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Birmingham City

Badge of Birmingham City
Full name	Birmingham City Football Club
Nickname(s)	Blues
Founded	1875 as Small Heath Alliance
Ground	St Andrews Stadium Bordesley Green Birmingham
Capacity	30,009
Chairman	David Gold
Manager	Steve Bruce
League	Premier League
2006–07	The Championship, 2nd (promoted)
Home colours Away colours

Birmingham City Football Club are an English football club based in Birmingham, in the heart of the West Midlands. They play in the English Premier League.

Originally known as Small Heath Alliance, the club has had several name changes: to Small Heath in 1888, to Birmingham F.C. in 1905 and finally to Birmingham City F.C. in 1945.

They were FA Cup losing finalists in 1931 and 1956. They won their only major silverware to date in 1963 when they lifted the League Cup beating local rivals Aston Villa 3-1 on aggregate. The club's darkest era came between 1986 and 2002, when the club was consistently outside the top flight of English Football and also suffered the indignity of two brief spells in the third tier of the English League during this period.

The club is nicknamed Blues, due to the colour of their kit, and their fans are known as Bluenoses.

History

Birmingham were founded as Small Heath Alliance in 1875. The club turned professional in 1885, and in 1892 joined The Football League as founder members of the Football League Second Division. In their first season Small Heath were Second Division champions, but were denied promotion after losing test matches against Newton Heath. The following season promotion was secured after a second place finish and a test match victory over Darwen.

In 1905, a proposal was made to rename the club Birmingham City F.C., as they were the only Football League club in the city since Birmingham St George's folded in 1892. However the shareholders were not in favour, so the club became plain Birmingham Football Club instead. They moved to their current ground, St Andrews, a year later.

In 1931 the club reached the final of the FA Cup for the first time, but were defeated 2-1 by West Bromwich Albion. The 1950s saw Birmingham record their highest ever league finish, Arthur Turner's side ending the 1955-56 season in sixth position in the first of ten consecutive seasons in the top flight. In the same season the club reached the FA Cup final for the second time, losing 3-1 to Manchester City. In 1963 the club reached a third major cup final, and this time were victorious, beating local rivals Aston Villa 3-1 on aggregate to win the League Cup.

The club spent the 70s and early 80s moving between the top two divisions.

Birmingham City suffered relegation from the top division at the end of the 1985-86 season. Their two following seasons in the Second Division were unsuccessful and they were finally relegated to the Third Division for the first time ever at the end of the 1988-89 season. They won promotion as Third Division runners-up three years later, at the end of the 1991-92 season, so they would find themselves members of the new Division One for the 1992-93 season. However, they were relegated from Division One at the end of the 1993-94 season (losing on goal difference to neighbours West Bromwich Albion) despite a managerial change halfway through the season in which Terry Cooper was replaced with Barry Fry.

Fry guided Birmingham to the Division Two championship and victory in the Auto Windscreens Trophy in 1994-95, but was sacked one year later after a promising 1995-96 campaign had faded away to a 15th place finish in Division One, Fry was one of the greatest characters to have managed Birmingham City and was famous for his runs along the line when the Blues had scored. His successor Trevor Francis remained in charge at Birmingham until October 2001, during which time Birmingham qualified for the playoffs in three consecutive seasons - in the 1997/98 season, Birmingham finished 7th, and missed out on the playoffs by the Goals For rule, despite having a greater goal difference, the Goal Difference rule was brought in the following season - and were on the losing side to Liverpool in the League Cup final. Francis's successor, Steve Bruce, helped Birmingham qualify for the 2001-02 Division One promotion playoffs where they defeated Norwich City (thanks to a winning penalty by Darren Carter) to win promotion to the Premier League for the first time in two decades.

Their first season in the Premiership saw Birmingham City finish impressively in 13th place. After signing French international Christophe Dugarry and others, they also defeated rivals Aston Villa home and away during the 2002-03 campaign. Birmingham City got off to a strong start in the 2003-04 season, staying in the top four for the first month and after six weeks had statistically the best defence in the division. Good form lasted until the last fourteen or so games, when the Blues stumbled and ended the season on a run of seven games without a win to finish in 10th. This dramatic drop in form coincided with the departure from the club of coach Mark Bowen.

