Relegation zone after 9 matchweeks: 202 of 402 teams stayed up

Half the teams in the relegation zone (the bottom places) after 9 matchweeks (nine games per team) stayed up: 202 of 402. The other 200 went down to the division below. The count covers six leagues, from 2004/05 to 2025/26.

In the Premier League, England’s top division, Manchester United had seven points after 9 games, one place above the relegation zone on Sky Sports’ 1 November table.

Of the 66 Premier League teams in the zone, 38 went down to the division below. Across all 2,494 teams in the six leagues, 15 in every 100 went down. None of this says what will happen to any team today.

The count takes the top league of each of six countries, from England to Brazil. Each league has 21 seasons, except the Premier League with 22. Together they make 127 seasons. The data comes from the Soccer Addicted archive, the match database the site keeps, and opinion is labelled as such.

In 9 matchweeks, every team plays 9 games, unless a game was postponed, a case explained in the method section. A season such as 2005/06 runs from 2005 to 2006. Points are three for a win and one for a draw.

In each league, how many teams in the zone stayed up?

Close to half the zone stayed up in each league: 28 of 66 in the Premier League. Brazil’s Brasileirão, the name Brazilians give their national league, has four places in the zone and the others three, so its row is not directly comparable.

All six sit close to half, and the gaps are small and may be random variation. The count runs from 2005/06 to 2025/26 (Brazil: 2005 to 2025), with the Premier League starting in 2004/05, and leaves out this season.

And the team that was bottom after 9 matchweeks?

The bottom team went down in 79 of 126 seasons, more often than the zone. It stayed up in 47. In 126 of 127 seasons, one team was bottom.

In the other season, the 2018/19 Bundesliga, Fortuna Düsseldorf and Stuttgart shared last place, level on every tiebreaker. Stuttgart lost the relegation play-off, an extra contest between the third-from-bottom team and a side from the division below, and went down; Düsseldorf stayed up.

How many points after 9 matchweeks make a difference?

With 2 points or fewer after 9 matchweeks, 26 of 31 teams went down. The more points, the fewer went down. The breakdown below covers all 2,494 teams.

Between six and eight points, 1 team in 3 went down. The next question, how many points it takes to avoid relegation in the Premier League, has its own guide to the points that were enough to stay up.

Were the relegated teams in the zone after 9 matchweeks?

Almost half were not: 184 of the 384 teams that went down were outside the zone. The other 200 were in it.

In the Premier League in 2024/25, the zone after 9 matchweeks was Ipswich, Wolverhampton and Southampton. Wolverhampton stayed up; Ipswich, Southampton and Leicester, outside it, went down.

Juventus led after 9 matchweeks in 2005/06 yet went down on a football tribunal’s ruling after the season, the only one of the 184 to do so.

After relegation comes the question of whether the team returns, and this guide to who returns the next season answers it.

And in the matchweek each league has reached now?

Up to 1 November 2026, the European leagues stood between the eighth and eleventh matchweek. At that point, 37 to 59 in every 100 teams in the zone in past seasons went down. Some teams have played one game fewer.

Most Premier League teams have played 9 games, the same point as the first table. So 38 of 66 is also today’s figure.

That count shows what happened before, not what will happen to any team this season.

How was the count made?

Each table used each team’s first 9 games. In 33 of the 127 seasons a team had a game postponed. In those cases, the 9th game it played counts.

The count says a team went down if it was outside the top division the next season, by losing on the pitch, in a play-off or at a tribunal.

In 2013, Fluminense were in the zone after 9 matchweeks and stayed up, because Portuguesa, also there, had points taken away by a sports tribunal and went down. In 2014/15, Spain’s Elche, also there, went down over tax debts.

In 54 of the 127 seasons the best team in the zone and the worst outside it were level on points. Goal difference, goals scored minus conceded, settled it. In the worst case for each side, the number of teams that went down would be 179 to 211, still about half.

So is being in the zone after 9 matchweeks the same as going down?

By this count, no: 1 in 2 went down. Among all teams, 15 in every 100 did. The rest of the season decided which side each team landed on.

In my reading, the count is a yardstick for the past, not anyone’s fate. What separated the 202 who stayed up from the 200 who went down remains open.