Sampdoria relegated to Serie C for first time in club history

Sampdoria has fallen to the third level of Italian football for the first time in its 78-year existence. The club, based in Genoa, came 18th in Serie B after being held goalless by Juve Stabia on Tuesday. This catastrophic result happened only 34 years after their best accomplishment—winning Serie A in 1991.The club gathered 41 points from the 38 games in a chaotic season. With only one victory of their last five games, Sampdoria couldn’t avoid the direct relegation zone. Salernitana moved over them into the play-off for relegation position with a 2-0 win against Cittadella.The club’s coaches were changed four times in the season. Andrea Pirlo had kicked off the campaign but was axed already after three games with two losses and a draw. Andrea Sottil followed, and Leonardo Semplici followed after. The last desperate measure to prevent the club from dropping into the second tier was made in April, with the club legend Alberico Evani being placed in charge.Evani had one win against other strugglers, which were Cittadella. In spite of the presence of another club icon Attilio Lombardo as assistant, they could not rescue the sinking ship. The constant changes in the coaching were merely representative of the bigger problems at the club.The propensity of Sampdoria to money problems has haunted the club in years. The 2024 accounts of the club recorded a loss of 40.7 million euros. They almost went bankrupt after they were relegated to Serie B in 2023.The club was rescued in 2023 by the current president, Matteo Manfredi and the former Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani. Radrizzani has since left and is, since, owned by a majority Singaporean businessman named Joseph Tey. Even after a huge amount of transfer activity last summer and January, the team had difficulties in scoring goals throughout the season.This relegation is a huge come down from a club that once sat at the very top of Italian and European football. Sampdoria only had its solitary Serie A triumph in 1991. They got into the final of the European Cup the following year but were beaten by Barcelona. They also scooped the UEFA Cup Winners Cup in 1990 and they also won the Coppa Italia four times.The club had only spent five seasons out of four decades in Serie B until the month of August 2023. Now they are dealing with the brutal reality of third-tier football for the very first time in their lives. For the fans, the sinking of the club into the Serie C from European bliss is a new chapter in their proud history that hurts.Also Read: 'Time to bounce back' – Fans react as Claudio Ranieri's Roma suffer first Serie A defeat of the year