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Eurovision Song Contest 1991

The Eurovision Song Contest 1991 was the 36th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 4 May 1991 at Stage 15 of the Cinecittà Studios in Rome, Italy. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI), and presented by Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno, the contest was held in Italy following the country's victory at the with the song " Insieme : 1992" by Toto Cutugno.

Twenty-two countries participated in the event: made its first Eurovision Song Contest appearance in sixteen years, having last participated in, while the  decided not to participate due to the date of this year's event coinciding with the country's annual Remembrance of the Dead commemorations. It was also the first time that was represented as a single state following the reunification of East and West Germany.

For the first time since, the contest resulted in a draw for first place, with both and  being awarded the same number of points. The contest's tie-break procedure was implemented for the first time in its history, which resulted in Sweden being declared the winner due to their entry, "Fångad av en stormvind", written by Stephan Berg and performed by Carola, having received a greater number of top scores from the other competing countries than the French entry; it was Sweden's third contest victory overall. Alongside France,, and  rounded out the top five countries.

Location

The 1991 contest took place in Rome, Italy, following the country's victory at the with the song " Insieme : 1992", performed by Toto Cutugno. It was the second time that Italy had hosted the contest, following the held in Naples. The chosen venue was Stage 15 of the Cinecittà Studios, the largest film studios in Europe which had previously been the filming location for a number of blockbuster American and Italian movies, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s.

The Italian organisers had originally intended that the contest be held in the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, where the annual Sanremo Music Festival is held. The Sanremo festival had been a major influence and inspiration for the formation of the Eurovision Song Contest, and RAI had wanted to pay tribute to the contest's origins by hosting the event in the town. The choice of Sanremo and Ariston as host of the event was initially rejected by the EBU, citing concerns regarding the size of the venue as well as organisational and security shortcomings. In an effort to address some of the concerns, the comune of Sanremo proposed hosting the event in three locations across the Ariston area, with the Teatro Ariston, Piazza Colombo and the old flower market on Corso Garibaldi being combined using temporary structures to form a single venue. Although plans to hold the contest in Sanremo continued to be developed as late as January 1991, by February doubts over the feasibility of holding the event in Sanremo became insurmountable, due to instability in the Middle East and the outbreak of the Gulf War, and ultimately the organisers opted to relocate the contest to a more secure location, eventually confirming on 18 February that the event would be held in Rome. Despite the relocation Sanremo remained a partner of the 1991 contest and pre-recorded footage of the city was featured during the live broadcast.

Participating countries
A total of twenty-two countries participated in the 1991 contest. Of the countries that participated in 1990, the were the only country that failed to make a return, as the date of the contest clashed with the country's Remembrance of the Dead commemorations. – which had last participated in the contest sixteen years before, in – ultimately filled the vacant slot. The nation had for a number of years attempted to make a return to the contest, however was prevented from doing so due to the cap on participation numbers set by the EBU. This marked the first time that competed as a unified country, following the reunification of East and West Germany into a single state; until this point all German entrants in previous contests had represented the former West Germany.

Several artists that had previously competed in the contest returned to participate in this year's event: Stefán Hilmarsson, who competed alongside Eyjólfur Kristjánsson for, was a member of Beathoven that had participated for the nation in ; Thomas Forstner made a second appearance for following the ; Carola also returned to the contest for the second time for  after her participation in ; and the members of 's Just 4 Fun featured two previous participating artists, namely Eiríkur Hauksson, who had competed in the  for Iceland as part of the group ICY, and Hanne Krogh, who had represented Norway twice before, in  as a solo artist and in  as a member of the group Bobbysocks!, the latter appearance ultimately winning the contest outright. Additionally, Kit Rolfe performed as backing vocalist for the 's Samantha Janus, having previously been lead vocalist of the group Belle and the Devotions that had represented the UK at the.

Production
The Eurovision Song Contest 1991 was produced by the Italian public broadcaster Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI). Silvia Salvetti served as executive producer, Riccardo Donna served as director, Luciano Ricceri served as designer, and Bruno Canfora served as musical director leading an assembled orchestra of 57 musicians. A separate musical director could be nominated by each country to lead the orchestra during their performance, with the host musical director also available to conduct for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor.

The running order draw, to determine in which position each country would perform, was held on 18 February 1991, the same date that Rome was confirmed as the host city of the contest and the announcement of the twenty-two competing countries.

Rehearsals for the participating artists began on 29 April 1991. Two technical rehearsals were conducted for each participating delegation in the week approaching the contest, with countries rehearsing in the order in which they would perform. The first rehearsals of 40 minutes' duration were held on 29 and 30 April, with the second rehearsals, each lasting 35 minutes, held on 1 and 2 May. Three dress rehearsals were held with all artists, two held in the afternoon and evening of 3 May and one final rehearsal in the afternoon of 4 May. An audience was present for the second dress rehearsal on the evening of 3 May.

The production value of the 1991 contest came in for much criticism during the build-up and following the event, which may be partly explained by the relatively late change in contest venue from Sanremo to Rome. Rehearsals in the contest venue regularly started late as the orchestra failed on many occasions to arrive at the venue on time, and during the live broadcast, a number of technical mishaps occurred, including lighting failure during several of the entries and the failure of the venue's sound system during the Swedish entry. The voting sequence was also notably haphazard and several mistakes required rectification during the show, with the EBU's executive supervisor Frank Naef regularly called upon by the hosts for clarification.

Format
Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration and performed in the language, or one of the languages, of the country which it represented. A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance, and all participants were required to have reached the age of 16 in the year of the contest. Each entry could utilise all or part of the live orchestra and could use instrumental-only backing tracks, however any backing tracks used could only include the sound of instruments featured on stage being mimed by the performers.

The results of the 1991 contest were determined through the same scoring system as had first been introduced in : each country awarded twelve points to its favourite entry, followed by ten points to its second favourite, and then awarded points in decreasing value from eight to one for the remaining songs which featured in the country's top ten, with countries unable to vote for their own entry. The points awarded by each country were determined by an assembled jury of sixteen individuals, which was required to be split evenly between men and women and by age. Each jury member voted in secret and awarded between one and ten votes to each participating song, excluding that from their own country and with no abstentions permitted. The votes of each member were collected following the country's performance and then tallied by the non-voting jury chairperson to determine the points to be awarded. In any cases where two or more songs in the top ten received the same number of votes, a show of hands by all jury members was used to determine the final placing. In a change to the rules compared to previous editions, half of the jury members in each country were now represented by music experts, comprising among other professions singers, composers, lyricists, musicians, conductors, music journalists, record company employees and radio or television producers. Only two members in each country were allowed to come from record companies, and no employees of the participating broadcasters themselves were allowed to sit on the juries.

