These were replaced by the Habsburgs in 1503 (until 1707) and the Kingdom of Naples, which had been independent until then, was incorporated into the Spanish-Habsburg world empire as a tributary province. The Italian racial laws also hit the Jewish community of Naples hard. The club spent a total of eight seasons in England's second-tier league during its tenure in professional football. Alan Shearer, who had scored more than 30 goals in three consecutive seasons, was again largely responsible for the rise to seventh place. This is not only due to the many successes, for example as a record cup winner or record champion, but also to the large number of members. The Cambridge United team plays at Abbey Stadium, which currently has a capacity of 8,127 and has both standing and seated stands. For the new record sum of 15 million pounds, he then moved to his hometown club Newcastle United in the summer of 1996 and the Rovers were not to find an adequate replacement for this departure in the period that followed. Blackburn Rovers became the first former Premier League champions to be relegated. The table below shows the ten players with the most appearances and goals in all competitions in Blackburn Rovers history.

On December 16, 1996, the club's management had previously announced during a press conference that Sven-Göran Eriksson had signed an "unconditional contract" with Rovers, which would see him take over as coach at the end of the season – and his then-ending employment at Italian club Sampdoria Genoa – scheduled for July 1, 1997. He had left Ewood Park in early June to take over the coaching post at Manchester City that had become vacant following the dismissal of Sven-Göran Eriksson. Eriksson himself had also visited Ewood Park, had the team watched at games and said he was "satisfied and honored to be joining Blackburn Rovers next July". The good trend didn't last and Blackburn Rovers finished the 2003/04 season in a disappointing 15th place The three bottom-placed teams at the end of the season are relegated to the second-tier Football League Championship and are replaced by the top two teams in that league directly and a third team who finished between third and sixth place in the Football League Championship in the regular season and subsequently won two elimination rounds. With the exception of a bridge over the Tiber between the stations of Lepanto and Flaminio, the route runs entirely in a tunnel.

On May 7, 2012, after a home defeat against Wigan Athletic on the penultimate day of play, relegation from the Premier League was certain after 11 years in the Premier League. With the new caretaker coach Tony Parkes, however, the team found their way back to better form and finally secured the league with 13th place. Under Hughes, Rovers were able to stay up in 2004/05 by finishing fifteenth and the team also reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup against Arsenal. Instead of Blackburn Rovers, he then moved to Lazio in 1997, with whom he would later win the Italian Championship and the European Cup Winners' Cup. With the appointment of this world-renowned coach, who had previously won the UEFA Cup, Portuguese league and Italian cup, the Rovers leadership hoped they had landed a coup to take their domestic success to the European one to establish a permanent stage. The side continued to develop positively under Souness's leadership and finished the 2002/03 season sixth in the table, having secured that UEFA Cup qualifying spot – their second consecutive UEFA Cup – only on the last matchday.

On the penultimate day of play, Blackburn said goodbye to Manchester United in the top flight with a 0-0 defeat and at the same time enabled the opponent to take a step towards the treble. Although a club called Cambridge United existed in Cambridge from 1909, it was not associated with the club that exists today. After playing in the Football League for 35 years, the club were relegated to the semi-professional Conference National (now the National League) in 2005, the fifth-tier English division. The Cambodian Premier League 2022 was the 18th season of the top football league in Cambodia since its inception in 2005. The league was also known as the Metfone Cambodian League for sponsorship reasons. Thanks to more effective cultivation methods, the fertile surrounding area provided three harvests a year. A 7-0 win over Nottingham Forest on the day the newly renovated Ewood Park opened and a 4-1 win over Rosenborg Trondheim – Mike Newell scoring three goals in just nine minutes – were the few highlights of an overall disappointing season at this time.