St Andrew's, known for sponsorship reasons as St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park, is an association football stadium in the Bordesley district of Birmingham, England. It has been the home ground of Birmingham City Football Club for more than a century. From 2018 to 2021, it was known as St Andrew's Trillion Trophy Stadium.[6]
Constructed and opened in 1906 to replace the Muntz Street ground, which had become too small to meet the club's needs, the original St Andrew's could hold an estimated 75,000 spectators, housed in one grandstand and a large uncovered terrace. Between 1906 and 1939 it was reported that a lot of construction work took place inside the ground and the official capacity was set at 68,000 at the start of the 1938-39 season. The attendance record, variously recorded as 66,844 or 67,341,[lower-alpha 1] was set at a 1939 FA Cup tie against Everton. During the Second World War, St Andrew's suffered bomb damage and the grandstand, housing a temporary fire station, burned down in an accidental fire.[7] In the 1950s, the club replaced the stand and installed floodlights, and later erected a second small stand and roofed over the open terraces, but there were few further changes.
The ground became dilapidated: a boy was killed when a wall collapsed during rioting in the 1980s.[8] When new owners took the club out of administration in 1993, they began a six-year redevelopment programme during which the ground was converted to an all-seater stadium to comply with the Taylor Report into safety at sports grounds, and all areas apart from the Main Stand were completely rebuilt. The seating capacity of the modern stadium is 29,409. It has function rooms suitable for business or social events and a club store selling Birmingham City merchandise. A 2004 proposal that the club should sell the ground and move into a multi-purpose City of Birmingham Stadium came to nothing. In 2013, the ground was listed as an asset of community value under the Localism Act 2011.
St Andrew's has been the venue for England international football matches at all levels below the senior national team, and for semifinal matches in the FA Cup and finals of lesser competitions. It was also used as Coventry City's home ground for the 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons.[9] It has played host to events in other sports, including rugby union and professional boxing, and more recently has staged music concerts.
Small Heath Alliance–the original name of Birmingham City Football Club–played their first home games on waste ground off Arthur Street, in the Bordesley Green district of Birmingham, very near the site where St Andrew's would be built.[lower-alpha 2] In 1876, they made a temporary move to a fenced-off field in Ladypool Road, Sparkbrook, with an estimated capacity of 3,000 spectators; because the field was enclosed, admission could be charged. Interest in the team grew, and a year later they moved again, this time to a rented field in Small Heath, situated on the eastern edge of Birmingham's built-up area, just north of the main road to Coventry.[11][lower-alpha 2] This ground, which became known as Muntz Street, had four sides of open terracing, a small covered wooden stand, and a changing-room for the players. When first opened it could hold approximately 10,000 spectators.[11][12] Over the years the height of the terracing was raised, which increased the capacity to around 30,000, but this became insufficient to cope with the demand. The attendance at a match in 1905 against local rivals Aston Villa was officially recorded as 28,000 spectators,[13] but several thousand more climbed walls or forced turnstiles to gain entry.[12][14] The landlords refused to sell the freehold of the ground, nor would they permit major extensions to be made. As the board of directors estimated that staying at Muntz Street was costing the club £2,000 a year (£271,000 at today's prices),[15] they began the search for an alternative site.[11][14]
Construction
1890 map shows wet, sloping industrial site chosen for new ground.
Director Harry Morris identified a site for a new ground in Bordesley, some three-quartersof a mile(1km) from Muntz Street towards the city centre. Covering an area of 7.5 acres (3ha), bounded by Cattell Road, Coventry Road, Tilton Road, Garrison Lane and the railway, and near St Andrew's church, the site was where a brickworks had once operated. Though Morris described the land itself as "a wilderness of stagnant water and muddy slopes",[12] the Sporting Mail considered it "very favourably situated for obtaining easy communication with the city and many of the suburbs, and will be served by an excellent service of electric cars [trams], while the provision of a railway station close at hand is also considered as within the bounds of possibility."[16]
The club took the land on a 21-year lease, and entrusted the role of surveyor and engineer to a local carpenter, Harry Pumfrey, who despite a lack of qualifications produced plans "which would have done credit to the most expensive professional architect".[14] Club director Thomas Turley, a builder, acted as clerk of works, and it is estimated the club saved more than £2,000 in professional fees by keeping the work in-house.[14] Tradition has it that gypsies, evicted from the site before work could begin, laid a 100-yearcurse on the club;[17] although gypsies are known to have camped nearby, there is no contemporary evidence for their eviction by the club, and construction began in February 1906.[18][19]
1913 map shows layout of completed St Andrew's Ground.
