A lowdown on the 10 biggest European clubs to have never won a major trophy, ranked on 5 factors
As the creator of the ARL Football Club Ranking System, I’m used to counting competitive trophies as the yardstick for how ‘big’ a club is because fame and fortune follow the silver. Yet, Europe’s top four leagues are so popular across the world, even clubs that have never lifted silverware attract a lot of support and interest, so must be regarded as big to some extent. But who are the biggest?
I’ve ranked 10 clubs in total based on five factors, in order of importance:
1st, How popular is the top-flight league? 2025 viewing figures place the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A as the most popular; the Premier League considerably more so than the other three put together. Clearly, as long as a club has a spot at one of the high roller tables, it shares in the league’s massive status.
2nd, How many seasons has the club actually competed in the top flight? Bit obvious, but a club doesn’t turn heads if it isn’t competing on the top stage.
3rd, How many times has the club achieved a runner up / finalist position? If a club has come close in the league or a cup competition, it shows that they have challenged the best in the past and built up a status from it.
4th, What were the club’s average league attendances for the 2025-2026 season? This is a solid point of measurement, yet the amount of spectators a club can attract to its ground doesn’t necessarily reflect the size of the club’s fanbase; a certain number will be opposing fans or neutral ‘corporate guests’, and stadium pricing affects attendance figures as much as anything. This factor must therefore be taken with a pinch of salt.
5th, How many FB ‘followers’ does the official club page have? The size of the club’s global fanbase is hard to accurately measure; being a fan is not black-and-white, some fans are ‘fairweather fans’; some are fans of multiple clubs. I therefore reduced it to counting the number of ‘Facebook Followers’ each club has, which is a measurable albeit crude way of sizing up a fanbase, so should be taken with even more salt.
I concocted an insanely convoluted points system based on the above factors, too convoluted to even explain to myself, let alone you. It wasn’t scientific, it wasn’t pretty, but it allowed me to appease my undiagnosed ADHD urges to quantify and rank stuff in a technical manner, which was fun.
I haven’t considered how clubs perform financially as I wish to size them up as sporting institutions rather than businesses, per say.
Europe’s ten biggest clubs to have never won a major trophy (as of Sept. 2026):
10. Rayo Vallecano (Spain) Status points: 809
9. Udinese Calcio (Italy) Status points: 825
8. Getafe CF (Spain) Status points: 882
7. Hull City AFC (England) Status points: 920
6. Watford FC (England) Status points: 964
5: SC Freiburg (Germany)
Status points: 969
Situated in Germany’s Deep South, SC Freiburg was founded in 1904 and has been competing in Germany’s Bundesliga – with 450 million viewers in 2025 – for 24 of the last 30 years.
Freiburg first reached the Bundesliga in 1993 and have spent just nine seasons outside the league since. Under the management of Volker Finke, Freiburg achieved 3rd place – their highest ever position and were labelled the Breisgau-Brazilians for their beautiful football. Since 2016, the club have established their place among Germany’s elite and started regularly competing on the continental stage. Under Christian Streich, Freiburg reached the 2022 German Cup Final but lost to RB Leipzig, and in the 2026 Europa League Final in Istanbul Aston Villa beat them 3-0.
Freiburg has the biggest stadium on this list with the 34,700-seater Europa-Park Stadion. The club’s city has a catchment area of 600,000 potential supporters to fill it, which they do with regular crowds of over 34,000. Freiburg’s global reach is relatively more modest with just 400,000 Facebook ‘followers’. It has a reputation as a very stable and well-liked club with no major rivals.
4: UD Las Palmas (Spain)
Status points: 1143
On a whole other continent to Spain, Las Palmas was founded in 1949 as an amalgamation of five clubs, and is now the no.1 club on the Canary Islands.
Although the team currently competes in the 2nd tier, they spent most of the ‘50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, plus two short stints in the 21st Century to date, competing with La Liga’s big boys. La Liga is Europe’s 2nd most popular league – 600 million viewers in 2025 – and Las Palmas have spent a total 34 seasons in it.
With top talent like Tonono Afonso and Juan Guedes, Los Amarillos finished 2nd below Real Madrid in the 1968-69 season, and took on Barcelona in the 1978 Copa del Rey Final, but lost 3-1.
Considering the club are in the 2nd Division, Las Palmas drew average league attendances of 19,000 to its 32,000-seater Estadio Gran Canaria. The club’s social media presence is strong: 3.1 million football fans ‘follow’ on Facebook. Overall, Las Palmas is well respected as a beacon of Canarian identity.
3: Brighton and Hove Albion FC (England)
Status points: 1170
In the populous South East of England, sits Brighton by the seaside where this football club was founded 125 years ago.
Brighton haven’t spent long in England’s Premier League, but because it is the most popular league in the world by a wide margin – 3.2 billion viewers – the club’s grown massively with its current stint at the top; just 14 seasons in total across two stints.
The club actually have won silverware – the 1910 FA Charity Shield, but this isn’t considered a ‘major trophy’. During the club’s first era in Division One between 1979-83, they lost to Manchester United by a hair’s whisker in the 1983 FA Cup Final. In the 2022-23 season, the Seagulls achieved their highest ever position of 6th place and now look increasingly at home among England’s best.
For a club with little history in the Premier League, Brighton have strong attendance figures: 31,000 in the 32,000-seat Amex Stadium drawn from a catchment area of a million residents. The club also boasts 2.2 million FB ‘followers’. It is considered one of Europe’s most progressive sports institutions.
2: RC Celta de Vigo (Spain)
Status points: 1232
Based on the wild north coastline at Vigo in Galicia, Celta was founded in 1923.
Since the Civil War, Os Celestes have spent most of their long history in Spain’s top flight – 61 seasons, the most on this list – and have achieved two record 4th-place finishes, in 1948 and 2003. Celta Vigo have come close to glory three times in the ‘Kings Cup’; the first in 1948 with league top scorer Pahiño who couldn’t save his team from a 4-1 defeat to Sevilla CF; the 2nd and 3rd in 1994 and 2001, Celta losing to Real Zaragoza on both occasions. Their current run in La Liga extends back to 2012.
Celta Vigo vie with rivals Deportivo la Coruna for fans among the 500,000-strong municipality. From this, they attracted crowds 20,000 strong to its 24,000-seat Balaídos stadium. Celta also boasts the most FB support on this list, a massive 4.5 million ‘followers’. The club is widely respected for its youth academy and attacking football.
1: Fulham FC (England)
Status Points: 1328
When Fulham FC was founded all the way back in 1879, it was just the 2nd club in the capital; today, Fulham are one of 17 professional football clubs in the Greater London metropolis.
The Cottagers have enjoyed four periods in England’s top flight; the first one starting in 1949, and their current Premier League run since 2022 – a total 32 seasons. In the 2008-09 season, the club finished a high of 7th and qualified for Europe. In 1975, Fulham reached the FA Cup final but lost 2-0 to West Ham in front of 100,000 Wembley fans, and in 2010 had a memorable run in the Europa League. At a time when the tournament included the Champions League 3rd-place group-stage dropouts, Fulham battled to the Final against Atletico Madrid but lost 2-1 in the dying minutes.
Fulham may be hemmed in by its bigger neighbours, but on the banks of the River Thames the 28,000-seater Craven Cottage Stadium is where the action is. It subsequently draws in close-to-capacity crowds. The club’s FB followship is 1.4 million strong. Fulham is regarded as a traditional and posh club.
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