Unfortunately, key striker Forssell injured his knee in the early part of the 2004-05 season, and this left the Blues struggling for in-form strikers. The Blues ended up finishing in 12th place.

Birmingham City entered the 2005-06 season with high expectations after finally sealing permanent deals for Mikael Forssell, Jermaine Pennant, Mehdi Nafti and Walter Pandiani. Nicky Butt also joined on a year-long loan deal from Newcastle United and Jiri Jarosik also joined on a season long loan from Chelsea. After a string of poor results, including losing twice to local rivals Aston Villa, the season that promised so much ended in relegation. The club then sold or released several players in an effort to reduce the wage bill.

After an initial strong start to the 2006-07 season with Birmingham hovering around first and second in the league, the club suffered a winless period that led to calls within the media for the removal of Bruce as manager after the club dropped to 9th in the league. However, their form soon improved and they returned to the top of the league in March.

On April 29, 2007 Birmingham and Sunderland both clinched promotion back to the Premiership at the first attempt when Derby lost 2-0 to Crystal Palace, with former Birmingham player Clinton Morrison scoring the opening goal. However Birmingham's failure to beat Preston North End in their final game meant that Sunderland secured the Championship title with their win over Luton Town.

Manager Steve Bruce has prepared for the 2007-08 Premier League season with the acquisitions of England Under 19's captain Fabrice Muamba, ex-Middlesbrough utility man Stuart Parnaby, Scotland and ex-Lokomotiv Moscow striker Garry O'Connor, former Juventus midfielder Olivier Kapo, Holland U-21 winger Daniël de Ridder, French defender Franck Queudrue, Aston Villa centre-back Liam Ridgewell, and Ghana goalkeeper Richard Kingson . The Blues have also secured the services of Lille's Brazilian defender Rafael Schmitz on a one year loan deal.

Deals for Tottenham's Egyptian internationals Mido and Hossam Ghaly both collapsed after appearing to have been completed. The bid to sign Mido ended due to an unspecified contract clause dispute, whilst Ghaly's transfer was halted after a training ground bust-up. He had actually been training with Blues for three days, in anticipation of his work permit application being approved. However, following the argument on the training ground, Birmingham used the fact that his work permit had not yet been approved - hence, he was still officially a Tottenham player - to cancel the deal.

On July 16, 2007, Hong Kong-based businessman Carson Yeung bought 29.9% of the club, making him the biggest single shareholder.

The Blues in Europe

In 1956 Birmingham City became the first English club side to compete in Europe when they took part in the 1955-58 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup via invitation. The rule at the time specified one team per city invited. Some cities, including London, chose to enter teams comprising players from more than one club; Aston Villa decided not to supply players to a combined team, leaving the Blues as the city of Birmingham's representative.

Blues took part in the competition on four separate occasions between 1956 and 1962 . Blues were unbeaten in the 12 home games. Of the 51 goals scored, Johnny Gordon netted 7, Jimmy Harris and Harry Hooper five apiece and Bunny Larkin and Bryan Orritt four each. The goals were divided among 19 players, including an Inter Milan defender Balleri.

Trevor Smith appeared in the most European games for Blues - 18. Brian Farmer and Johnny Watts each played 17 matches.

The biggest away crowd was that of 75,000 for the 2nd leg of the Final on the 4th of May 1960 at the Nou Camp against Barcelona. An audience of 60,000 witnessed the second leg of the semi final clash with the Catalan side in November 1957 and a similar crowd saw the clash between Barca's city neighbours RCD Espanyol in November of 1961. The biggest crowd seen at St Andrews (in European competition) was that of 40,524 for the first leg of the Blues-Barca final in March 1960.

