Birmingham City

Birmingham City Football Club is an English football club based in Birmingham. They currently feature in the English Football League Championship after being relegated from the Premiership at the end of the 2007-2008 season.

Birmingham City were formed in 1975 as Small Heath Alliance. In 1888 they were rechristened as Small Heath and in 1905 adopted the name Birmingham FC. It was only in 1943 that they embraced the name Birmingham City FC n 1943 for good.

Birmingham City turned professional in 1885 and in 1888 became the first football club to become a limited company with a board of directors. In 1892 they were invited to join the Football League Second Division and were promoted to the First Division soon.

In 1931 under manager Leslie Knighton Birmingham City reached the FA Cup for the first time in their history but failed to make much breakthrough in the league. They reached the FA Cup final again in 1954 but lost once more.

Birmingham City became the first English club to participate in an European competition when they played in the inaugural Inter-Cities Fairs Cup on May 15,1956 and actually reached the semi-final of the competition.

Birmingham thereafter continued to move in and out of the First Division and faced severe financial problems in the late 1980s and mid 1990s. But at the turn of the century things started to improve and they reached the 2001 League Cup final. They played in the English top flight (now the Premiership) in the 2002-2003 for the first time in 16 years but struggled and at the end of the 2007-2008 season were relegated from the English top flight.

Birmingham City play their home matches at St. Andrew’s which can host a crowd of 30,009. They beat the nickname the Blues.

Birmingham City foster huge rivals with Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion.