There are many things that the average football fan can complain about, but for supporters of Burnley and Sheffield United, boredom is not one of them. The Clarets and the Blades are closing in on promotion from the Championship as the 2024/25 season reaches its business end; as far as the league table is shaping up, one of these sides will all but certainly secure an automatic ascent to the top flight, while the other will face the dreaded play-offs.
Both Burnley and Sheffield United were relegated from the Premier League at the conclusion of the 2023/24 campaign, so they will be eyeing an immediate return to English football’s promised land. It’s not the first time that these clubs find themselves in this up-and-down-and-up-again predicament…
What Is a Yo-Yo Club in Football?
Readers of a certain vintage will remember their childhood toy that was the yo-yo, which has also made various ‘comebacks’ over the years in the affections of other youngsters. Made up of two discs held together by an axle, plus a spool of string, creative types could get their yo-yos to perform all manner of tricks – but, for the most part, the toy was designed to simply be manoeuvred up and down with the string.
Up, down, up, down… you can see why the phenomenon of football clubs being promoted, then relegated and then promoted again has been given the yo-yo sobriquet.
Blunted Blades and Off-Colour Clarets
The defining moment ✨ pic.twitter.com/ABxOZsMFiq
— Sheffield United (@SheffieldUnited) March 16, 2025
Between the 2013/14 and 2023/24 seasons, Sheffield United were promoted three times and relegated twice – the gold standard for any yo-yo club. Burnley, meanwhile, up the bar yet further. If they do get promoted back to the Premier League, it would mean that they start the next season in a different division for the fifth consecutive term.
The Clarets were relegated from the Premier League during the 2021/22 season, but promoted back to the top-flight from the Championship again immediately in 2022/23. Their stay at the top table was short, mind you, as they were relegated back to the second tier during 2023/24.
As we’ve learned, Scott Parker has righted the Burnley ship and now they’re closing in on promotion once more in 2024/25. If they ascend to the Premier League once more, it will be a fifth successive season in which they’ve pitched up in new surroundings at the start of the campaign.
It would be churlish to do so, but we might assume that Burnley would be relegated from the Premier League in 2025/26 too – ensuring that the Clarets match Fulham’s all-time record for five consecutive yo-yos between the EPL and Championship. Stability and predictability? Over rated, as far as the Lancashire outfit is concerned.
Why Is It So Hard for Promoted Teams in the Premier League?
This article isn’t meant to be a dig at Burnley and Sheffield United, by the way. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for any side promoted to the Premier League to survive beyond a single season in the top flight. They cannot compete financially with established EPL clubs, while the pressures of Profit & Sustainability Rules (PSR) means that promoted sides can’t ‘overspend’ in their first season back in the top flight… they, effectively, have to operate on a Championship budget in order to be sustainable in that maiden campaign.
Parachute Payments
The parachute payments that kick in following a relegation are a great help when returning to the Championship, with demoted sites enjoying – for the most part – financial superiority over the rest of the second tier. And so it’s a perfect storm: not rich enough to compete in the Premier League, but too wealthy to hand around in the Championship for long. It’s obvious that English football’s financial structuring has created the yo-yo phenomenon.
Standard Has Improved
It’s true too that the standard of the ‘weaker’ teams in the Premier League has improved, which means that the three promoted sides are always likely to be the weakest in the division in their first season in the top flight. In 2024/25, for example, there are no clubs in disarray to the point that relegation is a possibility. And the trio of sides most in trouble (aside from Southampton, Leicester and Ipswich), which are Wolves, West Ham and Everton, all have positives that will likely see the gulf between them and the three promoted sides increase yet further.
Financial Gap
There are examples of promoted sides that have not only survived but thrived in the EPL: Nottingham Forest, Fulham and Bournemouth just three that spring to mind. But with the financial gap between the haves and the have nots growing, the likelihood of yo-yoing between the Premier League and the Championship will continue to increase… particularly if parachute payments are reduced in the future
Who Are Football’s Greatest Yo-Yo Clubs?
Fulham
Fulham’s inability to settle between 2017 and 2022 earns them the accolade of the Premier League and Championship’s most prolific yo-yo club. The Cottagers were either promoted or relegated five seasons in a row in that timespan, which is why their relative comfort in the Premier League now is so impressive.
Rotherham United
Mind you, Fulham aren’t English football’s best example of a yo-yo club… That accolade goes to Rotherham United, who brought their supporters joy and misery in equal measure between 2016 and 2022.
The Yorkshire club were relegated from the Championship to League One at the culmination of the 2016/17 campaign; an event that set into motion a yo-yo effect that lasted for six successive seasons. For that entire time, Rotherham were relegated one season and promoted the very next, bouncing around the Championship and League One in true yo-yo fashion. Their run finally came to an end in 2022/23, when they finally survived for another term in the second tier.
Aris Limassol
But leading the way with astonishing regularity is the Cypriot outfit, Aris Limassol. Between 1996 and 2006, they were promoted and relegated in a whopping TEN consecutive seasons, which is an almighty show of yo-yoing. And the best bit is that, after breaking the chain in 2006/07 by surviving in the Cypriot Premier Division, they then embarked on another eight-season run of consecutive promotions and relegations!