In April 1961 Blues became the first English side to beat Internazionale (Inter Milan) at the San Siro, winning by two goals to one, goals from Jimmy Harris and Inter defender Balleri, in the semi final first leg of that season competition. Blues also won the return leg at St Andrews 2-1 with goals from Jimmy Harris and Bertie Auld.

Unfortunately Birmingham City have never qualified for Europe by their own means having to rely on invitations before it was a qualification system.The new chairman chineseman Chairman Mao hopes to install a 50 year plan and qualify for the UEFA Cup by 2055 using a canny system of loans and Bosmans.

Crest

The club changed its name from Small Heath Alliance to Birmingham in 1905 and the city's coat of arms also became the club's crest. In 1971 the famous "penguin" kit was first worn. This featured a Glasgow Rangers style "BCFC" on the shirts. In 1972 the current club badge (the globe and ball) was introduced, replacing the city's coat of arms (25/3/72) . It was the winning entry of a competition organised in the Sports Argus newspaper and was designed by a local supporter, Mr Michael Wood of Burntwood, near Walsall, West Midlands. The BCFC was still worn on club shirts until 1975 with the new badge being used on the club shirts for the first time in the 1976/77 season.

In the early 1990s colour was added for the first time to the globe and ball badge but it only lasted for a few seasons. When Blues hero Trevor Francis returned as manager in 1996, the club reverted the Rangers style BCFC badge, but it only lasted for a season and Birmingham City went back to the globe and ball badge -- which is still worn on the present day shirts.

Colours

When Birmingham City started to play football (as Small Heath Alliance) the club colours were dark blue shirts with a white sash and white shorts. In 1883-84 they changed to wearing plain blue shirts and white shorts and in 1889-90 turned out in black shirts with gold colour and cuffs and white shorts.

The very next season (1890-91) the Blues players donned light blue shirts with a dark blue trim and white shorts and this design was to stay until 1914-15 when royal blue shirts with a central white 'V replaced were introduced.

This held firm until 1927-28 when a plain royal blue shirt and white shorts came into being. During the 1930s and '40s, Blues wore traditional white collared shirts with a button-up neckline, although before the War the colour blue was a fraction lighter than it was during the forties. In the early to mid-1950s the club retained the blue shirt, white collar, white shorts design but in 1957-58 the 'V neck was introduced - and remained so until 1963 when the round neck took over (Blues still wearing white shorts).

In 1965 the large white band round the neckline disappeared, to be replaced soon afterwards by a much thinner one when Blues also donned matching blue shorts. But it was back to plain blue shirts in 1968-69 (with blue shorts) and this theme continued until 1971 when the first penguin strip was seen.

In 1975 it was back to blue shirts with a white collar and white shorts. The round neck was seen again in 1977 but in 1980 it was laced with a 'V.

A slight change in the overall design was effected during the early 80s (red socks were seen and there was a thin white strip visible on the shirt in 1984-85). A touch of red was forthcoming in the 1985-86 season (on the shoulder line) and in 1986-87 (for the very first time) Blues' shirts had a white band across the chest with white foldovers on the socks. Occasionally they also played in a lighter blue shirt with a dark blue band across the chest.

In 1989-90 (under Dave Mackay) and with Mark One flashing across the front, the shirts comprised two broad flashes on each shoulder but it was soon done away with and back to blue shirts, white collars and cuffs and white shorts as the 1990s arrived.

A patterned blue shirt was seen in 1992-93 and a distinctive design on the sleeves appeared the following season before it was back to a traditional blue shirt with a small tucked in white band under the chin for the Barry Fry era. Then, when Trevor Francis came back to St Andrew's, Blues switched to a similar penguin-design shirt (like Francis and his colleagues wore in the early '70s) with a white body, blue sleeves and neckline and white shorts.

However it was back to blue shirts with white trimmings in 1997-98 thereafter it has been a more plainer design with a designer-strip down each arm.

Blues' change strips over the years, have varied considerably with players wearing matching white shirts and shorts to white shirts and black shorts, all red, black and red halved shirts, red and black stripes with black (and sometimes white) shorts, all yellow, yellow shirts with black shorts, blue and yellow shirts and yellow shorts and even a green and yellow combination.