Postcards
Each entry was preceded by a video postcard which served as an introduction to each country, as well as providing an opportunity for transition between entries and allow stage crew to make changes on stage. The postcards for the 1991 contest featured pre-recorded clips of the competing artists performing short sections from Italian songs, superimposed onto images of Italian landmarks and locations which were intended to represent the artists' personalities. The song each artist performed during their postcard is listed below by order of performance, alongside the originator of the song in brackets:

 * 1)  – "Non ho l'età" (Gigliola Cinquetti)
 * 2)  – "Se bastasse una canzone" (Eros Ramazzotti)
 * 3)  – "Questo piccolo grande amore" (Claudio Baglioni)
 * 4)  – "Caruso" (Lucio Dalla)
 * 5)  – "Un'estate italiana" (Edoardo Bennato and Gianna Nannini)
 * 6)  – "Adesso tu" (Eros Ramazzotti)
 * 7)  – "Sarà perché ti amo" (Ricchi e Poveri)
 * 8)  – "Non voglio mica la luna" (Fiordaliso)
 * 9)  – "La partita di pallone" (Rita Pavone)
 * 10)  – "Amore scusami" (John Foster)
 * 11)  – "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" (Domenico Modugno)
 * 12)  – "Dio, come ti amo" (Domenico Modugno / Gigliola Cinquetti)
 * 13)  – "Nessun dorma" (from Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot)
 * 14)  – "Santa Lucia" (traditional)
 * 15)  – "Lontano dagli occhi" (Sergio Endrigo / Mary Hopkin)
 * 16)  – "Maruzzella (song)" (Renato Carosone)
 * 17)  – "L'Italiano" (Toto Cutugno)
 * 18)  – "Musica è" (Eros Ramazzotti)
 * 19)  – "Sono tremendo" (Rocky Roberts)
 * 20)  – "Ricordati di me" (Antonello Venditti)
 * 21)  – "Io che amo solo te" (Sergio Endrigo)
 * 22)  – "Champagne (Peppino di Capri song)" (Peppino di Capri)

Contest overview
The contest took place on 4 May 1991 at 21:00 (CEST) with a duration of 3 hours and 13 minutes. The show was presented by the Italian singers Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno, the two artists which up until this point had won the contest for Italy, in and 1990 respectively. Unlike the majority of previous contest presenters, who had conducted the events in English and French, for the majority of the 1991 contest the two presenters spoke solely in Italian, with only the voting sequence being conducted in Italian, English and French.

The opening of the contest featured a pre-recorded music video of the American singer Sara Carlson performing "Celebration", which was followed by live performances from the contest hosts of their Eurovision winning songs, Cutugno's " Insieme : 1992" and Cinquetti's "Non ho l'età". The interval act comprised a performance by the Italian quick-change artist and illusionist Arturo Brachetti. The trophy awarded to the winners was presented at the end of the broadcast by Albert Scharf as the President of the European Broadcasting Union.

The winner was represented by the song "Fångad av en stormvind", written by Stephan Berg and performed by Carola. It was Sweden's third contest victory, following wins in and. For the first time since, and for only the second time ever in the contest's history, the voting sequence resulted in a draw for first place, with both and Sweden finishing with 146 points each. The tie-break rules introduced for the were thus enacted: for any ties for first place the country which received the most 12 points would be declared the winner; if a tie still remained after examining the 12 points, each country's 10 points would then be compared to determine a winner. Both France and Sweden had scored four 12 point scores, however as Sweden had scored five 10 points compared to France's two they were declared the winners. During the traditional winner's reprise performance, Carola performed part of the winning song in English, with lyrics written by Richard Hampton.

Spokespersons
Each country nominated a spokesperson, connected to the contest venue via telephone lines and responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for their respective country. Known spokespersons at the 1991 contest are listed below.

 * – Eileen Dunne
 * – Rosanna Vaudetti
 * – Dominic Micallef
 * – Bo Hagström
 * – Colin Berry

Detailed voting results
Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by all countries. The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in the order in which they performed, with the spokespersons announcing their country's points in English or French in ascending order. The detailed breakdown of the points awarded by each country is listed in the tables below.

12 points
The below table summarises how the maximum 12 points were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold. France and Sweden each received the maximum score of 12 points from four of the voting countries, with Cyprus and Israel receiving three sets of 12 points each, and Italy, Malta, Spain and Switzerland each receiving two sets of maximum scores.

Broadcasts
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers. In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision, and in Australia and South Korea. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

title: Eurovision Song Contest 1991


text:
Eurovision Song Contest 1990

The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was the 35th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 5 May 1990 in the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radiotelevizija Zagreb (RTV Zagreb) on behalf of Jugoslavenska radiotelevizija (JRT), and presented by Oliver Mlakar and Helga Vlahović, the contest was held in Yugoslavia following the country's victory at the with the song "Rock Me" by the group Riva. It was the first contest to be held in the Balkans and the first to be held in a socialist state.

Twenty-two countries participated in the contest, with the same countries that had participated in 1989 returning. The 1990 contest was the first to implement an age limit on the competing performers, following criticism of the participation of two child performers in the previous year's event; all artists were now required to reach the age of sixteen within the year of the contest.

The winner was for the second time in its history, with the song " Insieme : 1992", written and performed by Toto Cutugno. and shared second place, with  and  rounding out the top five countries. France and Spain both placed within the top 5 for the first time in several years, while Iceland recorded their best ever result.

Location
The 1990 contest took place in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Rock Me", performed by the group Riva. It was the first time that Yugoslavia had hosted the contest, and marked the first time the contest had been held in the Balkans and the first edition to be held in a socialist state. The chosen venue was the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall (Koncertna dvorana Vatroslava Lisinskog), named after the 19th-century Croatian composer Vatroslav Lisinski and whose main hall has an audience capacity of over 1,800. Constructed between 1963 and 1971, the venue underwent significant renovation ahead of hosting the Eurovision Song Contest.

Participating countries
The same twenty-two countries which had participated in 1989 returned for the 1990 contest; this marked the first time since that no changes to the composition of the competing countries were made compared to the previous event.

Among the competing artists in this year's event was Ketil Stokkan who was representing for the second time, having previously represented the country at the. Additionally, Kari Kuivalainen, who had also competed in 1986 as 's entrant, returned as a backing vocalist for the Finnish group Beat, and the Slovene group Pepel in kri supported 's Toto Cutugno as backing vocalists, having previously represented in the.

