The sports season is practically over. In terms of football, most clubs are rejoicing at some achievements that they may have gotten. However, there are clubs that are in pain due to relegation. The implications for their poor performances.
In rugby, fingers have been pointed for losses that led to a failed title gain.
It's not yet three full years since an estimated 70 000 ecstatic fans turned out to acclaim West Ham's jubilant squad as they arrived back in east London with the UEFA Conference League trophy.
The 2-1 win over Fiorentina in Prague ended a 43-year wait for a trophy and seemed to herald the dawn of a new era at a club that had been beset by argument and rancour following their controversial move from Upton Park to London Stadium in 2016.
Ironically, a reduction in the amount West Ham must pay to play at the 62 500 arena in Stratford - London Mayor Sadiq Khan estimates the saving at £2.5m - is one of the benefits of relegation.
In the scheme of things, it's a drop in the ocean. West Ham's exit from the Premier League after 14 years comes with a huge amount of criticism from fans; as well as uncertainty and concern for the future.
"Ultimately, we have not repaid that support," said a club statement hours after relegation. "The plain truth is that we have not been good enough. We must now face the consequences of that failure with honesty, transparency and a determination to repair, refocus and rebuild."
West Ham were always up against it going in Sunday's final game against Leeds in which they needed to win and hope Everton won at Tottenham if they were to stay up.
Consequently, there was an air of acceptance of their fate among the fans in the hours before kick-off; as they instead opted to enjoy the blistering heat rather than mull over a campaign of disappointment.
The frustrations came after West Ham took the lead against Leeds midway through the second half, as fans directed angry chants towards chairman, David Sullivan, who many blame for West Ham's current plight.
In terms of where West Ham find themselves now, though, Sullivan can call on positive experiences when it comes to plotting an immediate top-flight return. He did it twice during his time at Birmingham, in 2007 and 2009 and again with West Ham in 2012.
On the first two occasions, at St Andrew's, Sullivan was rewarded for sticking with the managers who presided over relegation - Steve Bruce and Alex McLeish. At West Ham, he brought in Sam Allardyce, who guided the club back to the Premier League via the play-offs.
This is a different West Ham, though. Sullivan no longer has his long-time business partner, David Gold, who passed away in January 2023. Gold's daughter, Vanessa, owns 25.1% of the club; US businessman, Tripp Smith, has an 8% stake; while Royal Mail owner Daniel Kretinsky is in the process of matching Sullivan's 38.8% by buying some of Gold's. Sullivan's long-time and trusted vice-chair, Karren Brady, stepped down in April. Karim Virani has taken over as chief executive.
There are financial concerns. West Ham recorded a loss of £104m in their latest accounts to 31 May 2025 and are heading for another hefty loss this year, according to sources.
This is a problem but not as big a problem now the English Football League has announced the implementation of Squad Cost Rules for the 2026-27 season. The finer details are still to be published but essentially clubs will be allowed to spend 85% of their income – and West Ham's income will far exceed any Championship rivals and possibly any Championship club ever.
Nevertheless, football finance blogger, Swiss Ramble, estimated West Ham's squad cost ratio for 2024-25 to be 90% and the club made it clear what relegation would mean in the latest accounts.
"The Group's principal business risk remains that of the men's football club being relegated with the serious financial consequences which follow," it read.
"[In the event of relegation] more significant mitigating actions would be required such as further player disposals to generate transfer fee income and wage savings."
Club sources estimate overall revenue will fall by between 50% and 60%. Revenue in West Ham's most recent accounts was £227.6m; down from £269.7m the year before.
West Ham's relegation from the Premier League will have an additional impact on their schedule next season.
It comes after the EFL introduced a major change to its League Cup format as a result of clubs’ participation in UEFA competitions.
With at least eight clubs qualifying for the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League next season, the EFL have made changes to the League Cup’s format to ensure the competition has the correct number of teams in the early rounds.
Thanks to their final day relegation to the Championship, the Hammers will have to enter Round One of the competition, rather than Round Two.
Usually, the teams that finish 18th and 19th in the Premier League would be given a bye into Round Two. However, those teams, in this case, West Ham and Burnley, must enter Round One to ensure there will be 24 teams who enter Round Three, with eight slots left open for those competing in Europe.
The competition involves all 92 members of the EFL and the Premier League and all 72 teams from the EFL usually enter in Round One.
This change could become even more complex if Crystal Palace win the Europa Conference League this Wednesday, as outlined in Section 3 of the EFL Cup rules.
The Eagles would enter Europe as the ninth club under The FA and that would put an odd number in the League Cup’s third round.
