List of unrelegated association football clubs

Several association football clubs succeed in playing at the highest level without being relegated from their domestic league. This page lists the clubs that managed to stay in top flight for an extended period of time, and those that have never been relegated from their current top-tier league.

More often than not, football clubs have played in more than one top-tier competition. It is therefore possible that teams relegated at one point in their history, but have not done so in the competition in which they currently compete. This is the case for multiple teams in countries where football was played in regional leagues prior to the creation of a unified national league. In such countries, a national champion was previously declared by means of a play-off tournament between teams that qualified through their regional tournaments. In Germany, for instance, seven teams have never been relegated from the Bundesliga (some joining more recent), but three of them found themselves expelled from the older Oberligen. Only Hamburg has played continuously in the top tier of the German football system since the end of World War I. In the Netherlands, football used to be organised in regional competitions as well. The unified Eredivisie was born in 1956, and four teams have continuously played at this highest national level since then.

Even before the establishment of regional competitions, football was played in league systems. The very first football championships in Europe were often organised on a local level. Taking these smaller competitions into account, Austria Wien and Rapid Wien can claim to have played at the highest possible level since competition began in Austria in 1911. At that time however, the only organised football was played in the league of Lower Austria, which was then located in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and only teams from Vienna took part. Later, Austrian teams competed in the German football system for several years, which made it possible for Rapid Wien to become German champion in 1941. The current Austrian Bundesliga was only established in 1974, and to this point a total of five teams never relegated from that competition.

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