Many of the competing songs made reference to the changing political and social landscape across the European continent following revolutions in Central and Eastern European countries in 1989 and spoke of the future of the European continent. The and  entries referenced the increasing freedoms experienced by citizens in countries formerly under repressive regimes, the  and  entries harked back to the fall of the Berlin Wall six months prior and the opening of frontiers along the Iron Curtain between east and west Europe, while the  made reference to the planned signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 which would form the European Union and lead to greater European integration. Other social and political messages were also present among the competing entries, including a message for racial harmony from, an ode to the environment from the , and 's Philippe Lafontaine presenting a love song for his Macedonian wife.

Production
The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was produced by the Yugoslav public broadcaster Radiotelevizija Zagreb (RTV Zagreb) on behalf of Jugoslavenska radiotelevizija (JRT). Goran Radman served as executive producer, Nenad Puhovski served as director, Zvjezdana Kvočić served as designer, Seadeta Midžić served as musical director, and Igor Kuljerić served as conductor leading an assembled orchestra, with assistance from Stanko Selak. A separate musical director could be nominated by each country to lead the orchestra during their performance, with the host conductors also available to conduct for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor.

Following the confirmation of the twenty-two competing countries, the draw to determine the running order of the contest was held on 10 November 1989.

Rehearsals for the participating artists began on 30 April 1990. Two technical rehearsals were conducted for each participating delegation in the week approaching the contest, with countries rehearsing in the order in which they would perform. The first rehearsals, comprising 15 minutes for stage set-up and 35 minutes for performances, were held on 30 April and 1 May. Following these rehearsals each delegation was provided an opportunity to watch back recordings of their performances and engage in a press conference. Each country's second rehearsals were held on 2 and 3 May and lasted 35 minutes total, followed by another viewing session and press conference. Three dress rehearsals were held with all artists, two held in the afternoon and evening of 4 May and one final rehearsal in the afternoon of 5 May. An audience was present during the two dress rehearsals held on 4 May; the final dress rehearsal on 5 May was also recorded for use as a production standby for use should broadcast of the live event became impossible.

During the week of rehearsals, problems arose regarding the choice of presenters for the event. Oliver Mlakar and Helga Vlahović had been selected to host the contest, officially announced publicly in March 1990, however a second couple, Rene Medvešek and Dubravka Marković, had also been chosen as a reserve hosting pair. No agreement on which duo would host the contest had been settled going into the rehearsal week however, and screen tests of the voting sequence with the contest's executive supervisor Frank Naef were scheduled to determine which of the pairings would get the job. The ages of Mlakar and Vlahović, respectively 54 and 45 years old at the time, had also resulted in criticism from press outlets ahead of the contest. Subsequently Mlakar and Vlahović walked away during rehearsals on the Wednesday before the event and announced their resignations as show hosts, leading to a hastily arranged press conference to announce Medvešek and Marković as their replacements. Meetings held behind closed doors over the following 24 hours however led to Mlakar and Vlahović returning to the contest as the show's presenters.

For the first time in its history the contest featured an official mascot, "Eurocat", an animated anthropomorphic cat created by the Croatian illustrator Joško Marušić. Eurocat featured within the video postcards which served as an introduction to each country's entry, as well as providing an opportunity for transition between entries and allow stage crew to make changes on stage. The postcards for the 1990 contest centered around the theme of tourism, in conjunction with 1990 being the European Year of Tourism; each participating country commissioned their own postcard to highlight their country as a tourist destination, with Eurocat introducing these clips while highlighting cultural stereotypes associated with the competing countries.

With the advent of music videos during the 1980s, the television production of the contest also adapted to new aesthetics as it entered the 1990s; in contrast to previous editions, the 1990 contest saw an increased use of dynamic camera direction, with footage captured from cameras moving to and around the stage during the performances and showing angles that could not be seen by spectators in the auditorium. This change in the visual aesthetics was part of a transition which made elaborately staged performances possible, bearing similarities to music videos and which went on to develop throughout the 1990s and into editions of the contest held during the twenty-first century.

Format
Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration and performed in the language, or one of the languages, of the country which it represented. A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance. Each entry could utilise all or part of the live orchestra and could use instrumental-only backing tracks, however any backing tracks used could only include the sound of instruments featured on stage being mimed by the performers. The 1990 contest was the first to implement restrictions on the age of the performers, following criticism of the young age of the and  entrants in the previous year's contest, 12-year-old Gili Netanel and 11-year-old Nathalie Pâque respectively. For the 1990 event performers were required to be at least 16 years old in the year they competed in the event; although the United Kingdom had selected 15-year-old Emma as their representative, as she turned 16 later in the year she was still eligible to compete. The introduction of this rule, which remains in effect but which now specifies that the contestant must be 16 years old on the day of the contest final, means that Sandra Kim, who won the contest in 1986 for  at the age of 13, will hold the record of the youngest ever Eurovision winner in perpetuity, barring any further changes to the rule.

The results of the 1990 contest were determined through the same scoring system as had first been introduced in : each country awarded twelve points to its favourite entry, followed by ten points to its second favourite, and then awarded points in decreasing value from eight to one for the remaining songs which featured in the country's top ten, with countries unable to vote for their own entry. The points awarded by each country were determined by an assembled jury of sixteen individuals, who were all required to be members of the public with no connection to the music industry, split evenly between men and women and by age. Each jury member voted in secret and awarded between one and ten votes to each participating song, excluding that from their own country and with no abstentions permitted. The votes of each member were collected following the country's performance and then tallied by the non-voting jury chairperson to determine the points to be awarded. In any cases where two or more songs in the top ten received the same number of votes, a show of hands by all jury members was used to determine the final placing.

Contest overview
The contest took place on 5 May 1990 at 21:00 (CEST) with a duration of 2 hours and 47 minutes and was presented by Oliver Mlakar and Helga Vlahović.

The contest was opened with a pre-recorded film entitled Zagreb: City of Music, which showcased various locations in Zagreb and featured performances of various musical styles and genres. Another pre-recorded film featured during the interval between the competing entries and the voting sequence; entitled Yugoslav Changes, which highlighted the various cultures, landscapes, cuisines and industries within Yugoslavia. The trophy awarded to the winners was presented at the end of the broadcast by the contest's executive producer Goran Radman.

The contest's first entry suffered from a technical incident. The conductor of the Spanish entry was unable to hear the backing track, as the sound engineers had failed to raise the volume of the tape, and could not cue the orchestra to commence on time. When the volume was eventually raised the track was already partway through the song, meaning the orchestra and performers were out of sync with the tape, resulting in the two Salazar sisters of Azúcar Moreno leaving the stage as the backing tape continued to play. The tape was ultimately reset and the performance restarted with no further issues.

The winner was represented by the song " Insieme : 1992", written and performed by Toto Cutugno. It was Italy's second win in the contest, following their first victory in. At 46 years old Cutugno became the oldest Eurovision winner at that point. achieved their first top 5 placing since, placing equal second with , while 's fourth place finish was the country's best ever result to that point. also achieved their best finish since, placing fifth. The 1990 contest marks the last time that the future "Big Five" countries all placed within the top 10: alongside Italy's first place, France's equal second place and Spain's fifth place finished, the placed sixth and  placed ninth.