Artesian springs, which kept the land flooded, had to be drained and blocked off with tons of rubble before soil could be laid on top.[12] To create height for the terracing on the Coventry Road side of the ground, the club offered the site as a tip: local people paid a total of £800 (£108,700 today)[15]for dumping an estimated 100,000 loads of rubbish.[20] This embankment was known from the beginning as the Spion Kop, stood 110 terraces high at its highest point, and had a reported capacity of 48,000 spectators, each paying 6d (£3.4 today).[15] The Grandstand, on the Garrison Lane side of the ground, was 123 yards (112m) in length. It held 6,000 seats divided among six sections, priced from 1sto2s (£6.80 to £13.60 today),[15] and all accesses were lit by electricity. In front of the stand was space for 5,000 to stand under cover.[12][19] Beneath the stand were refreshment rooms, changing rooms, a training area with plunge bath, a billiard room donated by brewery magnate Sir John Holder, and the club's boardroom and offices, which hitherto had been maintained in premises in Birmingham city centre.[11][12] Behind the goal at the railway end of the ground was space for a further 4,000 standing spectators, and access to the ground was gained via turnstiles on three sides of the ground.[21] Total capacity was estimated at 75,000, and construction cost at £10,000 (£1,360,000 today).[15][19] The playing surface, at 115 by 75 yards (105m ×69m), was one of the largest in the country, had a four-yard(3.7m) grassed border, and was surrounded by a cinder running track.[12]
Early years
St Andrew's was officially opened by Sir John Holder on 26 December 1906, when Birmingham played Middlesbrough in a First Division fixture. There had been heavy snowfall overnight, and dozens of volunteers, including members of the club's board, worked all morning to clear the pitch. The game finally kicked off an hour late, finishing goalless in front of 32,000 spectators.[7][22] The Birmingham Daily Post editorial next day suggested that "the fact that so many spectators attended under such adverse conditions augurs well for the step that the directors have taken", and that the directors were "to be congratulated in having provided their supporters with a ground second to none in the country".[22]
The Football Association chose St Andrew's to host the 1907 FA Cup semifinal between The Wednesday and Woolwich Arsenal; Wednesday won 3–1, and went on to win the tournament. This was the first FA Cup tie to be played at the ground, as Birmingham had lost their opening match away from home. Three more semifinals took place at St Andrew's before the Second World War, in 1911, 1924 and 1934.[23] The club bought the freehold of the ground in 1921 for a price believed to be less than £7,000 (£951,000 today).[15][24] In the 1930s, roofs were erected over the Kop and Railway End terraces,[7] and in February 1939, the ground attendance record of 66,844 or 67,341, was set at the fifth-round FA Cup tie against Everton.[lower-alpha 1]
Wartime
During the First World War, the club supported the war effort by allowing the ground to be used as a rifle range for military training.[25] On the outbreak of the Second World War, all outdoor sport was banned by the Government until safety implications could be assessed. When football resumed a few weeks later, Birmingham's Chief Constable ordered the ground's closure because of its proximity to air-raid targets such as the BSA munitions factories.[26][27] The matter was first raised in Parliament in November 1939, but the Home Secretary felt unable to intervene.[28] By March 1940, when St Andrew's had for some time been the only football ground in England still closed, the Chief Constable bowed to public pressure, and a crowd of 13,241 witnessed Birmingham's first home game in more than six months.[26][27][29]
In 1941, St Andrew's suffered 20 direct hits from Luftwaffe bombing, which destroyed the roof of the Kop, badly damaged the Railway End, and forced the team to play elsewhere.[26] It was therefore a surprising choice of venue for a wartime international match between England and Wales; on safety grounds, spectators were required to purchase tickets in advance, and numbers were limited to 25,000.[30][31] Three months later, the Main Stand, which was being used as a temporary National Fire Service station, burned down, destroying the club's records and equipment–"not so much as a lead pencil was saved from the wreckage"[32]–when a fireman mistook a bucket of petrol for water when intending to damp down a brazier.[7][21] The team returned to the ground in 1943.[21]