It was announced on 8th March that Umbro would be the new kit manufacturers from 2007-2010. Umbro's first home kit is yet another return to the penguin strip. The new away kit is predominantly white with blue trim and this year blues will also feature in a mainly red third kit. All kits include The Blues new main sponsor F&C Investments.

Stadia

• 1875-1877 Arthur Street
• 1877-1906 Muntz Street, Small Heath
• 1906- Present St. Andrews, Bordesley Green

St Andrews

St Andrews was built on an old gypsy camp. The gypsies are reputed to have put a curse on the ground when they were evicted. Fans still blame this when the club has a string of bad results.

Since World War II, redevelopments at St Andrews had been very minimal, with the only big change being the rebuilding of the Railway End. Over the years, capacity at St.Andrews had gradually been reduced, from 68,000 before the war, down to 53,204 by 1963. By 1988, the capacity had dropped further, down to little over 38,000. However, after the tragedies at Hillsborough and Valley Parade, and the subsequent issuing of the Taylor Report, the capacity at St Andrews dropped to 28,235. However, it became clear that it was time to completely renovate the stadium in order to bring it into the twenty-first century.

Three sides of the stadium were redeveloped in the 1990s to make a modern all-seated stadium. First the Kop and Tilton Stands were rebuilt, followed a few years later by a new Railway stand. Only the main stand now remains of the pre 1990s stadium which is of a 1950s design and is noted for being one of the first to use a propped cantilever roof design, giving spectators a less restricted view of the playing area.

It has been rumoured that there will soon be a giant television installed in the ground to show replays of incidents and goals. The giant television is the same television that was shown to Wimbledon's Henman Hill.

In January 2007 the St Andrew's turf was replaced with what had originally been the spare pitch for the new national stadium at Wembley. Birmingham had to postpone their game against Leeds on 13 January because the newly-laid pitch was not in a playable condition. This was the first time in the history of English senior football that this had happened.

The current ground capacity is 30,009 and the pitch measurement is 110yds/100 meters x 74yds/68 meters.

Honours

League

• League Cup
  • Winners 1963
• FA Cup
  • Finalists 1931, 1956
• Football League Championship
  • Runners up 2006/07
• Division Two (old)
  • Champions 1955, 1948, 1921, 1893
• Football League Second Division
  • Champions 1995
• Football League Trophy
  • Winners 1991, 1995

Other cup competitions

• Atari ST 6-a-side Cup
  • Winners 1982
• Birmingham Senior Cup
  • Winners 1905, 1907, 1915, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1983, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2003

Club records

• Record attendance: 66,844 v Everton, FA Cup 5th Round, 11 March 1939
• Record transfer fee paid: £6.25m to Liverpool for Emile Heskey, 2004
• Record transfer fee received: £8m from Liverpool for Jermaine Pennant, July 2006
• Most League goals in a season: Joe Bradford, 29, Division 1, (1927-28)
• Leading career scorers (all competitions):

1. Joe Bradford (1920-35) 267
2. Trevor Francis (1969-79) 134

• Leading career scorer (FA Cup): Joe Bradford (1920-35) 18
• Leading career scorer (European Competitions): Johnny Gordon (1958-61) 7
• Record Football League win: 12-0 v Walsall Town Swifts (Division 2, 17 December 1892) & v Doncaster Rovers (Division 2, 11 April 1903)
• Record Football League Defeat: 1-9 v Sheffield Wednesday (Division 1, 13 December 1930) & v Blackburn Rovers (Division 1, 5 January 1895)
• Record cup win: 9-2 v Burton Wanderers (FA Cup First Round, 31 October 1885)
• Record cup defeat: 0-7 v Liverpool (FA Cup Quarter Final, 21 March 2006)
• Most capped player: Stan Lazaridis, 33 caps for Australia