Spokespersons
Each country nominated a spokesperson, connected to the contest venue via telephone lines and responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for their respective country. Known spokespersons at the 1990 contest are listed below.

 * – Eileen Dunne
 * – Jan Ellerås
 * – Colin Berry

Detailed voting results
Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by all countries. The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in the order in which they performed, with the spokespersons announcing their country's points in English or French in ascending order. The detailed breakdown of the points awarded by each country is listed in the tables below.

12 points
The below table summarises how the maximum 12 points were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold. France received the maximum score of 12 points from six of the voting countries, with Italy receiving three sets of 12 points, Iceland, Ireland, Switzerland and Yugoslavia receiving two sets of maximum scores each, and Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and the United Kingdom each receiving one maximum score.

Broadcasts
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers. In addition to the participating countries, a number of additional non-participating countries were name-checked by Helga Vlahović during the event as also broadcasting the contest, specifically Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Japan, Poland, Romania, South Korea and the Soviet Union. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Eurovision Song Contest 1990


text:
Eurovision Song Contest 1989

The Eurovision Song Contest 1989 was the 34th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 6 May 1989 in the Palais de Beaulieu in Lausanne, Switzerland. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Télévision suisse romande (TSR) on behalf of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR), and presented by Jacques Deschenaux and Lolita Morena, the contest was held in Switzerland following the country's victory at the with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi" by Céline Dion.

Twenty-two countries participated in the contest, with returning after a one-year absence. Among the participating artists were the two youngest artists to have ever participated in the contest, 12-year-old Gili Netanel and 11-year-old Nathalie Pâque representing and, respectively; the inclusion of the young performers led to some controversy in the run-up to the event, including calls for their exclusion from the contest, and although no action was taken by the organisers of this event it did result in a rule change for the.

The winner was with the song "Rock Me", composed by Rajko Dujmić, written by Stevo Cvikić and performed by the group Riva. This was Yugoslavia's first contest victory in twenty-four attempts. The, , and  rounded out the top five positions; the UK and Denmark placed second and third for a second consecutive year, and Austria finished in the top five for the first time since. gained their best result since, while and  achieved their worst ever placings to date, placing eighteenth and twenty-second respectively, with Iceland ultimately earning nul points and coming last for the first time.

Location
The 1989 contest took place in Lausanne, Switzerland, following the country's victory at the with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi" performed by Céline Dion. It was the second time that Switzerland had hosted the event, following the of the contest held in 1956 in Lugano.

The chosen venue was the Palais de Beaulieu, a convention and exhibition centre. The contest took place in the Hall 7 of the Palais, also known as the Halle des Fêtes, which was temporarily renamed Salle Lys Assia in honour of Switzerland's first Eurovision winning artist. An audience of around 1,600 people could occupy the Salle Lys Assia during the contest. Over a dozen cities were reported to have applied to host the contest, with Lausanne winning out due to its combination of a suitable production venue, logistical infrastructure availability, and proximity to an international airport.

Participating countries
Twenty-two countries participated in the 1989 contest, with the twenty-one countries from the previous year's event being joined by, returning after a one-year absence.

For the first time, Switzerland sent an entry in Romansh, the smallest of Switzerland's four national languages.

No artists competing in the 1989 contest had previously taken part as lead artists in previous events, however, two of the artists had previously performed in the contest in past editions. The 's Justine Pelmelay had been one of the backing vocalists supporting the Dutch entrant Gerard Joling in the 1988 event, and 's Marianna had also performed as a backing vocalist in for Bang. Additionally, Søren Bundgaard who had represented in three previous editions of the contest as a member of the duo Hot Eyes, was one of Birthe Kjær's backing performers in this year's event.

For the first time since, the event featured two participating songs written by the same songwriters: both the and  entries were written by Dieter Bohlen and Joachim Horn-Bernges.

The 1989 contest featured the youngest ever lead performers, in the form of 12-year-old Gili Netanel and 11-year-old Nathalie Pâque representing and  respectively. Their inclusion in the contest led to controversy and protest from some of the other competitors, who felt their young age should preclude them from the contest. As there were no existing rules regarding the age of performers, the two artists were allowed to compete, however, the controversy led to the introduction of an age restriction on performing artists for the.

Production
The Eurovision Song Contest 1989 was produced by the Swiss public broadcaster Télévision suisse romande (TSR) on behalf of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft; Société suisse de radiodiffusion et télévision; SRG SSR). Raymond Zumsteg served as executive producer, Alain Bloch served as producer and director, Charles-André Grivet served as director, Paul Waelti served as designer, and Benoît Kaufman served as musical director leading an assembled orchestra of 55 musicians. A separate musical director could be nominated by each country to lead the orchestra during their performance, with the host musical director also available to conduct for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor.

Following the confirmation of the twenty-two competing countries, the draw to determine the running order of the contest was held on 23 November 1988. Production details related to the contest were also shared on this date, including the contest's mascot and logo. The mascot, Cindy Aeschbach, an 11-year old girl from Morges, was chosen from among two hundred girls from schools in the Swiss region of La Côte to embody the character of Heidi in the contest's opening sequence. The logo, designed by Fritz Aeschbach, is a representation of the Matterhorn created with computer graphics, constructed using contour lines to represent the strings of a guitar, and featuring a silhouette outline of Lausanne Cathedral at the base. The presenters of the contest were publicly revealed on 17 January 1989: the sports journalist and television presenter Jacques Deschenaux and the television presenter and former winner of the Miss Switzerland beauty pageant Lolita Morena were chosen from among several candidates considered by TSR.

Rehearsals for the participating artists began on 1 May 1989. Two technical rehearsals were conducted for each participating delegation in the week approaching the contest, with countries rehearsing in the order in which they would perform. The first rehearsals of 50 minutes were held on 1 and 2 May, followed by a press conference for each delegation and the accredited press. Each country's second rehearsals were held on 3 and 4 May and lasted 35 minutes total. Three dress rehearsals were held with all artists, two held in the afternoon and evening of 5 May and one final rehearsal in the afternoon of 6 May; all dress rehearsals were held in front of an audience, although for the afternoon rehearsal on 5 May, the acts were not required to be in their performance costumes.