Improvements
The replacement Main Stand, built in the early 1950s, used a propped cantilever roof design, which meant fewer pillars to block spectators' view of the pitch. Floodlights were installed, and officially switched on for a friendly match against Borussia Dortmund in October 1956.[23] By the early 1960s, a stand had been built at the Railway End to the same design as the Main Stand, a new roof erected over the Kop, and the Tilton Road end covered for the first time.[23] A scoreboard and clock were installed at the City end of the ground in memory of Birmingham and England player Jeff Hall, who died of polio during the 1958–59 season.[33] In the 1970s, the Asda chain proposed to share the cost of a new stand as part of a supermarket development on land behind the Kop made vacant by slum clearance; in the face of opposition from commercial rivals, the proposal fell through.[23]
Modernisation
The last home game of the 1984–85 promotion season, against Leeds United, was marred by rioting, culminating in the death of a 15-year-old boy, Ian Hambridge, when a wall collapsed on him; a memorial plaque was eventually placed near the spot.[34] The riot was on the same day as the Bradford City stadium fire, and the events at St Andrew's were included in the remit of the Popplewell inquiry into safety at sports grounds.[8] In response to this and the later Taylor Report, the capacity of St Andrew's was cut to 26,000, but it was accepted that the stadium had to be brought up to modern standards.[35] Club chairman David Gold recalled his first visit in March 1993:
It was a shock. I had a picture in my mind of what I was expecting, but it was in such a state of disrepair that it was hard to comprehend... Only two-thirds of the bulbs on the floodlights were working and the Football League had threatened action if we didn't do something to improve the lights. It was raining. It was a dour game. It was dark. It was dull. There were people standing in the rain looking extremely uncomfortable and unhappy. This First Division club was penniless and near to extinction. There were corrugated-iron fences round the ground and it looked as though it hadn't seen a lick of paint since Birmingham reached the FA Cup Final in 1956.[36]
The Railway Stand and Main Stand (right) in May 1994, viewed across the site of the demolished Kop.
Though relegation to the Third Division meant the club was no longer bound by the Taylor Report's 1994 deadline for conversion to all-seater,[37] new owner David Sullivan continued the £4.5million development as planned.[23] After the last home game of the 1993–94 season, the Kop and Tilton Road terraces were demolished, helped by fans who took home a significant proportion as souvenirs,[35] the land was cleared–the rubbish tip beneath the Kop which had earned the club £800 in 1906 (£43,300 at 1994 prices)[15] cost £250,000 to decontaminate[38]–and by the start of the new season, 7,000 seats in the Tilton Road Stand were ready for use.[23] On completion of the Kop Stand, the stadium was formally re-opened in November 1994 by Baroness Trumpington, representing the Department of National Heritage, who unveiled a commemorative plaque and presented a cheque for £2.5million on behalf of the Football Trust; the ceremony was followed by a friendly match against Aston Villa, attended by a crowd of 20,000.[23] Planning permission for an all-seater Railway Stand was granted in March 1995,[39] but work was delayed by a dispute over land owned by Railtrack and the stand opened only in 1999.[40]
The 21st century
In 2004 a proposal was put forward to build a "sports village" comprising a new 55,000 stadium for the club, to be known as the City of Birmingham Stadium, other sports and leisure facilities, and a super casino. The project would be jointly financed by Birmingham City Council, Birmingham City F.C. (via the proceeds of the sale of St Andrew's) and the casino group Las Vegas Sands. The feasibility of the plan depended on the government issuing a licence for a super casino as permitted under the Gambling Act 2005, and Birmingham being chosen as the venue,[41] but this did not happen. The club have planning permission to redevelop the Main Stand,[42] and a derelict building behind the stand has been demolished,[43] but club and council continued for a time to seek alternative sources of funding for the City of Birmingham Stadium project.[44]