Players

Current squad

As of 11 September, 2007.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  NIR Maik Taylor 2 DF  EIR Stephen Kelly 3 DF  ENG Matthew Sadler 4 DF  ENG Martin Taylor 5 DF  BRA Rafael Schmitz (on loan from Lille) 6 DF  ENG Liam Ridgewell 7 MF  SWE Sebastian Larsson 8 FW  SCO Garry O'Connor 9 FW  FIN Mikael Forssell 10 FW  ENG Cameron Jerome 11 MF  ENG Gary McSheffrey 12 MF  TUN Mehdi Nafti 13 GK  EIR Colin Doyle 15 DF  FRA Franck Queudrue

No. Pos. Nation Player 16 DF  SUI Johan Djourou (on loan from Arsenal) 17 MF  ENG Neil Danns 18 GK  GHA Richard Kingson 19 FW  ENG Rowan Vine 20 MF  NED Daniël de Ridder 21 DF  ENG Stuart Parnaby 22 MF  NIR Damien Johnson (captain) 23 MF  FRA Olivier Kapo 24 DF  TUN Radhi Jaïdi 26 MF  ENG Fabrice Muamba 27 DF  CIV Olivier Tébily 28 MF  HON Wilson Palacios (on loan from Olimpia) 29 MF  ESP Borja Oubiña (on loan from Celta Vigo)

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 14 MF  AUS Neil Kilkenny (at Oldham Athletic, until January 1, 2008) 25 FW  ENG Sone Aluko (at Aberdeen, until January 14, 2008) -- DF  ENG Samuel Oji (at Leyton Orient) Template:Fs blank column

Notable former players

Managers

Name	Period
Committee	1892 - 1910
Bob McRoberts	1910 - 1915
Frank Richards	1915 - 1923
Billy Beer	1923 - 1927
Bill Harvey	1927 - 1928
Leslie Knighton	1928 - 1933
George Liddell	1933 - 1939
Bill Camkin	1939 - 1944
Harry Storer	1945 - 1948
Bob Brocklebank	1949 - 1954
Arthur Turner	1954 - 1958
Pat Beasley	1958 - 1960
Gil Merrick	1960 - 1964
Joe Mallett	1964 - 1965
Stan Cullis	1965 - 1970
Freddie Goodwin	1970 - 1975
Willie Bell	1975 - 1977
Sir Alf Ramsey	1977 - 1978
Jim Smith	1978 - 1982
Ron Saunders	1982 - 1986
John Bond	1986 - 1987
Garry Pendrey	1987 - 1989
Dave Mackay	1989 - 1991
Lou Macari	1991 - 1991
Terry Cooper	1991 - 1993
Barry Fry	1993 - 1996
Trevor Francis	1996 - 2001
Steve Bruce	2001 - Present

See also

• City of Birmingham Stadium

References

1. "BIRMINGHAM CITY RECORDS". Birmingham City F.C. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
2. ^ "Club History". Birmingham City official website. Retrieved 2007-02-22.
3. Aston Villa were based in the borough of Aston Manor, which didn't become part of the City of Birmingham until 1911.
4. Matthews, Tony (1995). Birmingham City: A Complete Record. Breedon Books. pp. p.12. ISBN 1-85983-010-2. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
5. "Birmingham City Football Club history". BBC. Retrieved 2007-02-22.
6. "Yeung takes stake in Birmingham". BBC. July 16, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-23. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. ^ "League probes Blues' postponement". BBC. January 122007. Retrieved 2007-03-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. Up until 1992, the top division of English football was the Football League First Division; since then, it has been the FA Premier League. At the same time, the Second Division was renamed the First Division, and the Third Division was renamed the Second Division.
9. ^ Birmingham city records
10. This refers to caps awarded while the player is at Birmingham City.
11. "Player Profiles". Birmingham City F.C. August 31, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
12. "Palacios joins Blues". 2007-08-31. Retrieved 2007-08-31.

External links

• Official Club site
• Fanzine site and Official Home of the Birmingham City Disabled Supporters Society
• AIM: BMC

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• Football (soccer) clubs established in 1875
• English football clubs
• Birmingham City F.C.
• Sport in the West Midlands
• FA Premier League clubs
• Publicly traded sports companies