During the week of the contest each delegation also took part in recording sessions for the postcards, short films which served as an introduction to each country's entry, as well as providing an opportunity for transition between entries and allow stage crew to make changes on stage. Footage for the postcards were filmed between 1 and 4 May for all delegates, with the exception of the Swiss delegation which filmed for their postcard in the weeks leading up to the contest; delegations recorded for their postcards on one of the days in which they were not required to be present at the contest venue. Delegations were also invited to a number of receptions during the contest week, with a welcome reception hosted by Council of States of the canton of Vaud and the municipality of Lausanne in the ballroom of the Palais de Beaulieu on 1 May, a performance by Céline Dion in the Théâtre de Beaulieu on 2 May, a dinner cruise on Lake Geneva on 3 May, and a reception on 5 May hosted by the tourist office of the canton of Grisons.

Format
Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration and performed in the language, or one of the languages, of the country which it represented. A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance. Each entry could utilise all or part of the live orchestra and could use instrumental-only backing tracks, however any backing tracks used could only include the sound of instruments featured on stage being mimed by the performers.

The results of the 1989 contest were determined through the same scoring system as had first been introduced in : each country awarded twelve points to its favourite entry, followed by ten points to its second favourite, and then awarded points in decreasing value from eight to one for the remaining songs which featured in the country's top ten, with countries unable to vote for their own entry. The points awarded by each country were determined by an assembled jury of sixteen individuals, who were all required to be members of the public with no connection to the music industry, split evenly between men and women and by age. Each jury member voted in secret and awarded between one and ten votes to each participating song, excluding that from their own country and with no abstentions permitted. The votes of each member were collected following the country's performance and then tallied by the non-voting jury chairperson to determine the points to be awarded. In any cases where two or more songs in the top ten received the same number of votes, a show of hands by all jury members was used to determine the final placing.

Partly due to the close result at the previous year's event, the tie-break procedure, to determine a single winner should two or more countries finish in first place with the same number of points, was modified. For the 1989 event and for future contents, an analysis of the tied countries' top marks would be conducted, with the country that received the most 12 point scores being declared the winner. If a tie for first place remained then the country with the most 10 points would be crowned the winner. Should two or more countries still remain tied for first place after analysing both 12 and 10 point scores then the tying countries would be declared joint winners.

Contest overview
The contest took place on 6 May 1989 at 21:00 (CEST) with a duration of 3 hours and 10 minutes and was presented by Jacques Deschenaux and Lolita Morena.

The contest opened with a seven minute film, directed by Jean-Marc Panchaud, highlighting modern Swiss landscapes and themes in juxtaposition with paintings by celebrated Swiss artists and starring Sylvie Aeschbach as Heidi. This was followed by performances in the contest venue by the reigning Eurovision winner Célion Dion, who performed both her winning song from the 1988 contest "Ne partez pas sans moi" and the premiere of her first English language single "Where Does My Heart Beat Now". The interval act was the stunt artist Guy Tell; modelling himself after the Swiss folk hero William Tell, Guy Tell used high-powered crossbows to pierce various targets with precision at distance. The climax of the performance featured sixteen crossbows being positioned to set off a chain reaction in sequence, with the arrow from the first crossbow hitting a target which set off the next crossbow, culminating in an arrow piercing an apple set above the head of the performer. Ultimately however, on the night of the contest itself, the final arrow missed the apple slightly by a few centimetres. The trophy awarded to the winners was presented at the end of the broadcast by Céline Dion and Sylvie Aeschbach.

The winner was represented by the song "Rock Me", composed by Rajko Dujmić, written by Stevo Cvikić and performed by the band Riva. It was Yugoslavia's first Eurovision win on their twenty-fourth contest appearance, becoming the seventeenth nation to win the contest. It would also prove to be the country's only win, as the nation would begin to break into separate states two years later and would eventually participate for the last time in. It was the sixth time that the song which was performed last ended up winning the contest. The and  placed second and third respectively for the second consecutive year, with the UK finishing in second place for the twelfth time in total. finished in the top five for the first time since, while achieved its best result since. achieved their worst result to date, and for the third consecutive year one of the participating countries failed to receive any points, on this occasion became the newest country to receive nul points, their worst result in four years of participation. During the traditional winner's reprise performance, Riva sung the winning song entirely in English.

Spokespersons
Each country nominated a spokesperson, connected to the contest venue via telephone lines and responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for their respective country. Known spokespersons at the 1989 contest are listed below.

 * – Erla Björk Skúladóttir
 * – Eileen Dunne
 * – Agneta Bolme Börjefors
 * – Colin Berry

Detailed voting results
Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by all countries. The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in the order in which they performed, with the spokespersons announcing their country's points in English or French in ascending order. The detailed breakdown of the points awarded by each country is listed in the tables below.

12 points
The below table summarises how the maximum 12 points were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold. The United Kingdom received the maximum score of 12 points from five of the voting countries, with Yugoslavia receiving four sets of 12 points, Austria, Denmark and Sweden each receiving three sets of maximum scores, Greece receiving two sets of 12 points, and Cyprus and Italy receiving one maximum score each.

Broadcasts
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers. It was reportedly broadcast on 33 channels from 30 countries and over half a billion viewers and listeners have watched the contest.

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

title: Eurovision Song Contest 1989


text:
Fieldfare

The fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) is a member of the thrush family Turdidae. It breeds in woodland and scrub in northern Europe and across the Palearctic. It is strongly migratory, with many northern birds moving south during the winter. It is a very rare breeder in Great Britain and Ireland, but winters in large numbers in the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of molluscs, insects and earthworms in the summer, and berries, grain and seeds in the winter.

Fieldfares often nest in small colonies, possibly for protection from predators. The nest is built in a tree where five or six eggs are laid. The chicks are fed by both parents and leave the nest after a fortnight. There may be two broods in southern parts of the range but only one further north. Migrating birds and wintering birds often form large flocks, often in the company of redwings.

The fieldfare is 25 cm long, with a grey crown, neck and rump, a plain brown back, dark wings and tail and white underwings. The breast and flanks are heavily spotted. The breast has a reddish wash and the rest of the underparts are white. The sexes are similar in appearance but the females are slightly more brown. The male has a simple chattering song and the birds have various guttural flight and alarm calls.

Taxonomy
Nearly 90 species of medium to large thrushes are in the genus Turdus, characterised by rounded heads, longish, pointed wings, and usually melodious songs. Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the fieldfare is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Caribbean islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.

The fieldfare was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under its current scientific name. Linnaeus specified the type locality as Europe but this was restricted to Sweden by the German orthithologist Ernst Hartert in 1910. The name Turdus pilaris comes from two separate Latin words for thrush. No subspecies are recognised.

The English common name fieldfare dates back to at least the 11th century. The Old English word feldefare perhaps meant traveller through the fields, but it has also been suggested it may derive from Old English fealu fearh, grey piglet, related to an old Welsh name for the species socen lwyd with the same meaning.