In 2013, the Birmingham City Supporters' Trust's application for listing St Andrew's as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) under the Localism Act 2011 was approved by Birmingham City Council.[45] The legislation defines an ACV as a building or other land whose main use "furthers the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community" and where it is realistic to believe it could do so in the future.[46] It requires any proposed sale to be notified to the council, and provides for a six-month moratorium on that sale to allow the Trust and other community groups to submit their own bid.[45]
For sponsorship reasons, the stadium was officially renamed the St. Andrew's Trillion Trophy Stadium in June 2018.[6] During the 2018–19 season, in a further move to reduce the club's losses in light of breaches of the EFL's Profitability and Sustainability Regulations, the stadium was sold for £22.8million to Birmingham City Stadium Ltd, a new company wholly owned by the football club's parent, Birmingham Sports Holdings, and would be leased back to the club for £1.25million per year for 25 years.[2]
Having failed to reach an agreement with the club's landlords, Wasps RFC, to continue playing at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry City F.C. played their matches at St Andrew's in 2019–20 and 2020–21.[9]
An annual survey conducted during the 2020–21 season revealed the need for repairs to remedy the effects of water ingress on both Kop and Tilton Road Stands. Although the upper tiers were expected to be usable by the first home match of the 2021–22 season, resulting in a temporary reduction of total capacity to 19,000, the deadline for full completion was not until May 2022.[47] However, the upper Tilton did not reopen until a month into the season, the upper Kop took a further six weeks,[48] and May 2022 ended with the club still awaiting full results of site investigations.[49] Work began during the 2022–23 season to demolish and rebuild the lower tiers, which had remained closed because of what was eventually revealed to be asbestos-related damage.[50][51] Installation of rail seats to permit safe standing in the lower tier of the Tilton was due to complete in September 2023, and the Kop was expected to fully re-open two months later.[51] Work stopped after main contractors Buckingham Group filed for administration in mid-August,[52] and resumed in mid-September under the management of Mace Consult, with completion expected by the end of November.[53] Both lower tiers were open for the last match of November, although the western end of the Kop was still incomplete.[54]
In January 2024, the club's owners, Shelby Companies, renamed the stadium St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park as part of what it described as "the largest commercial agreement in the club's history". According to Tom Wagner, chairman of both club and Shelby's parent company Knighthead, it was "step one in our plan to create a world-renowned 'Sports Quarter' in Birmingham. We invested in Blues because of the opportunity to not only transform a football club but to also be a catalyst for change in the city itself."[55]
Structure and facilities
The stadium has four stands. The Main Stand (renamed the Garrison Lane Stand from 2010 to 2012[56]), a free-standing structure on the north side of the playing area, was completed in 1954 and has seating for fewer than 5,000 spectators.[57] The upper tier contains the media area and an area of corporate seats as well as standard seating.[58] The lower tier, known as the Paddocks, consists of a few rows of seats placed on the uncovered terraced area in front of the stand; the view from this area can be obstructed by the central tunnel and the dugouts.[59] A row of executive boxes was added at the back of the Paddocks in the 1970s.[60] The family area is divided between the eastern end of the Main Stand and the Paddock beneath.[61] The club planned £1.3million worth of restructuring and refurbishment work on the stand, which contained hospitality areas and offices, during the 2009 closed season,[38][62] and seating was replaced in 2010.[63] The broadcasting gantry is situated in the roof of this stand.[64]
Main Stand showing Jeff Hall memorial clock, September 2008
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Jeff Hall's death, the club commissioned a memorial clock to replace the original which did not survive the 1990s renovations. Placed centrally above the Main Stand, it was unveiled in September 2008 by Hall's teammates Alex Govan and Gil Merrick.[65] However, adverse reaction to the clock's size and position provoked the club into ordering a larger replacement[66] to be incorporated in a proposed big screen.[67]
The all-seater Railway Stand was built in the 1990s.