In the event the Eagles claim victory and embark on a Europa League tour next season, those nine would enter the League Cup in Round Three; meaning there would need to be 23 clubs progressing from Round Two.
That would require the 11 non-European Prem clubs and 35 EFL clubs, with 70, and not 72, in Round One. To get that 70 in Round One, a preliminary round may have to be played out between the clubs at the bottom of the EFL rankings.
That could mean the clubs who finished 21st and 22nd in League Two – Tranmere and Crawley – would play the two promoted National League sides – York City and Rochdale – to cut the number down to size.
This had to be done last year as well, with Accrington facing Oldham and Barnet taking on Newport respectively.
Captain, Jarrod Bowen, is the crown jewel in West Ham's squad. Along with Tomas Soucek and goalkeeper, Alphonse Areola, he is one of only three players who started the Fiorentina triumph still at the club.
Bowen's status was factored into the seven-year contract he signed four months later. The question is, will he stay? Although he is clearly one of their most saleable assets, the hope is Bowen will lead a promotion charge.
After West Ham's relegation was confirmed, Bowen told Sky Sports: "I'm under contract here. There's going to be rumours, talk and nonsense out there but, ultimately, what I see is getting this club back in the Premier League. That's where it deserves to be."
There will be departures from a squad where contractual clauses mean most players would take significant wage cuts, up to 50% in some instances, in the event of relegation, BBC Sport has been told.
Axel Diasi, Adama Traore and Callum Wilson are all out of contract in the summer.
Midfielder, Mateus Fernandes, has been linked with Paris St-Germain and Manchester United and seems certain to move on; with West Ham hoping for a significant profit on the £40m they paid for him last August.
Senegal defender, El Hadji Malick Diouf, cost £19m from Slavia Prague in July. He is also a player West Ham could make a profit on.
The problem is there are plenty of others West Ham will struggle to shift, given some calamitous recruitment since that famous night in Prague - the £105m subsequently received from Arsenal for Declan Rice, and more, has been squandered.
They paid £40m to sign Max Kilman from Wolves in 2024 on a seven-year contract. He hasn't played a single minute since the end of January.
Germany striker, Niclas Fullkrug, was signed on a four-year deal in 2024; when he was 31. He joined AC Milan on loan in January after scoring just three goals in 29 appearances for the Hammers in an injury-troubled spell.
James Ward-Prowse still has another year left on the contract he signed in August 2023. He started seven games and was a substitute in another five after joining Burnley on loan in January. Next season, West Ham must face up to a challenge those fans who celebrated success in Prague could never have imagined possible.
The wife of West Ham United goalkeeper, Alphonse Areola, has launched a scathing social media attack on managers, Nuno Espirito Santo and Graham Potter, following the club's relegation. Marrion Valette publicly blamed the managerial duo for the Hammers' top-flight demise and directly attributed her husband's recent France World Cup omission to their treatment of him at the London Stadium.
In the immediate aftermath of the confirmation, Valette took to Instagram to unleash a series of highly critical posts targeting both the current boss and his predecessor. Reflecting on a steep decline from their continental silverware peak under David Moyes, she captioned a historical photo: "From a trophy to relegation. Thank you Potter for the start of the season and Nuno for the end."
Areola was demoted to second-choice by Potter in August before Nuno briefly reinstalled him; only to drop the Frenchman again in January following a series of headline-grabbing errors. Sharing statistics highlighting her husband's league-high save percentage; Valette exposed internal communication issues.
She wrote: "Being dropped at the beginning of the season for no reason... After a very bad start then has made 20 games and all of a sudden 'I'm really sorry you won't start...'. 'Why?' 'For no particular reason but I'm sorry'."
The family's frustration peaked after France manager, Didier Deschamps, left the veteran shot-stopper out of his World Cup squad; opting for: Mike Maignan; Robin Risser and Brice Samba. Valette concluded: "And NO World Cup this year thank you coach Nuno."
Having not featured in the Premier League since a Chelsea fixture on 31 January, Areola now faces immense uncertainty with just one year remaining on his contract as West Ham face a gruelling Championship rebuild.
A lot of work lies ahead if they are to make a success of it.
Meanwhile in Germany and after 29 uninterrupted years in Germany’s top flight, Wolfsburg have been relegated from the Bundesliga following Monday's defeat to Paderborn in the play-off second leg.
After their first-ever relegation from the Bundesliga, VfL Wolfsburg was filled with anger and frustration. "Relegation hurts," said coach, Dieter Hecking, on Sat.1. "I'm also deeply disappointed, because we've had a very intense time over the last nine to ten weeks. We tried everything, and the players gave everything to stay in the league."
