The biggest football clubs that went bankrupt

Girondins de Bordeaux

In July 2024, Girondins de Bordeaux revealed that the club would no longer be a professional football club. The French football club, which plays in a stadium with a capacity of more than 42,000, has been struggling financially for multiple years. Despite finishing fifth in Ligue 2 last season, Les Girondins was unable to meet the financial demands of the French football association. The former club of Zinedine Zidane, Didier Deschamps, and Eric Cantona, became champions of France six times in its history, most recently in the 2008/09 season. 

SSC Napoli

It’s hard to imagine that SSC Napoli, who became Serie A Champions again in 2022/23, went bankrupt earlier this century. One of Italy’s most iconic clubs went into decline both on the pitch and financially once Diego Maradona had departed the club. This already led to relegation to Serie B in the 1997/98 season. After promoting and relegating again in the next couple of seasons, SSC Napoli was declared bankrupt in 2004. Luckily for the club and city though, film producer Aurelio de Laurentiis re-founded the club and they could restart in Serie C1. Despite playing in a lower division, Napoli still had a higher average attendance than most Serie A clubs. In 2010, Gli Azzuri returned to the top flight. 

Parma

Despite not winning a league title, Parma was one of Europe’s biggest clubs during the 90s as they won multiple Coppa Italia’s and won the UEFA Cup twice. The former club of players such as Fabio Cannavaro, Hernan Crespo and Gianluigi Buffon, suffered financial troubles in late 2003 after its parent company collapsed. Eventually, in 2015, Parma was declared bankrupt and was refounded in Serie D, but returned to the top flight three years later in 2018. 

AEK Athens

AEK Athens is one of Greece’s most successful football clubs, winning 32 national titles. However, the club was suffering from financial struggles and after being removed three points by the Super League in 2013 after fans stormed the pitch and chased players from the field during a league match, AEK didn’t have enough points to stay up and was relegated to the second tier. Instead of playing second-tier football, however, the club decided to go bankrupt and start again from scratch following its financial difficulties. It didn’t take long for AEK to return from amateur football to the top flight and start winning and competing for trophies again. 

Rangers FC

Currently Rangers FC have won the Scottish League title 55 times, the Scottish Cup 34 times and the Scottish League Cup 28 times. The Scottish powerhouse also holds the record for the largest travelling support in football history, when 200,000 fans decided to travel to Manchester for the 2008 UEFA Cup final. However, things have not always been smooth sailing for the club from Glasgow. Rangers went into administration for four months in 2012 and was eventually liquidated. As a result, the club had to restart in the fourth tier of Scottish football, but rapidly made their return to the top division four years later. 

Anzhi Makhachkala

The story of Anzhi Makhachkala is one of the most intriguing in the history of football. From out of nowhere the club from the Russian Republic of Dagestan announced itself in world football after being bought by the Russian billionaire Suleyman Kerimov in 2011. They lured players such as Roberto Carlos, Samuel Eto’o, Willian, Balázs Dzsudzsák, and Lassana Diara to the club with big contracts and even had Guus Hiddink as a manager for 18 months. Their fairytale only lasted around two years before the owner decided to cut the club’s budget and sell most of the players. After the 2013/14 season, the club was relegated and in 2022 Anzhi dissolved. 

FC Dnipro

In 2015, the Ukrainian football club FC Dnipro surprisingly made it to the final of the Europa League, where they lost 3-2 to Sevilla. A few months later, however, Dnipro was excluded by UEFA from participating in the European competitions for the next three seasons for violating Financial Fair Play regulations and rumours were going around that owner Ihor Kolomoyskyi had stopped funding the club. In 2018, however, the club was sadly forced into bankruptcy by FIFA after multiple claims the club had failed to pay monetary compensation to players and managers. During the Soviet era, the club won two league titles and after the fall of the Soviet Union, FC Dnipro became runners-up in the Ukrainian Premier League twice. 

Lierse SK

Belgian football also has had its fair share of bankruptcies. In June 2024, KV Oostende was unfortunately declared bankrupt and in the past, K. Beerschot V.A.C. and K.S.V. Roeselare are also among many Belgian football clubs that suffered from the same fate. However, Lierse SK is arguably one of the biggest Belgian clubs to have gone bankrupt. Often referred to as ‘’the biggest smallest team’’ to have ever won a league title, Lierse SK was struggling from a poor and controversial ownership which ultimately left them with no other choice than to request bankruptcy. Since then, the club has made a restart as Lierse K.