Description
The fieldfare is easily recognisable with its slate-grey head, nape and rump, dark brown back, blackish tail and boldly speckled breast. In flight, its white under and  are conspicuous. The harsh flight call "tsak tsak" is also distinctive.

The forehead and crown of the male are bluish-grey and each feather has a central brownish-black band. The lores and under-eye regions are black and there are faint, pale streaks above the eyes. The, nape, hind neck and rump are bluish-grey, usually with a white streak near the shaft of each rump feather. The and  feathers are dark chestnut-brown with dark central streaks and pale tips. There are fourteen tail feathers each with a pointed tip, the outer two slightly shorter than the others giving a rounded tail. They are brownish-black, with inconspicuous darker bars visible in some lights. The outer edge of each tail feather is fringed with grey near the base and the outer pair of feathers have a narrow white border on the inner edge. The chin, throat and upper breast are creamy-buff with bold streaks and speckles of brownish-black. The lower breast is creamy-white with a diminishing buff tinge and fewer speckles and the belly is similarly creamy-white, with the speckles restricted to the uppermost parts. The primaries are brownish-black with the leading edge fringed grey and the inner edge of the outer feathers grey near the base whereas the inner feathers are fringed with brown near the base. The secondaries are similar but fringed with chestnut-brown on the leading edge. The upper wing-coverts are brownish-black and similar to the outer primaries in their margin colouration. The axillaries and under wing-coverts are white and the under tail-coverts have dark greyish-brown bases and margins and white centres and tips. The beak is strong, with a slight curve and a notch near the tip. It is orange-yellow in winter, with the upper mandible somewhat brownish and both mandible tips brownish-black. In the summer both mandibles of the male's beak are yellow. The irises are dark brown and the legs and feet are brown. The average adult length is 25 cm, the winglength is 14.5 cm and the tarsal length 3.5 cm. Wingspan ranges from 39 to 42 cm and weight ranges from 80 to 140 g.

The female is very similar to the male but the upper parts are somewhat more brownish and the feathers on the crown have narrower black central stripes. The throat and breast are paler with fewer, smaller markings. The beak is similar to the male's winter beak. The juvenile are a duller colour than the adults with pale coloured streaks on the feathers that have dark streaks in the adult. The young assume their adult plumage after their first moult in the autumn.

The call is mostly uttered in flight and is a harsh "tsak tsak tsuk". The same sound, but softer, is made more conversationally when individuals gather in trees. When angry or alarmed they emit various warning sounds reminiscent of the mistle thrush (Turdus viscivorus). The male has a rather feeble song that he sings in the breeding season. It is a mixture of a few phrases like those of the common blackbird (Turdus merula) interspersed with whistles, guttural squeaks and call notes. This is sung on the wing and also from a tree and a subdued version of this song with more warbling notes is sung by a group of birds at communal roosts.

Distribution and habitat

The fieldfare is a migratory species with a palearctic distribution. It breeds in northern Norway, northern Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Siberia as far east as Transbaikal, the Aldan River and the Tian Shan Mountains in North West China. Its winter range extends through western and southern Europe to North Africa, though it is uncommon in the Mediterranean region. Eastern populations migrate to Anatolia, Lebanon, Iran and Northwest India, and occasionally Northeast India. It is a vagrant to Iceland, Greenland, Spitsbergen, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Madeira, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the United States, Malta and Cyprus.

The flight of the fieldfare is slow and direct. It takes several strong beats then closes its wings briefly before flapping on. It is highly gregarious, quite shy and easily scared in the winter and bold and noisy in the breeding season. When a group is in a tree they all tend to face in the same direction, keeping up a constant chatter. When foraging on the ground, often in association with redwings, the group works its way up wind, each bird pausing every so often to stand erect and gaze around before resuming feeding. When alarmed they fly off down wind and the feeding group reforms elsewhere. In woodland they do not skulk in the undergrowth as do blackbirds or song thrushes, instead they perch in the open on bushes and high branches. They roost socially, sometimes in overgrown hedges and shrubberies but usually on the ground. Common sites are in rough grass among bushes or clumps of rushes, in young plantations, on stubble and in the furrows of ploughed fields.

Habitat
In the summer, the fieldfare frequents mixed woodland of birch, alder, pine, spruce and fir, often near marshes, moorland or other open ground. It does not avoid the vicinity of humans and can be seen in cultivated areas, orchards, parks and gardens. It also inhabits open tundra and the slopes of hills above the tree line. In the winter, groups of fieldfares are chiefly found in open country, agricultural land, orchards and open woodland. They are nomadic, wandering wherever there is an abundance of berries and insects. Later in the year, they move on to pastureland and cultivated fields.

Migration
Migration southwards from the breeding range starts in October but the bulk of birds arrive in the United Kingdom in November. Some of these are still on passage and carry on into continental Europe but others remain. The passage-migrants return in April and they and the resident migrants depart from the United Kingdom mostly by early May.

Food and feeding
The fieldfare is omnivorous. Animal food in the diet includes snails and slugs, earthworms, spiders and insects such as beetles and their larvae, flies and grasshoppers. When berries ripen in the autumn these are taken in great number. Hawthorn, holly, rowan, yew, juniper, dog rose, Cotoneaster, Pyracantha and Berberis are all relished. Later in the winter windfall apples are eaten, swedes attacked in the field and grain and seeds eaten. When these are exhausted, or in particularly harsh weather, the birds may move to marshes or even the foreshore where molluscs are to be found.

Breeding
The breeding season starts in May in Poland but further north in Scandinavia may not start until early July. The female fieldfare builds a cup-shaped nest with no attempt at concealment. The location is often in woodland but may be in a hedgerow, garden, among rocks, in a pile of logs, in a hut or on the ground. Fieldfares usually nest in close proximity to others of the same species. The adults will defend the nest aggressively and nesting gregariously may offer protection from predators. The nest is built of dried grasses and weeds with a few twigs and a little moss, with a lining of mud and an inner lining of fine grasses. There are usually five to six eggs in a clutch, but occasionally three, four, seven or eight eggs are laid. The eggs vary in size from 28.8 × and are variable in colour. Many are pale blue speckled with fine brown dots and resemble those of the common blackbird. Others are bright blue, with or without larger red-brown splotches. Incubation starts before all the eggs are laid and lasts for thirteen to fourteen days. The female does all or most of the incubation. The chicks are altricial and both parents bring food to them. They are usually ready to leave the nest after fourteen to sixteen days and there may be two broods in the season, especially in the southern parts of the breeding range.

Status and conservation
The fieldfare has an extensive range, estimated at 10 million square kilometres (3.8 million square miles), and a large population, including an estimated forty two to seventy two million individuals in Europe. There are thought to be up to twenty million individuals in Russia and the global population is estimated to be between forty-four and ninety-six million individuals. The population size appears to be stable and the bird is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criteria of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations), and is therefore evaluated as being of "least concern".

