Birmingham City are an English football club who typically play in the EFL Championship. Also known as Blues, they play their home games at St. Andrew's Stadium. Birmingham were notably the first English team to participate in European competition and also the first football club in the world to become a limited company.
📜 Birmingham City History
Birmingham City were founded in 1875, known at the time as Small Heath Alliance, and later simply as Small Heath FC. Like many clubs at the time, the football team was founded by local cricket players who wanted to continue playing sport during the winter months.
Blues were invited to compete in the Football League's new Second Division in 1892, and quickly gained promotion into the top flight. In 1905, they became Birmingham Football Club and they moved into St. Andrew's – which at the time had a capacity of 75,000 – the year after; the name Birmingham City would be adopted in 1943.
On 15 May 1956, Birmingham City became the first English team to play in European competition when they debuted in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. The competition, a pre-cursor to the UEFA Europa League, was organised to promote trade fairs between cities rather than individual football clubs. Aston Villa turned down the chance to partner up with their rivals for a combined team representing the city of Birmingham, so the team was entirely comprised of Blues players.
Birmingham would also become the first English team to reach a European final as they reached the Fairs Cup final in 1960 and 1961, but on both occasions they were defeated by Barcelona and Roma, respectively.
The club would taste silverware soon after when they won the League Cup in 1963, and they famously upset Arsenal to win that trophy again in 2011.