Having occupied a place in the bottom two for much of 2026, the Wolves managed to haul themselves out of the Bundesliga’s automatic drop zone thanks to a run of five points from three games between Matchdays 30 and 32.
They granted themselves a stay of execution after beating - and relegating - St. Pauli on the final day but couldn't get over the line in the relegation/ promotion play-off. After a goalless first leg on home soil, their fate was confirmed in a 2-1 extra-time loss at Paderborn; who trade places with Dieter Hecking's side.
Wolfsburg only narrowly avoided relegation in 2016-17 and 2017-18, beating Eintracht Braunschweig in the 2017 play-off before denying Holstein Kiel a place in the top flight 12 months later.
However, the Lower Saxony outfit were playing UEFA Champions League football as recently as 2021, having stormed to a fourth-place Bundesliga finish the season before under Austrian head coach, Oliver Glasner.
The club had firmly established themselves as continental regulars by that stage, securing five top-seven finishes between 2014 and 2021 and reaching the Champions League quarter-finals in 2015-16; when they gave Real Madrid an almighty scare.
Inspired by Kevin De Bruyne’s assists and Bas Dost’s nose for goal, Hecking’s Wolves had finished runners-up to Bayern in 2014-15 but still managed to get their hands on silverware that season; famously defeating Borussia Dortmund to win the DFB Cup before overcoming the Bavarians in the DFL Supercup two months later.
Their greatest achievement of the last 29 years, however, came in 2009, when Felix Magath’s star-studded side upset the odds to win the Bundesliga title for the first time in their history.
Strikers Grafite and Edin Džeko, scored a combined 54 goals between them that season – a record that still stands to this day – while Zvjezdan Misimović’s tally of 20 assists was an all-time high until De Bruyne matched it in 2015. The duo shared the record until 2019-20, when Thomas Müller registered 21 assists.
Wolfsburg had enjoyed Bundesliga football for 29 consecutive seasons, prior to the Paderborn loss. They previously yo-yoed between the second tier and lower leagues of German football.
Patrick Wimmer has said there is "disbelief" inside the camp after VfL Wolfsburg were relegated from the Bundesliga following a 2-1 play-off defeat to SC Paderborn on Monday night.
Wimmer, who missed both legs through injury, described the mood in the dressing room as one of shock and emptiness as the club came to terms with the result.
"The disbelief is written all over the faces of every fan and also us players. There is a great emptiness in the dressing room," Wimmer told Sky Germany. "It will definitely take some time for all of this to sink in. Everyone knows for themselves what has just happened."
The decisive tie was heavily influenced early on when Joakim Maehle was sent off just 14 minutes into the match, leaving Wolfsburg with a difficult task for the rest of the night.
Despite the setback, Wimmer refused to single out his team-mate for blame.
"He feels just as bad. He knows what happened probably shouldn't have happened. But I don't think the whole team should be ganging up on Joakim," he said.
"He's had a fantastic season since coming back from his shoulder injury and done a great job. He was maybe a bit unlucky today but generally you can see the whole team is lacking in energy."
Wimmer has been with Wolfsburg since 2022 and said the squad will need time to process a painful end to their Bundesliga campaign.
In the end, "it all comes down to a single moment, whether you stay up or go down. Then the game took a turn we didn't want," Hecking explained, referring to the early red card for Joakim Maehle (14'). The second yellow card was "not in question." However, regarding the first booking, the 61-year-old criticized referee Felix Zwayer for lacking "finesse."
He had "a completely different view" of the incident, said Hecking. Maehle was "attacked three times, then three players come at him, and if that's not violent conduct from Bilbija, then we might as well stop. We could complain about that too, but it's pointless." The match was "decided" and they had to congratulate Paderborn on their promotion after their 2-1 defeat after extra time.
Hecking left it open what this first relegation to the second division in 29 years means for his own future. "For me, the disappointment is also there first and foremost, that we didn't make it. We'll have to let it sink in for a day or two and then certainly talk about it," said Hecking. Now, they first have to "deal with the disappointment and then get back up again," said supervisory board member Diego Benaglio. In the dressing room, "tears" were shed.
Turning over to rugby and heading to Ireland; Leinster lost the Champions Cup final this past Saturday against French side, Bordeaux Begles, 41-19.
It’s a bitter, bitter blow for Leinster rugby. The four-time winners were battered into submission by a Bordeaux side; walking off the field at the San Mamés on the receiving end of a galling rout.