The Railway Stand, on the west side of the stadium nearest to Birmingham city centre, is also free-standing. It was opened in 1999 and holds some 8,000 spectators in two tiers;[57] the upper tier, a small area known as the Olympic Gallery, overhangs the lower, at the back of which is a row of executive boxes.[68] From the 2009–10 season, the Railway Stand was renamed the Gil Merrick Stand, in honour of the club's appearance record-holder and former manager.[69] Visiting supporters are housed in the lower Railway Stand, segregated from home fans by netting over the seats.[70]
Kop Stand seen from the upper section of the Tilton Road Stand
The Kop Stand and the Tilton Road Stand, opened in 1994, form a continuous L-shaped single-tier stand, with seating capacity for nearly 17,000 spectators, round the remaining half of the pitch. A walkway separates back and front sections.[57][71] The Kop seating includes the directors' box and a row of executive boxes, within the stand are a number of function rooms and hospitality areas,[23][71] and there are electronic perimeter advertising boards in front. The stadium has floodlight pylons only on the north side; the south side is lit by a row of lights along the front of the Kop roof.[72] The Tilton Road Stand has 9,000 seats,[57] and is the only one without hospitality boxes.[68]
The various function rooms and corporate boxes are available for hire for business or social events, and the stadium is licensed as a venue for civil weddings.[73] There are accessible entrances, wheelchair areas and accessible toilets in all parts of the stadium, and commentary headsets for visually impaired spectators are available.[74]
The pitch measures 100 by 66 metres (109yd ×72yd).[4] It was relaid three times in 2007. The first attempt, made because the surface had deteriorated to a dangerous condition, was unsuccessful because of freak rainfall which resulted in the postponement of the next match–the first time such an event had happened in senior English football. The work had to be repeated,[75][76] and then done for a third time in the closed season.[77] The postponement of an FA Cup-tie in January 2009 highlighted the lack of under-soil heating,[78] which was installed in June.[79] In 2017 the surface was converted to use the SISGrass hybrid grass reinforced turf system.[5]
Other uses
Teams representing England have played international matches at St Andrew's, though not at senior level. In 1957, England B defeated Scotland B under floodlights in front of nearly 40,000 spectators.[80] England's junior sides have played there on several occasions, at under-23,[81] under-21–the 4–0 defeat to Spain in 2001 was the England under-21 team's worst home defeat[82]–and youth levels.[23] Before competitive football resumed after the First World War, a Scottish Football League XI beat their English counterparts, including Birmingham players Frank Womack and Billy Morgan, 3–1 at St Andrew's.[83]
The ground has also been used for other sports. Small Heath Harriers athletic club, whose headquarters had been at the Muntz Street ground, trained at St Andrew's until the 1920s.[86] The 1960 South African touring rugby union team beat a Midland Counties XV by 16 points to 5 on a muddy St Andrew's pitch in front of a 17,000 crowd.[87] In 1949, Dick Turpin beat Albert Finch on points to retain his British and Empiremiddleweight boxing title;[88] Turpin's brothers Jack and future world champion Randolph fought on the undercard.[89] In 1965, Henry Cooper defeated Johnny Prescott at St Andrew's to retain his British and Empire heavyweight title;[90] the fight took place two days after originally scheduled, having been rained off at the last minute, which prompted debate as to the feasibility of outdoor boxing promotions in light of the uncertain British weather.[91]
Average and peak league attendances at St Andrew's
The record attendance at St Andrew's was set at the fifth-round FA Cup tie against Everton on 11 February 1939; the actual figure is variously reported as 66,844 or 67,341.[lower-alpha 1] The highest attendance recorded for a league match is 60,250, against Aston Villa in the First Division on 23 November 1935.[98] The highest average attendance over a league season, 38,821, was set during the 1948–49 First Division season, and the lowest, 6,289, was recorded in the Second Division in 1988–89.[98] Since the stadium was converted to all-seater, the record attendance is 29,588, set against Arsenal in the Premier League on 22 November 2003.[100]
St Andrew's was the venue for the first use of a penalty shootout to determine the winner of an FA Cup match. For five seasons, between 1970 and 1974, the losing FA Cup semifinalists were obliged to play off for third and fourth place; Birmingham City finished third in the 1971–72 FA Cup by beating Stoke City 4–3 on penalties following a goalless 90 minutes.[101][102]
1 2 3 Some sources give the record attendance as 66,844: these include the Records page of Birmingham City F.C.'s website[4] and Rothman's Football Yearbook.[96] Others, including the History page of Birmingham City F.C.'s website,[97] Matthews' Encyclopedia,[98] and The Times newspaper from the Monday following the match,[99] say 67,341.
