Birmingham City F.C. in European football

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Birmingham City is an English professional football club based in Birmingham. The club's involvement in European competition dates back to the 1950s.

Invitations to enter the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a football tournament set up to promote industrial trade fairs, were extended to the city hosting the trade fair rather than to clubs. Some cities entered a select team including players from more than one club, but Aston Villa, the other major club based in the city of Birmingham, rejected the opportunity to field a combined team.[1] Thus Birmingham City became the first English club side to play in European competition when they played their first match in the 1955–58 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup on 15 May 1956. They were also the first English club side to reach a European final, the 1960 Fairs Cup final, in which they met Barcelona. The home leg, a goalless draw, was played on 29 March 1960 and the away leg, which Barcelona won 4–1, some six weeks later.[upper-alpha 1] In the semifinal of the 1961 Fairs Cup Birmingham beat Internazionale home and away; no other English club beat them in a competitive match in the San Siro until Arsenal did so in the Champions League over 40 years later.[3]

Victory in the 2011 Football League Cup Final earned Birmingham qualification for the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League, which they entered at the play-off round.[4] A 3–0 aggregate victory over C.D. Nacional of Portugal[5] qualified Birmingham for the group stage, in which they were drawn alongside last season's finalists, S.C. Braga of Portugal, Slovenian champions NK Maribor, and fourth-placed Belgian team Club Brugge. They finished third in group H, one point behind Club Brugge and Braga, so failed to qualify for the knockout rounds.[6]

Record by season

Birmingham City's scores are given first in all scorelines.
Season Competition Round Opponent Home leg Away leg Play-
off		 Notes Refs
Country Club
1955–58 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup GS  Italy Internazionale 2–1 0–0 [upper-alpha 2] [8]
GS  Yugoslavia Zagreb XI 3–0 1–0 [8]
SF 23x15px Spain Barcelona 4–3 0–1 1–2 [upper-alpha 3] [8]
1958–60 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1R  Germany Cologne XI 2–0 2–2 [upper-alpha 4] [10]
2R  Yugoslavia Zagreb XI 1–0 3–3 [10]
SF  Belgium R. Union Saint-Gilloise 4–2 4–2 [10]
F 23x15px Spain Barcelona 0–0 1–4 [10]
1960–61 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1R  Hungary Újpesti Dózsa 3–2 2–1 [upper-alpha 4] [11]
2R  Denmark KB 5–0 4–4 [11]
SF  Italy Internazionale 2–1 2–1 [11]
F  Italy A.S. Roma 2–2 0–2 [11]
1961–62 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 2R 23x15px Spain RCD Espanyol 1–0 2–5 [upper-alpha 4] [12]
2011–12 UEFA Europa League PO  Portugal C.D. Nacional 3–0 0–0 [5]
GS  Portugal S.C. Braga 1–3 0–1 [6]
GS  Slovenia NK Maribor 1–0 2–1 [6]
GS  Belgium Club Brugge 2–2 2–1 [6]
Key
  • PO = play-off round
  • GS = group stage
  • 1R = first round
  • 2R = second round
  • SF = semifinal
  • F = final

European attendance records

  • Highest home attendance: 40,524, against Barcelona, 1960 Fairs Cup final first leg, 29 March 1960.[13]
  • Lowest home attendance: 14,152, against R. Union Saint-Gilloise, 1958–60 Fairs Cup semifinal second leg, 3 October 1979.[13]
  • Highest away attendance: 75,000, against Barcelona, 1958–60 Fairs Cup final second leg, 4 May 1960.[13]
  • Lowest away attendance: 2,500, against KB, 1960–61 Fairs Cup second round first leg, 23 November 1960.[13]

Notes

  1. ↑ The London XI, including players from several London clubs, were the first English team to play in European competition when they played their first match in the inaugural Fairs Cup in 1955, and the first English team to reach a final, in the same campaign.[2]
  2. ↑ Invitations to enter the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a football tournament set up to promote industrial trade fairs, were extended to the city hosting the trade fair rather than to clubs. Some cities entered a select team including players from more than one club; others, including Birmingham, chose a club side to represent them.[7]
  3. ↑ The away goals rule did not apply when aggregate scores were level, so a playoff was staged at St. Jakob-Park, Basel, which Barcelona won 2–1 to reach the final.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Until the mid-1960s, entry to this competition remained by invitation, independent of domestic league position. Birmingham City's continued invitations resulted from their success in the previous edition of the competition. In 1961–62, there was an expanded entry of 28 teams, and Birmingham received a bye to the second round as losing finalist from the previous edition.[9]

References

General
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Specific
  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Radnedge, p. 200.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Radnedge, pp. 200–04.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Matthews (1995), "Blues in Europe", pp. 241–42.

External links

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