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Throughout history, football has played an integral part in moulding the cultural identity of a region. And there have been several teams whose histories are replete with the exploits of their legends both in the domestic competition as well as in Europe.Not many teams have managed to maintain that level of consistency with the passage of time, though, and very few clubs remain that have not faced the drop into a lower division in the domestic competition in their extensive history. We take a look at 10 clubs across Europe that have never been relegated.
#1 Real Madrid
Unsurprisingly, as befitting the most valuable sports team in the world, Los Blancos have never been relegated from the Spanish top-flight since the club was founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club. In their illustrious history, the club has amassed an astounding 32 La Liga titles, 19 Copa del Rey, 9 Supercopa de España, 1 Copa Eva Duarte and 1 Copa de la Liga. In fact, in their entire history in the Spanish league, the lowest they have ever finished is in 11th in the 1947/48 season.
This was soon forgotten as the Madrid teams of the 1950s, considered to be among the greatest teams ever, dominated Europe, winning the first five editions of the European cup back-to-back. Back home as well, Real were dismantling the opposition, having won a mind-boggling 12 titles in the 16 years between 1953/54 and the 1968/69.
Even now, they remain the most decorated club in European competition, having won a record 11 European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles and hold the joint record for 3 Intercontinental Cups. This is apart from success in less mainstream competitions that have yielded them two UEFA Cups, two UEFA Super Cups and two FIFA Club World Cups.
A lot of clubs with history have sadly faded out with the advent of contemporary football, but not Real Madrid. Since the turn of the century, Madrid have won the La Liga five times, the Copa Del Rey twice as well as the Champions league thrice, and have never finished outside of the top four in La Liga.
The club’s members (socios) have owned and operated it since its inception, and Real have adapted with the times, becoming a true modern superpower of the game.
#2 Barcelona
Since being founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English and Catalan footballers led by Joan Gamper, the Blaugrana have always played in the top tier of the competition. Until 1929, when La Liga was formed, Spain did not have a national football league and consequently, Barcelona competed in the championship of the Catalonia region, the winners of which qualified for the Copa del Rey along with the other regional champions. Barca won 22 out of the 37 editions of the latter until it was abandoned in 1940.
In the La Liga era, despite enjoying a successful start, winning the inaugural edition of the competition, Barca had to wait until 1945 for a second league title. Three seasons earlier, Barcelona had finished 12th, which remains the lowest the club have ever finished till date.
Over the years, Barcelona has garnered a huge number of trophies. Having won 24 La Liga, 28 Copa del Rey, 12 Supercopa de España, 3 Copa Eva Duarte and 2 Copa de la Liga trophies domestically, apart from the five UEFA Champions League titles, a record four UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, a shared record five UEFA Super Cup, a record three Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and a shared record two FIFA Club World Cup trophies, Barca are among the most successful clubs in history.
But history is not all they have, as Barcelona have dominated modern-day football, winning La Liga 13 times since 1990/91. In fact, barring a sixth place finish in 2002/03, Barcelona haven't not finished outside of the top four in La Liga since 1987/88.
Having played home to a plethora of football stars from the likes of Johann Cruyff in the past to Lionel Messi more recently, Barcelona, who like their fierce rivals Madrid, are a team owned and operated by the fans. With time, they have grown to embody their motto Més que un club (More than a club) and has now become a symbol of Catalan culture and Catalanism.
#3 Athletic Bilbao
Along with Barcelona and Real Madrid, the club is one of three founding members of the Primera División that have never been relegated from the top division. Like Real Madrid and Barcelona, Athletic is also owned and operated by club members (making them the only three such clubs in Spain). Athletic are also a club with a rich history, having won the league on eight occasions, and are second only to Barcelona in Copa del Rey wins with 23.
Sadly, unlike the two Spanish giants, Atletic are a club that has found it difficult to translate their successful past into modern times.
In fact, Athletic came within inches of not being on this list in the 2006/07 season, where they finished 17th in the league, just one point above Celta de Vigo. The last time they won the league was in 1983/84, a year in which they also won the Copa del Rey. Since then, Athletic have had a totally barren period sandwiched between two Supercopa de Espana triumphs, one in 1984/85 and their victory in the same competition this season.
The club’s success between the 1930s and 1950s could largely be attributed to the strict limits imposed on foreign players. Clubs were rarely allowed to have more than three foreign players in their squad – that meant that at least eig ht local players were required to play in each game.
Madrid and Barcelona teams of the era managed to lessen the impact of these rules by circumventing them; playing dual citizens such as Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás, José Santamaria and Laszlo Kubala. On the other hand, Athletic adhered strictly to their cantera policy (since its foundation, Athletic has played exclusively with Basque players), showing little or no flexibility.
The policy has gained Athletic as many admirers as naysayers. While the club has been praised for promoting home grown players and club loyalty, one has to wonder how much longer they can continue with the policy and expect success on a larger scale.
