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#2 Palermo: Relegation to Serie D despite having a star-studded football team
If Luton Town have returned to where they once were (English football's Second Division), one could say that Palermo are at the very start of their journey back to the top.
In 2004, two years after Palermo were bought by businessman Maurizio Zamparini, Rosanero returned to the Serie A after more than 30 years in Italy's second and third football tiers. Led by Luca Toni, Palermo had an excellent first season, finishing an impressive sixth and qualifying for the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League) for the very first time.
The Sicilian football side had an even better second season; they finished fifth in their next campaign and also reached the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia. Meanwhile, on their European debut, Palermo reached the second round of the UEFA Cup knock-outs, losing to Schalke 04 1-3 on aggregate.
After four Palermo players - including Andrea Barzagli - won the FIFA World Cup with Italy, several impressive signings were made by the football club, and Rosanari were expected to continue their rise.
Even though the Sicilians had another top-5 finish in 2007, there was a massive disappointment in missing out on the Champions League, European club football's blue riband event. Palermo were on course to finish in the Champions League spots, but a shocking second half of the season - only four wins in 19 games - put paid to those hopes.
Palermo failed to lift their form in the next season, finishing 11th. However, with former Italy forward Fabrizio Miccoli and a young Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani up front, Javier Pastore in midfield and Salvatore Sirigu in goal, Rosanari had another fifth-place finish in 2010.
Before the start of the next season, Palermo also acquired a currently well known forward Josip Ilicic and went on to have another top-ten finish in the league, returned to European competitions and reached their third Coppa Italia final in the football club's history.
But then came the slide. In their next two seasons, Palermo had eight managerial changes, finished 16th before getting relegated to Serie B in 2013 after ending in 18th place.
After adding Andrea Belotti to their ranks, Rosanari broke Italian football's second-tier record with 86 points and made a swift return to Serie A.
Argentinian strikers Paulo Dybala and Franco Vazquez had a strong season in Palermo's first season back in the Italian top flight, helping the Sicilian club to 11th place, just below AC Milan, and only seven points off a Europa League spot.
But that was not a precursor of better things to come. Palermo had an indifferent campaign the next season, changing managers seven times in 2015-16 and narrowly escaping relegation by finishing 16th.
After selling several key players in the summer, Rosanari had an even worse season, as they endured relegation to Serie B again.
The football club's financial situation continued to worsen. After several owner changes, the prospect of relegation to Serie C was a real one for Palermo.
In May 2019, they were initially able to avoid losing their place in Serie B and received a docking of 20 points due to financial irregularities. But only two months later, Palermo were formally excluded from all professional leagues for an extremely serious breach of Italian company law.
From being a competitive Serie A team with players like Barzagli, Sirigu, Dybala, Cavani, Toni and many more potentially world-class players, Palermo were relegated to Serie D.
It is worth mentioning that Rosanari won Serie D on their first attempt and are now in the Serie C.
In this respect, Palermo would like to emulate Parma, a football team that successfully returned to the top division after being relegated to Serie D.
