sports Leicester City F.C. overcomes 5000-1 odds, wins Premier League Championship

[Dark Qiviut 22,182]

 

Leicester City's remarkable rise to Premier League champions is complete after Tottenham Hotspur failed to beat Chelsea on Monday night.

 

The Foxes become the first club since Nottingham Forest in 1977-78 to win the English top-flight league title for the first time, having only once before -- in 1928-29 -- finished as runners-up in their 132-year history.

 

After Leicester drew 1-1 with Manchester United at the weekend, Tottenham needed to beat the Blues to keep the title race alive, but Claudio Ranieri's men are now an unassailable seven points clear of their rivals with two games left to play after Spurs' 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge.

 

Second-half goals from Gary Cahill and Eden Hazard were enough to finally down the second-place Spurs' charge, but the night, and season, belongs to Leicester.

 

It marks an incredible rise for the club who were facing relegation last season -- and spent 140 days from November 2014 to April 2015 at the bottom of the Premier League table -- before a run of seven wins in their last nine games under Nigel Pearson kept them up. They eventually finished in 14th place.

 

Pearson was sacked in the summer and replaced by Ranieri in July, while the club spent less than £30 million on their squad since last summer, with their entire squad costing just £54.4m.

 

After their troubles last season, Leicester were 5,000-1 to win the title in 2015-16, with the highest cashout being £72,000 on a £50 bet, which was collected in March, according to Ladbrokes.

 

The 64-year-old Ranieri was far from the only knight in shining armour at the King Power Stadium this year.

 

Midfielder Riyad Mahrez and striker Jamie Vardy had already picked up the PFA's Footballer of the Year and Football Writers' Association awards. It is the first time that two players from the same club have claimed both awards in the same season since Everton's Neville Southall and Peter Reid in 1985.

 

Link.

 

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I'll admit, I'm not a soccer fan. Often, I find the game too slow, too traditional, and (for many of the leagues) too top-heavy with no parity. I heavily favor the playoff format in three of four major sports here (the NBA being the odd man out) because it gives other teams a chance to win.

 

But even someone who doesn't like soccer can appreciate such a fabulous story. Leicester City was a literal lovable loser: Fans love the team, but this team was bad so often. Just last year, they were nearly relegated back to a lower-tier league thanks to their 14th-place finish. Only a few years ago, they were in the third-tier league.

 

The EPL is near-pure capitalism. No salary cap. No revenue sharing. The richest teams are more than capable of spending millions of bucks on players, while the smaller markets have to find the scraps just to compete. At the start of the 2015-'16 season, Leicester City was one of the smallest markets. Since 1995, only four teams won the EPL: ManU, Man City, Arsenal, and Chelsea. Until this season, Leicester City never won a top-tier championship in its 132-year history. There's a reason why LCFC's odds were so low.

 

How do you compare their odds with others?

 

1000-1: Hugh Hefner admitting he's a virgin.

 

500-1: Cleveland Browns winning Super Bowl 51.

 

5000-1: Kim Kardashian being elected president.

 

1000-1: The Men's Olympic hockey team winning the gold medal in 1980.

 

You get the rest.

 

Leicester City's 2016 EPL crown proves that the smaller markets, even when facing insurmountable odds, can compete with and beat the big boys. They found what other leagues and teams considered scraps, and they flourished. And I'm really happy for Claudio Raineri, who had managed over a dozen teams and couldn't climb over the hump. This is his first title.

 

The big teams that dominate the sport may win their championships, but they're expected to win. No one expected LCFC to win. The fact that they won a title for the very first time and against deep odds makes their championship one of the most special in all of sports.

 

Congrats, LCFC!

Edited May 4, 2016 by Dark Qiviut

[Raritas 6,820]

It's been an amazing season to watch, this sort of thing hasn't happened for well over 20 years in the top league. Such a breath of fresh air than the usual teams winning it year in year out. I just hope they don't lose their players in the summer. Well played Leicester