1 2 At the very bottom centre of the 1883 map linked here, Muntz Street leaves the Coventry Road heading north-east, crossed by Wright Street. Gessey's field is on the south-eastern side of Muntz St, adjacent to the north-eastern side of the short part of Wright St, and with open country to the other two sides. At the centre left of the map, above the words "Small Heath", and bounded by Coventry Road, Cattell Road, Kelynge Street (since renamed Tilton Road), Garrison Lane and the railway, is the site of the future St Andrew's stadium. Lower down, parallel to and very near the left edge of the map, is Arthur Street, where Small Heath Alliance first played their matches.[10]
Sources
Adams, Duncan (2007). A fan's guide to football grounds: England and Wales. Hersham: Ian Allan. ISBN978-0-7110-3268-2.
Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Its first team plays in EFL League One, the third tier of English football, following relegation in 2024.
The Hawthorns is an all-seater football stadium in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, with a capacity of 26,688. It has been the home of Championship club West Bromwich Albion since 1900, when it became the sixth ground to be used by the club. The Hawthorns was the first Football League ground to be built in the 20th century, opening in September 1900 after construction work took only 4 months. The official record attendance at The Hawthorns stands at 64,815, set in 1937.
Small Heath is an inner-city area in south-east Birmingham, West Midlands, England situated on and around the Coventry Road about 2 miles (3 km) from the city centre.
In English football, the Second City derby or Birmingham derby is the local derby between the two major clubs in the city of Birmingham – Aston Villa and Birmingham City, first contested in 1879. Villa play at Villa Park while Birmingham play at St Andrew's, the two grounds separated by roughly 2.4 miles (3.9 km). It is known as the Second City Derby based on Birmingham being referred to as the second city of the United Kingdom. The two clubs are generally regarded as each other's most fierce rivals. In addition both sides have affiliated women's sides, Aston Villa W.F.C. and Birmingham City W.F.C.
Gilbert Harold Merrick was an English footballer and football manager. Considered one of the best goalkeepers in the UK during the mid-1950s, Merrick was one in a long line of great Birmingham City keepers which included the likes of Johnny Schofield and Harry Hibbs. Merrick spent his entire career at Birmingham City, playing more than 700 times between 1939 and 1960. He made 170 appearances during the Second World War and 485 in the Football League following the end of the war. He won 23 caps for the England national team, and played in the 1954 World Cup. After retirement as a player, he managed the club for four years.
