itself from this difficult situation. Relegation also offers Leicester City an opportunity to completely separate themselves from the existing squad and build a new one according to the criteria just mentioned. In addition, Leicester is likely to be able to keep costs very low and thus potentially be more profitable in its operational business again. Direct promotion should also be planned, as the club still has significant financial resources for League One.