#4 Internazionale
Since the start of the Serie A in 1929/30, there has been just one club to spend their entire history in the Italian top flight – Internazionale. Or Inter Milan as they are often called. Inter are one of the most successful football teams in history, both at home and in Europe.
Domestically they have won a total of 30 trophies, including the league 18 times for which they hold the distinction of being joint second (with local rivals AC Milan) behind only Juventus (32). Victories in the Coppa Italia seven times and the Supercoppa Italiana five times round off their domestic success.
From 2006 to 2010, the club had one the best periods in their history as they won five successive league titles, equalling an all-time record. During this period, they also won the Coppa Italia and Supercopa Italiana twice each, and the icing on the cake was the Champions League Victory in 2010 that along with the Coppa Italia and the Scudetto, completed a continental treble for the Nerazurri – an unprecedented achievement for any Italian team.
Apart from 2010, they have won the Champions League on two other occasions. In fact, these victories came back-to-back in 1964 and 1965. During both these years, Inter came first in the domestic league as well. Unfortunately, in 1964, they were tied with Bologna for first place and lost in a tie-breaker 2-0 (the first and only time in Serie A where the champions were declared by a tie-breaker).
The club regained their title and their pride though the very next year, as outright champions of Serie A, as well as retaining their European crown.The club has also won three UEFA Cups, two Intercontinental Cups and one FIFA Club World Cup.
However, the years following Jose Mourinho’s departure after their historic treble have been hard on the club, with Inter slumping as far as 9th position in the 2012/13 season.
#5 Hamburg SV
The current Hamburger SV team (commonly called Hamburg or HSV) was officially founded in June 1919 as a result of a merger between three earlier clubs. But Germany's first professional football league, the Bundesliga, came into existence only almost half a century later in 1963.
HSV was one of 16 clubs invited to join that first season. Ever since then, despite the Bundesliga having featured the likes of Bayern Munich, HSV's football team remains the only team to have the unique distinction of having played continuously in the top tier of the German football league.
While no longer a force to be reckoned with, in their heyday, HSV won the German national championship six times, the DFB-Pokal thrice and the League Cup twice. The team's golden years were in the mid-1970s until the mid-1980s when the team, which featured the likes of German international Felix Magath, led to many a domestic honour that were supplemented by victories in the 1976/77 European Cup Winners' Cup and the 1982/83 European Cup.
HSV's last major trophy though came in the 1986/87 DFB-Pokal. In fact, Hamburg have come ridiculously close to being relegated – twice. SpVgg Greuther Fürth can count themselves unlucky after falling 1-1 on aggregate over two legs in the 2013/14 season after Hamburg finished 16th.
Returning to the bottom of the table the very next season was inexcusable and Hamburg should count themselves very lucky indeed to have survived yet another relegation-playoff, in such a short time. Defeating Karlsruhe 3-1 meant that the team still remain the only one in the German top tier to have never been relegated.
#6 Ajax
Ajax have never been relegated from the Dutch Eredivisie – one of three teams for whom this is true since the league's foundation in 1956 – the other two being Feyenoord and PSV. Ajax is the most successful club in the Netherlands, with 33 Eredivisie titles and 18 KNVB Cups and, is one of the country's "big three" clubs that have dominated that competition.
Historically one of the most successful clubs in the world, Ajax teams of the ‘60s and ‘70s were fearsome, with the team winning the European Cup thrice consecutively from 1971 to 1973 making them one of the five teams that has earned the right to keep the European Cup and to wear a multiple-winner badge. In 1972, they completed the continental treble by winning the Eredivisie, KNVB Cup, and the European Cup.
Ajax's impact in Europe has receded over the past decade, as their last international trophies were the 1995 Intercontinental Cup and the 1995 Champions League, where an Ajax team under Louis van Gaal defeated AC Milan in the final. The height of Van Gaal's success came in 1994/95, where Ajax became the first, and to date the only, team to complete an entire Eredivisie season unbeaten.
Ajax also went on to feature in the 1996 Champions League final. But with the departure of Van Gaal and a majority of their key players, the team was to suffer a steady decline in the next decade. They have failed to get beyond the group stages of the Champions league since the 2005/06 season, and between 1998 and 2010, they endured a lean patch on the domestic front as well, winning the league just twice in 12 years.
Recent years have seen a resurgence in the domestic front at least, with Ajax claiming the last 4 Eredivisie titles consecutively. Through times of thick and thin, one thing Ajax has remained famous for are the legendary footballers that come through their academy. Legends like Johan Cruyff, Edwin van der Sar, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert and Marco van Basten have come through the ranks at Ajax.
#7 Benfica
Benfica is one of the "Big Three" clubs in Portugal to have never been relegated from the Primeira Liga since it was established in 1934. Amongst them, the Big Three have claimed all but two Primeira Liga titles with Benfica having won a record 35 times. This along with numerous cup wins makes them the most successful Portuguese club in terms of domestic titles (73) and overall titles – being the only club to have won all Portuguese competitions.