Birmingham City Football Club, an English association football club based in Birmingham, was founded as Small Heath Alliance in September 1875, and from 1877 played home games at Muntz Street. It adopted professionalism in 1885, and three years later, as Small Heath F.C., became a limited company with a board of directors, the first football club so to do. The team played in the Football Alliance from the 1889–90 season, and in 1892, along with the other Alliance teams, were invited to join the newly formed Second Division of the Football League. Although they finished as champions, they failed to win promotion via the test match system; the following season promotion to the First Division was secured after a second-place finish and test match victory over Darwen. The club adopted the name Birmingham Football Club in 1905, and the following year moved into a new home, St Andrew's Ground. Matters on the field failed to live up to their surroundings. Birmingham were relegated in 1908, obliged to apply for re-election two years later, and remained in the Second Division until after the First World War.
Muntz Street is the popular name of a former association football stadium situated in the Small Heath district of Birmingham, England, taken from the street on which it stood. During its lifetime the ground was known as Coventry Road; the name "Muntz Street" is a more recent adoption. It was the ground at which the teams of Birmingham City F.C. – under the club's former names of Small Heath Alliance, Small Heath and Birmingham – played their home games for nearly 30 years. It also served as the headquarters of the Small Heath Athletic Club.
Birmingham City F.C. Development Squad and Academy are the reserve team and the youth development system of Birmingham City Football Club. The reserve team, established in 1879, played in the Premier Reserve League South in the 2009–10 season, but did not enter a league again until the 2012–13 season, when it was placed in the northern division of the newly formed Professional Development League 2, a predominantly under-21 league. The academy, established in its current form in 1999, trains boys in age groups from under 9s through to under 18s.
The 2007–08 season was Birmingham City Football Club's 105th season in the English football league system since their admission to the Football League in 1892, their fifth season in the Premier League, and their 55th season in the top tier of English football. Birmingham finished 19th in the 20-team league, so were relegated back to the Championship after just one season at the higher level.
The 1998–99 season was Birmingham City Football Club's 96th in the Football League. They finished in fourth place in the Football League First Division, qualifying for the promotion play-offs, in which they were eliminated in the semi-final by Watford in a penalty shootout. Birmingham lost to Leicester City in the third round of the FA Cup and to Wimbledon in the third round of the Football League Cup.
The 1993–94 Football League season was Birmingham City Football Club's 91st in the Football League. They finished in 22nd position in the 24-team Division One, so were relegated to the third tier for 1994–95. They entered the 1993–94 FA Cup at the third-round stage, and lost their opening match to non-League club Kidderminster Harriers, and entered the League Cup in the first round, losing in the second to fellow Birmingham-based club Aston Villa. They were eliminated in the preliminary group of the Anglo-Italian Cup.
The 1907–08 English football season was Birmingham Football Club's 16th in the Football League and their 8th in the First Division. They were in the relegation positions by mid-October, and only once, briefly, rose above them, finishing bottom of the 20-team league, four points adrift of safety, and were relegated to the Second Division for 1908–09. They also took part in the 1907–08 FA Cup, entering at the first round proper and losing in that round to West Bromwich Albion after a replay.
The 1905–06 Football League season was Birmingham Football Club's 14th in the Football League, their 6th in the First Division, and their first season under the Birmingham name, having previously played as Small Heath. They finished in seventh place in the 20-team league. They also took part in the 1905–06 FA Cup, entering at the first round proper and losing to Newcastle United in the fourth round (quarter-final) after a replay.
The 1904–05 Football League season was Small Heath Football Club's 13th in the Football League and their 5th in the First Division. In third position in the 18-team league, only one point behind the leaders, with eight matches remaining, they gained only four points from the sixteen available, and finished seventh. They also took part in the 1904–05 FA Cup, entering at the first round proper and losing to Portsmouth in that round. In locally organised competition, they won the Birmingham Senior Cup for the first time, defeating West Bromwich Albion by seven goals to two. After this season, the club entered a primarily reserve team for this competition, which had previously not been permitted.
The 1889–90 season was the ninth season of competitive association football played by Small Heath F.C., an English football club based in the Small Heath district of Birmingham. They competed in the inaugural season of the Football Alliance. They finished in tenth position in the twelve-team league with six wins, five draws and eleven defeats, which gave them seventeen points. The team scored 44 goals in Alliance competition but conceded 67.