In the United Kingdom, at the extreme edge of the fieldfare's breeding range, only a handful of pairs breed. It is therefore classified by the RSPB as a Red List species as of January 2013.

title: Fieldfare


text:
Birmingham City F.C.

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. The club will play in EFL League One, the third tier of English football in the 2024–25 season, following relegation.

As Small Heath, they played in the Football Alliance before becoming founder members and first champions of the Football League Second Division. 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 in the 1955–56 season and reached the 1956 FA Cup final. Birmingham played in two Inter-Cities Fairs Cup finals, in 1960, as the first English club side to reach a major European final, and again the following year. They won the League Cup in 1963 and again in 2011. Birmingham have played in the top tier of English football for around half of their history: the longest period spent outside the top division, between 1986 and 2002, included two brief spells in the third tier of English football, during which time they won the Football League Trophy twice.

St Andrew's, renamed St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park in 2024 for sponsorship reasons, 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 Second City derby. The club's nickname is Blues, after the colour of their kit, and the fans are known as Bluenoses.

The early years (1875–1943)
Birmingham City were founded as Small Heath Alliance in 1875, and from 1877 played their home games at Muntz Street. The club turned professional in 1885, and three years later became the first football club to become a limited company with a board of directors, under the name of Small Heath F.C. Ltd. From the 1889–90 season they played in the Football Alliance, which ran alongside the Football League. In 1892, Small Heath, along with the other Alliance teams, were invited to join the newly formed Football League Second Division. They finished as champions, but 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 moved into their new home, St Andrew's Ground, the following year. 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.

Frank Womack's captaincy and the creativity of Scottish international playmaker Johnny Crosbie contributed much to Birmingham winning their second Division Two title in 1920–21. Womack went on to make 515 appearances, a club record for an outfielder, over a twenty-year career. 1920 also saw the debut of the 19-year-old Joe Bradford, who went on to score a club record 267 goals in 445 games, and won 12 caps for England. In 1931, manager Leslie Knighton led the club to their first FA Cup final, which they lost 2–1 to Second Division club West Bromwich Albion. Though Birmingham remained in the top flight for 18 seasons, they struggled in the league, with much reliance placed on England goalkeeper Harry Hibbs to make up for the lack of goals, Bradford excepted, at the other end. They were finally relegated in 1939, the last full season before the Football League was abandoned for the duration of the Second World War.

Birmingham City: Post-war success (1943–1965)
The name Birmingham City F.C. was adopted in 1943. Under Harry Storer, appointed manager in 1945, the club won the Football League South wartime league and reached the semi-final of the first post-war FA Cup. Two years later they won their third Second Division title, conceding only 24 goals in the 42-game season. Storer's successor, Bob Brocklebank, though unable to stave off relegation in 1950, brought in players who made a major contribution to the club's successes of the next decade. When Arthur Turner took over as manager in November 1954, he made them play closer to their potential, and a 5–1 win on the last day of the 1954–55 season confirmed them as champions. In their first season back in the First Division, Birmingham achieved their highest league finish of sixth place. They also reached the FA Cup final, losing 3–1 to Manchester City in the game notable for City's goalkeeper Bert Trautmann playing the last 20 minutes with a broken bone in his neck. The following season the club lost in the FA Cup semi-final for the third time since the war, this time beaten 2–0 by Manchester United's "Busby Babes".

Birmingham became the first English club side to take part in European competition when they played their first group game in the inaugural Inter-Cities Fairs Cup competition on 15 May 1956; they went on to reach the semi-final, in which they drew 4–4 on aggregate with Barcelona but lost the replay 2–1. They were also the first English club side to reach a European final, losing 4–1 on aggregate to Barcelona in the 1960 Fairs Cup final and 4–2 to A.S. Roma the following year. In the 1961 semi-final they beat Internazionale home and away; no other English club won a competitive game in the San Siro until Arsenal managed it in 2003. Gil Merrick's side saved their best form for cup competitions. Though opponents in the 1963 League Cup final, local rivals Aston Villa, were pre-match favourites, Birmingham raised their game and won 3–1 on aggregate to lift their first major trophy. In 1965, after ten years in the top flight, they returned to the Second Division.

Investment, promotion and decline (1965–1993)
Businessman Clifford Coombs took over as chairman in 1965, luring Stan Cullis out of retirement to manage the club. Cullis's team played attractive football which took them to the semi-finals of the League Cup in 1967 and of the FA Cup in 1968, but league football needed a different approach. Successor Freddie Goodwin produced a team playing skilful, aggressive football that won promotion 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. Sir Alf Ramsey briefly managed the club before Jim Smith took over in 1978. With relegation a certainty, the club sold Trevor Francis to Nottingham Forest, making him the first player transferred for a fee of £1 million; Francis had scored 133 goals in 329 appearances over his nine years at Birmingham.

Smith took Birmingham straight back to the First Division, but a poor start to the 1981–82 season saw him replaced by Ron Saunders, who had just resigned from league champions Aston Villa. Saunders' team struggled to score goals and were relegated in 1984. They bounced back up, but the last home game of the 1984–85 promotion season, against Leeds United, was marred by rioting, culminating in the death of a boy when a wall collapsed on him. This was on the same day as the Bradford City stadium fire, and the events at St Andrew's formed part of the remit of Mr Justice Popplewell's inquiry into safety at sports grounds. The club lacked stability both on and off the field. 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.

In April 1989 the Kumar brothers, owners of a clothing chain, bought the club. A rapid turnover of managers, the absence of promised investment, and a threatened mass refusal of players to renew contracts was relieved only by a victorious trip to Wembley in the Associate Members' Cup. Terry Cooper delivered promotion, but the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) put the Kumars' businesses into receivership; in November 1992 BCCI's liquidator put up for sale their 84% holding in the football club.

Sale and reconstruction (1992–2007)
The club continued in administration for four months, until Sport Newspapers' proprietor David Sullivan bought it for £700,000, installed the then 23-year-old Karren Brady as managing director and allowed Cooper money for signings. On the last day of the season, the team avoided relegation back to the third tier, but after a poor start to the 1993–94 season Cooper was replaced by Barry Fry. The change did not prevent relegation, but Fry's first full season brought promotion back to the second tier as champions, and victory over Carlisle United in the Football League Trophy via Paul Tait's golden goal completed the "lower-league Double". After one more year, Fry was dismissed to make way for the return of Trevor Francis.