In truth, it was a scoreline that arguably flattered the Irish province. Leinster scored first through Tommy O’Brien but it was largely a one-way traffic after that, the game over as a contest by halftime.
It’s a defeat that will go down as one of the most painful in Leinster’s illustrious history; not least given it’s one-sided nature. It’s now four Champions Cup final losses in just five seasons.
Online, Leinster fans were looking to point the finger of blame. Question over the continuation of the current coaching ticket echoed across social media.
Popular South African account, Scrumming flyhalf, wrote: "Gonna take a huge coaching job to motivate the Leinster players to give it another go next year in the Champions Cup. Losing 4 finals in 5 years must be psychologically battering… Might need a brand new coaching staff to clean the slate."
There was plenty of explicit criticism levelled at Leo Cullen and Jacques Nienaber, suggesting the current set-up isn’t working and it might time for change at the top in south Dublin.
One poster wrote: "Bordeaux-Bègles were outstanding. Agree with Andy Dunne on Off the Ball that Leinster aren’t learning from their mistakes. I disagree that there doesn’t need to be a change in personnel. Cullen’s race has been run for three seasons. The Nienaber project has failed."
"The Nienaber experiment has been a farce," wrote one irate X user. "Seems to be a bluffer. I’ve long thought that the Rassie/Nienaber stick has only workered because of the South African player resources. The guys produced nothing with Munster."
"Leo Cullen needs to resign. Biggest budget in Europe. Keeps his mates on the coaching staff. Stacked to the high heavens with internationals," wrote another. "Heads must roll."
"It’s about time Leo Cullen moves on from Leinster. Gone stale – crying out for new ideas," pitched in another.
Others picked up on that fact that Bordeaux’s attack – which decimated Leinster – was coached by Clare native, Noel McNamara, having once been Dan Sheehan’s math teacher. McNamara was head coach of the Ireland U20s from 2018 to 2020; winning a Six Nations Grand Slam in 2019 before being lost to the Irish rugby system.
One prankster wryly pointed out before the game: "Important to remember that Noel McNamara couldn’t beat Doris or Keenan in the Leinster Senior Cup which really must be weighing on Bordeaux mentally."
Another sarcastic Tweet read under Leinster’s full time post: "Remember everyone, all is fine and dandy. Three more years for Nienaber, three more years for Cullen, three more years for the whole coaching ticket! It doesn’t matter if we are committing structural suicide, no accountability is allowed to happen whatsoever!"
Head coach, Leo Cullen, didn't appear too downcast after seeing his Leinster side absolutely annihilated by Bordeaux-Begles in the Investec Champions Cup final.
The Irish giants were thrashed 41-19 by the French outfit with the game already lost when the teams headed in the changing rooms for half-time. By that point Bordeaux had opened up a 28-point buffer after moving 35-7 ahead following 40 minutes of action.
It was comfortably their biggest defeat in a Champions Cup showpiece and suggests that Leinster are as far away as they ever have been from the competition’s true elite.
However, Cullen, who presided over his fifth successive European final defeat, was philosophical following the catastrophic loss.
"It’s not like we’re a million miles away. I know there’s a decent gap in the scoreline today but I think if you reflect upon on what’s gone on in the game, the stats in the game, that would maybe be a bit of a reflection in terms of how clinical Bordeaux were," he told reporters.
"The speed with the way they do things is very impressive. That’s the bit we need to get after. The speed of the way the game is."
"It’s something that we need to reflect on and take stock. How do we move forward as a group? What do we really want to chase down because, listen, we weren’t good enough today."
"Unfortunately when you sit here on the losing side, you’ve clearly just not been good enough on the day. And that’s something we need to reflect upon and get better at for the future."
Cullen, whose job will once come under scrutiny after this reversal, also looked to deflect matters in slightly bizarre fashion by immediately looking ahead to their United Rugby Championship quarter-final this weekend.
"Can we get better at it and go on and try to win the URC? Let’s hope so. Can we get better to get to another final and win another final in this competition next season?" he said. "That’s quite a long way down the track, isn’t it? But that’s what everyone’s at all of the time. Nothing stays the same forever in sport, does it?"
Cullen was not angry with their performance despite losing the game in the opening half with a performance which made it a bit too easy for the Frenchmen, especially with their lack of defensive resilience.
"It’s unfortunate the game just got away from us a little bit in the first half," he added."
"There’s lots of great stuff in terms of trying to get back into the game, and we scored a couple of good tries in the second half, and we still left so many opportunities out there."
"It’s a pressure cooker out there. It’s very frustrating, because you want to give a better account of yourselves, don’t you, because you want to be with that ruthless mindset in terms of execution, where we’re just not quite there."
