Portal:English football/Selected article/5

Birmingham City Football Club are an English professional football club based in the city of Birmingham. Currently, they play in the Championship, the second tier of English football, which is the level at which they have spent the majority of their history.

Formed under the name of "Small Heath" in 1875, they were founder members and the first ever champions of the Football League Second Division. As Birmingham City, the most successful period in their history was in the 1950s and early 1960s. They achieved their highest finishing position of sixth in the First Division and reached the FA Cup Final in 1956, reached the final of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1960 and 1961, and won their only major trophy, the League Cup, in 1963, beating Aston Villa 3–1 on aggregate. They also won a second League Cup 48 years later in 2011, this time defeating Arsenal at Wembley.

St Andrew's has been their home ground since 1906. They have a long-standing and fierce rivalry with Aston Villa, their nearest neighbours, with whom they play the Birmingham derby.