Two-time Champions League finalists could face extinction with club ‘only able to survive one year if relegated’
VALENCIA may only survive for ONE YEAR if they are relegated from LaLiga this season.
The Spanish giants sit 18th in the top flight, three points adrift of safety with just nine games remaining.
Owner Peter Lim, who also has a share in Salford City, has been heavily criticised for the demise of the club and dragging them into a relegation dog fight.
It comes just two decades on from a thoroughly successful era.
They reached back-to-back Champions League finals in 2000 and 2001, losing to Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
Rafa Benitez then took over and guided the club to two league titles in three years between 2002 and 2004.
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But now they face the very real prospect of dropping down to the second tier for the first time since 1987.
And 's journalist Javi Lazaro insists the club could cease to exist under its current ownership.
He said: "To this day, the continuity of Meriton [the owners] can only bring one thought, that of disappearance.
"Practically the team economically could last a year in the second [division], for sure it would not manage two.
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"And seeing Lim's management, they are hardly going to make a project to get promoted from the second to the first."
Valencia, who appointed Ruben Baraja as Gennaro Gattuso's replacement in February, are on a run of four games without a win.
On Sunday, a frustrated home crowd watched them lose 2-0 to fellow strugglers Sevilla.
Next up in their fight to avoid the drop is a trip to Elche this weekend.