"They [Bordeaux] haven’t had an easy run to the final, beating Bath, Toulouse the Bulls away, so they’ve shown that again at certain stages."
"But we just let the score get away from us a little bit in the first half."
The drive for five wasn't meant to look like this. Four stars on the Leinster shirt, five final defeats now since the boys in blue lifted the Investec Champions Cup.
Last time at the San Mamés Stadium, they were kings of Europe, celebrating tying Toulouse for the most titles. Anything and everything seemed possible for the pride of Dublin.
Yet back in Bilbao eight years on, there were only tears for souvenirs as another layer of final heartache was added to 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
"We spoke of not being a fleeting star, of making our star shine and representing the town," Noel McNamara, Bordeaux’s Irish attack coach said. "And when Rory McIlroy won the Masters, we spoke a little bit about [going back to back."
"There’s a fantastic video after that in which he said 'good players want to win one, really good players, great players want to win more than one'. I think that resonated with the players."
So it was that, on a steaming afternoon in Basque Country, Bordeaux were simply too hot to handle. Before half-time, they scored five tries. It was akin to winning the Masters before Amen Corner.
Leinster can console themselves that nobody in Europe would've lived with Yannick Bru’s side on the day. When the dust settles, they won’t find too much solace in that.
"If you’re a Leinster fan, you’re asking serious questions why a team stacked with internationals is 35-7 down at half-time," former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio said on Premier Sports.
Many of those supporters will have been in Newcastle when Leinster gave up a 10-point lead to lose to Saracens in the 2019 showpiece. They will have been in Marseille when La Rochelle beat them with a try in the final minute three years later.
They will have seen their side blow a 17-point advantage to lose to La Rochelle 12 months later and then miss a last-gasp drop goal and lose in extra time to Toulouse at Tottenham in 2024.
This one, in many ways, was easier to explain. For Bordeaux were red hot. However, as Dallaglio says, for a side stacked with so many Test stars to be out for the count at half-time is really not good enough.
Leinster had to be perfect to stand a chance against this team. They knew it, we knew it. When Hugo Keenan dropped the first kick aimed at him in the opening minute; that option was gone.
To be fair, they pulled themselves together to score first, driving to the killing zone where Garry Ringrose found Tommy O’Brien on the outside to leave Maxime Lucu grasping at thin air.
It was pretty much the last time they threatened, other than when Lucu this time grasped at thin hair and was sent to the sin bin, leaving Joe McCarthy, whose mullet he tugged, to score the Dubliners’ second try.
In between the scrum-half’s two grabs, Bordeaux scored five unanswered tries in as devastating a first-half passage of play as has been witnessed in a Champions Cup final and probably any other final for that matter.
Lucu, player of the final for a second straight year, started it off with a sniping break under the posts after Cameron Woki had been denied Bordeaux’s first try in controversial fashion; referee Karl Dickson awarding the score, only for TMO Marius van der Westhuizen to overturn it without the clear evidence the protocol demands.
It offered Leinster a stay of execution. Nothing more. Lucu made no mistake moments later, then Harry Byrne kicked the restart dead and, from the line-out, Matthieu Jalibert and Salesi Rayasi worked Pablo Uberti over on the right with consummate ease.
Bordeaux were only getting started. They might have been fortunate Keenan’s fingertips were adjudged to have brushed an overcooked Bielle-Biarrey kick but what followed was sheer class.
Getting the ball back, the France wing this time made no mistake; stepping inside two players before beating a third to the line. Just for good measure, he bagged a second after Damian Penaud hacked through, regathered and gave the pass.
Desperate times brought desperate play from Leinster. O’Brien made a mess of a kick, which Jalibert returned with interest. Then Byrne threw an intercept which Yoram Moefana turned into another seven points.
Leinster deserve credit for their refusal to be humiliated. At 35-7 that appeared a racing certainty. Their pride would not allow it. You don’t get medals for winning second halves with the cause already lost, but you do garner respect.
Credit to Ciarán Frawley for coming off the bench and getting a tune out of a shell shocked team. For Leinster dousing Bordeaux’s fire, albeit aided by yellow cards for Lucu and Ugo Boniface.
Ultimately, though, their inability to manipulate the Bordeaux defence when the contest was live, to match the physicality of the French, to win enough collisions then play with any sort of accuracy, told its own story.
Losing is never a nice feeling. The best thing to do is to learn from your mistakes and improve what went wrong after analysing everything. If this isn't done, more bad fortune may follow the team/s.