Can relegation ever be a good thing in football?

In the world of football, the word ‘relegation’ is dreaded by all.

If you're a fan of the sport, there's a good chance that you'll have seen your team locked in a battle at the bottom desperately trying to stay up, or even worse, suffering the very fact that sees them move into the division below.

Relegation almost definitely means less income for clubs, their top players deciding to leave, and less supporters attending games.

"Well, being relegated is the biggest blow any club can get,” explained Manuel Terradillos, journalist for Euronews Español.

“It's worse than losing any final, and it hits the club in two different ways. First of all, you won't be competing against the best in the country anymore. We've seen it happening to be collapsing Europe like Juventus, like Atlético Madrid. And then you have the second side, the economic side, the fact that you will lose money in terms of sponsors to win money, in terms of TV, broadcasting rights and all these two things will combine and make it difficult for any club, even if you are a really good club, to go back to the first division next year."

Despite all of this, there are times when relegation could be considered a good thing. The Burnley Football Club story is a prime example. The Premier League side was relegated to the second division of English football just last year after being in the top tier since 2016. Burnley was known for its physical style of play under Sean Dyche's stewardship. However, all of that changed when Dyche was sacked, and ex-Manchester City defender Vincent Kompany was appointed as the new manager. Kompany had mixed managerial success in his first coaching role at Anderlecht in Belgium, but one year later, Burnley look a totally unrecognisable side