Businessman Clifford Coombs took over as Birmingham chairman in 1965, and appointed Stan Cullis as manager. Cullis's attractive football took them to cup semi-finals, but league football needed a different approach. Successor Freddie Goodwin produced a team playing skilful, aggressive football that won promotion to the First Division as well as reaching an FA Cup semi-final. Two years later, the club raised money by selling Bob Latchford to Everton for a British record fee of £350,000, but without his goals the team struggled. In 1979, with relegation a certainty, the club sold Trevor Francis to Nottingham Forest, making him the first British player transferred for a fee of £1 million; Francis had scored 133 goals in 329 appearances over his nine years at Birmingham. Jim Smith took Birmingham back to the top tier, but a poor start to the 1981–82 season saw him replaced by Ron Saunders of league champions Aston Villa. The team still lacked goals, and were relegated in 1984. The last home game of the 1984–85 promotion season was marred by rioting and the death of a boy when a wall collapsed; the events formed part of the remit of the Popplewell inquiry into safety at sports grounds. Saunders quit after FA Cup defeat to non-League team Altrincham, staff were laid off, the training ground was sold, and by 1989 Birmingham were in the Third Division for the first time in their history.
The 2024–25 season is Birmingham City Football Club's 122nd season in the English football league system and first season in the third-tier EFL League One since 1994–95. They finished in 22nd place in the 2023–24 EFL Championship, and were relegated after 13 years at that level. As with all third- and fourth-tier League clubs, the first team will compete in the FA Cup, the EFL Cup and the EFL Trophy.
1 2 Webster, Philip (25 July 1985). "Ban on visiting fans urged in judge's football safety report". The Times. London. Retrieved 10 October 2007. The Birmingham riot in which more than 500 were injured and in which a boy of 15 died when a wall collapsed 'more resembled the battle of Agincourt than a football match.'
↑ Map from New Ordnance Atlas of the British Isles, with large-scale plans of towns... by G.W. Bacon. London: George W. Bacon. 1883., hosted at "Old Town Plan of Birmingham 1883". Mapseeker Historical Maps Online. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011.
↑ Marsden, Bob (March 1987). A.B.C. of Small Heath and Bordesley Green Past and Present. Small Heath Local History Society. p.44. St. Andrew's [Church] was erected in 1846, the fifth and last to be built by the Church Building Society. It was an unsuitable site, and for many years after its building, the only dwellings nearby were huts where brickworkers lived, a few cottages, and an occasional gipsy camp.
1 2 3 "Christmas Football: St. Andrew's Ground opened". Birmingham Daily Post. 27 December 1906. p.6.
↑ Rippon (2005), p.164The choice of Birmingham's bomb-damaged ground for the game against Wales later the same month [October 1941] was surprising, not just because St Andrew's had been considered too dangerous even for run-of-the-mill league games in the early wartime seasons, but also because the Birmingham club was not competing in any major competitions in 1941–2. The attendance was restricted to an all-ticket crowd of 25,000.
↑ "Scotland B Internationals". Scottish Football Association. Archived from the original on 24 December 2007. "England B XI score in first minute". The Times. 7 February 1957. p.12.
↑ "Weighty problem for Counties". The Times. 29 December 1960. p.10. The idea of playing this match on the Birmingham City football ground was obviously popular and drew a crowd of over 17,000. From the Rugby point of view it was not so good, as the ground was a sea of mud to start with and this meant that anything like fast and open Rugby was out of the question.
↑ "Cooper's bout off". The Times. 16 June 1965. p.4. No one huddled round the ringside from the rain could remember any other occasion on which a British championship of this importance had been cancelled by rain, but there was a general feeling that tomorrow may be the last attempt to stage a major outdoor promotion in this country. The British summer is too unpredictable. "Prescott retires after 10 spoiling rounds". The Times. 18 June 1965. p.5.
↑ "The Grand turmoil". Sunday Mercury. Birmingham. 21 August 1966. p.18.
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