The 1960s were the Golden Age for the club. The team that featured Eusebio – the only player to ever win a Ballon d’Or for a Portuguese club – led Benfica through a period during which the club won eight Primeira Liga titles. They were also instrumental in breaking Real Madrid’s hegemony over Europe, winning two consecutive European Cup titles in 1961 and1962, and were runners-up at the Intercontinental Cup in both years.
Benefica went on to feature in in a total of 10 more Eurpean finals, a Portuguese record, and were runners up at the European Cup in 1963, 1965, 1968, 1988 and 1990, and at the UEFA Cup/Europa League in 1983, 2013 and 2014. As of July 2015, Benfica is the second club with the most participations in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League (34), after Real Madrid.
A dark period in Benfica history where they dealt with a lot of finncial issues meant that Benefica would win just three League titles in the years between 1991 and 2013, even slumping to a lowly sixth position in the 2000/01 season. Despite this, they have never actually been even close to relegation, and have bounced back in recent seasons, winning back-to-back Primeira titles in the last two years, and even the domestic treble in 2013/14.
#8 FC Porto
Like Benfica, Porto is also one of the "Big Three" clubs in Portugal that have competed in every season of the Primeira Liga since its establishment in 1934. Porto is among the most successful Portuguese teams, with a total of 74 official trophies, second only to Benfica’s 76, comprising 27 league titles – five of which the club won consecutively between 1994/95 and 1998/99.
Porto also remains the only team in the history of the Portugese league to have won two titles while remaining unbeaten all season – in the 2010/11 and 2012/13 seasons. The 2010/11 season saw Porto win the title on the way to a second quadruple, with a 21-point difference between themselves and defending champions Benfica, who placed second. This is the largest-ever difference of points between champions and runners-up in a three-points-per-win system.
In European competition, Porto have won seven trophies including the European Cup/UEFA Champions League in 1987 and 2004. Victory in the UEFA Cup/Europa League in 2003 and 2011, the UEFA Super Cup in 1987, and the Intercontinental Cup in 1987 and 2004 rounds off their European achievements. In addition, they finished second best at the 1983/84 European Cup Winners' Cup and the 2003, 2004 and 2011 editions of the UEFA Super Cup.
Porto is the only Portuguese club to have won the UEFA Cup/Europa League, the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup, and to have achieved a continental treble of domestic league, domestic cup and European titles (2002/03 and 2010/11). Alongside Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United, Porto also hold the honour for the most appearances in the UEFA Champions League group stage (20), a competition that they famously won under Jose Mourinho back in 2004.
#9 Paris Saint-Germain
In an interesting twist of events, PSG are probably the only club in the world to have played in a lower tier after playing in a higher tier of the same competition earlier, and yet have never been formally relegated – making them the only club in the French league to have that honour.
Paris Saint-Germain was founded in 1970 when Paris FC merged with Stade Saint-Germain. PSG was allowed to start its life in Ligue 2 for the 1970/71 season where they made an immediate impact, winning promotion to Ligue 1 in its first season and building a formidable fanbase in the process.
Their first season in the French top tier saw them placed in a decent 16th placed finish, but the momentum was brought crashing down when the club split in 1972, with the professional arm of the club joining CA Montreuil and continuing life in Ligue 1 under the name of Paris FC while PSG was consigned to amateur status and were to start over in the the French Third Division.
PSG returned to first division in 1973/74 and have never looked back since, becoming one of the biggest clubs in Europe in recent years, while after split, Paris FC, has degenerated into relative ignominy.
Despite not having the kind of pedigree of most clubs on the list, PSG have tasted success in their own way, having won the Ligue 1 title five times. Post 2012, PSG have had an overhaul that have drastically improved their fortunes, with three of their five French titles coming in the last three years, which also included a domestic quadruple in the past two seasons.
PSG is the joint-most successful club in France and one of only two French clubs (Marseille being the other) to win a major European club competition.
#10 Arsenal
Since the start of the Premier League in 1992, seven clubs, namely Arsenal, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Manchester United, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea have always played in the top tier. But, back when the English top division was just the ‘Football League First Division’, which has a history from as far back as 1888, each of these teams have been relegated at least once, leaving no English clubs in existence that haven’t faced the drop at least once from the country’s top division.
Arsenal are the team with the longest run in the top division with the last time they were relegated being more than a century ago back in the 1912/13 season from Division One. They are also the only team to be relegated just once in their entire existence. The team the holds the record for the most number of first division titles, Manchester United (20) have been relegated five times in their entire history and last played in the second division in 1974/75.
Current champions Chelsea have been relegated six times, having played in the second division last in the 1988/89 season while current league leaders Manchester City were in the second tier as recently as the 2001/02 season.
