Decline and recent history
In 1982, a financial scandal involving a controversial slush fund led to the departure and eventual jailing of long-time president Roger Rocher. Saint-Étienne subsequently suffered a free-fall with the club suffering relegation in the 1983–84 season. The club returned to the first division in 1986 under the leadership of goalkeeper Jean Castaneda who had remained with the club, despite its financial state. Saint-Étienne kept its place in the first division for nearly a decade with the club reaching the semi-finals of the Coupe de France in 1990 and 1993 during the stint. In 1996, Saint-Étienne was relegated to the second division and returned to Division 1 in 1999. In the 2000–01 season, the club was supervised by five different managers and had to deal with a scandal that involved two players (Brazilian Alex Dias and Ukrainian goalkeeper Maksym Levytsky) who utilised fake Portuguese and Greek passports. Both players were suspended for four months and, at the end of a judicial inquiry, which linked some of the club's management staff to the passport forgeries, Saint-Étienne was docked seven league points and relegated.
Saint-Étienne played three seasons in the second division and returned to the first division, now called Ligue 1, for the 2004–05 season. They came fifth in the 2007–08 season, which resulted in the club qualifying for the UEFA Cup for the first time since 1982. Saint-Étienne was influenced by several youngsters within the team such as Bafétimbi Gomis, Loïc Perrin, Blaise Matuidi and Dimitri Payet. The club followed up its fifth-place finish by finishing 17th in the next two seasons.
Having won the Coupe de la Ligue in April 2013, their first major domestic trophy for more than 30 years, Saint-Étienne qualified for the third preliminary round of the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League campaign. Following crowd trouble towards the end of the 2012–13 season, Saint-Étienne were handed a one-match stadium ban which would have forced the team to open their campaign behind closed doors. However, on 23 July 2013, this ban was lifted. On 30 November 2014, Saint-Etienne defeated fierce rivals Lyon 3–0 at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard for the first time since 1994.
The 2017–18 Ligue 1 season started badly for Saint-Etienne and culminated in a 5–0 derby loss to Lyon, after which Óscar García Junyent was dismissed as manager and replaced by former player Julien Sablé. Sable was replaced in December by Jean-Louis Gasset because he did not hold the required qualifications to coach in Ligue 1, and the club were fined €25,000 for every game played with Sable in charge. Under Gasset, Saint-Etienne went 13 games unbeaten and finished 7th in the table at the end of the season.
In the 2018–19 season, Saint-Etienne came fourth, the best finish since their promotion, after which Gasset elected to leave the club. The following year they were 17th when the season was ended by the coronavirus pandemic. They also reached the Coupe de France final in this season, which they lost 1–0 to Paris Saint-Germain.
In the 2020–21 season, Saint-Etienne started poorly and hovered above the relegation zone for most of the season before winning five of their last ten matches to finish 11th on the table. During that season, the club's board of directors announced, in a public letter on 14 April 2021, that the club was up for sale.
During the beginning of the 2021–22, the team suffered a catastrophic record; the culmination of 12 consecutive games without a win in Ligue 1. On 5 December 2021, after a 5–0 defeat against Rennes, manager Claude Puel was relieved from his duties. Julien Sablé, the assistant coach, took over as caretaker manager, before Pascal Dupraz was appointed as the new manager on 15 December 2021. The team eventually finished 18th in the season, and were relegated to the Ligue 2 after losing in a penalty shootout to Auxerre in the relegation play-offs. Saint-Etienne was sanctioned with a deduction of three points and four matches behind closed doors after serious incidents that occurred on the field after the game. The incidents left over 30 people injured. With a total of 18 points at the half of the 2022–23 season, Saint-Étienne was in the relegation zone ranked 18th in the table; however, they managed to finish the campaign in 8th place. The 2022–23 season was also the first season of Saint-Etienne with their new logo. In the 2023–24 Ligue 2 season, Saint-Etienne finished inside the playoff places and would eventually reach the relegation/promotion playoff against Metz. Saint-Etienne would win the two legged playoff 4-3 on aggregate to earn promotion back to Ligue 1, but were ultimately relegated in 2024-25.