Reinforced by players with top-level experience, including Manchester United captain Steve Bruce, Francis's team narrowly missed out on a play-off position in 1998, and three years of play-off semi-final defeats followed. They reached the 2001 League Cup final against Liverpool at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. Birmingham equalised in the last minute of normal time, but the match went to a penalty shoot-out which Liverpool won. By October 2001, lack of progress had made Francis's position untenable; after a 6–0 League Cup defeat to Manchester City, he left by mutual consent. Bruce's return as manager shook up a stale team; he took them from mid-table to the play-offs, and beat Norwich City on penalties in the final to secure promotion to the Premier League.

Motivated by the inspirational Christophe Dugarry, Birmingham's first top-flight season for 16 years finished in mid-table. Loan signing Mikael Forssell's 17 league goals helped Birmingham to a top-half finish in 2003–04, but when he was injured, the 2004–05 team struggled for goals. In July 2005, chairman David Gold said it was time to "start talking about being as good as anyone outside the top three or four" with "the best squad of players for 25 years". Injuries, loss of form, and lack of transfer window investment saw them relegated in a season whose lowlight was a 7–0 FA Cup defeat to Liverpool. Jermaine Pennant and Emile Heskey left for record fees, many others were released, but Bruce's amended recruitment strategy, combining free-transfer experience with young "hungry" players and shrewd exploitation of the loan market, brought automatic promotion at the end of a season which had included calls for his head.

The Chinese years (2007–2023)
In July 2007, Hong Kong-based businessman Carson Yeung bought 29.9% of shares in the club, making him the biggest single shareholder, with a view to taking full control in the future. Uncertain as to his future under possible new owners, Bruce left in mid-season. His successor, Scotland national team manager Alex McLeish, was unable to stave off relegation, but achieved promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt. Yeung's company completed the takeover in 2009, and the team finished in ninth place, their highest for 51 years. In 2011, they combined a second League Cup, defeating favourites Arsenal 2–1 with goals from Nikola Žigić and Obafemi Martins and securing qualification for the Europa League, with relegation back to the second tier, after which McLeish resigned to join Aston Villa.

Birmingham narrowly failed to reach the knockout rounds of the Europa League and the play-off final. With the club in financial turmoil and under a transfer embargo, manager Chris Hughton left. Under Lee Clark, Birmingham twice retained their divisional status, albeit through Paul Caddis's 93rd-minute goal in the last match of 2013–14 to avoid relegation on goal difference, but continued poor form saw him dismissed in October 2014. Gary Rowett stabilised the team and led them to two tenth-place finishes before being controversially dismissed by new owners Trillion Trophy Asia in favour of the "pedigree" of Gianfranco Zola, who would aid the club's "strategic, long-term view" to take the club in a new direction.

Two wins from 24 matches under Zola left Birmingham needing two wins from the last three games to stay up, which they achieved under the managership of Harry Redknapp. Redknapp lasted another month, his former assistant Steve Cotterill five months, leaving successor Garry Monk another – ultimately successful – relegation battle. Despite budgetary restrictions and a nine-point deduction for breaches of the League's Profitability and Sustainability (P&S) rules, the team finished 17th in 2018–19; however, Monk was sacked in June after conflict with the board. quoted in full at  He was succeeded by his assistant, Pep Clotet, initially as caretaker. In the 2019–20 season, the club once again avoided relegation despite a 14-match winless run at the end of the season and the threat of a further points deduction. Academy product Jude Bellingham was sold to Borussia Dortmund in the summer for a club-record deal reported to be worth up to £30 million, after which Aitor Karanka lasted eight months as head coach before being replaced by former Birmingham player Lee Bowyer. After 16 months and yet another relegation struggle, amid rumours of an imminent takeover, Bowyer was replaced by John Eustace.

American control (2023–present)
After two takeover attempts fell through, Shelby Companies Ltd, a subsidiary of US-based Knighthead Capital Management and fronted by that company's co-founder Tom Wagner, purchased a controlling stake in the club and full ownership of the stadium on 13 July 2023. Former Manchester City CEO Garry Cook was appointed to the corresponding role at Birmingham, and the club gained considerable publicity from the arrival of seven-time Super Bowl-winner Tom Brady as minority owner and chairman of its advisory board.

In early October, with the team in the play-off places, Eustace was sacked. In a move that echoed Rowett's replacement by Zola seven years prior, the board stressed the need for "a winning mentality and a culture of ambition" across the club, and a new appointment with "[responsibility] for creating an identity and clear 'no fear' playing style". After former England international player Wayne Rooney's two wins from 15 matches left Birmingham in 20th place, Tony Mowbray was appointed manager. His need for medical leave brought the interim appointment of Gary Rowett, whose 11 points from the last eight games was not enough to prevent relegation to League One after 29 years at a higher level.

Colours and badge
The Small Heath Alliance members decided among themselves that their colours would be blue; in the early days, they wore whatever blue shirt they had. The first uniform kit was a dark blue shirt with a white sash and white shorts. Several variations on a blue theme were tried; the one that stuck was the royal blue shirt with a white "V", adopted during the First World War and retained until the late 1920s. Though the design changed, the royal blue remained. In 1971 they adopted the "penguin" strip – royal blue with a broad white central front panel – which lasted five years. Since then they have generally worn plain, nominally royal blue shirts, though the actual shade used has varied. Shorts have been either blue or white, and socks usually blue, white or a combination. White, yellow, red and black, on their own or in combination, have been the most frequently used colours for the away kit.

There were aberrations: the 1992 kit, sponsored by Triton Showers, was made of a blue material covered with multicoloured splashes which resembled a shower curtain. The home shirt has only once featured stripes: in 1999, the blue shirt had a front central panel in narrow blue and white stripes, a design similar to the Tesco supermarket carrier bag of the time.

When the club changed its name from Small Heath to Birmingham in 1905 it adopted the city's coat of arms as its badge, although this was not always worn on the shirts. The 1970s "penguin" shirt carried the letters "BCFC" intertwined at the centre of the chest. The Sports Argus newspaper ran a competition in 1972 to design a new badge for the club. The winning entry, a line-drawn globe and ball, with a ribbon carrying the club's name and date of foundation, in plain blue and white, was adopted by the club but not worn on playing shirts until 1976, after the design was granted by the College of Arms in 1975. An experiment made in the early 1990s with colouring in the globe and ball was soon abandoned.

The club rarely spends more than three seasons with the same kit supplier. The first sponsor to have its name on the shirt was Birmingham-based brewery Ansells in 1983. They withdrew in mid-1985, and the shirts went unsponsored until January 1987, when Co-op Milk paid a "five-figure sum" to have its name displayed until the end of the season. That was a relief to the club not only financially: the vice-chairman claimed that as a "big club ... people expect us to have a shirt sponsor and we have been lagging behind". Later sponsors included car retailer PJ Evans/Evans Halshaw (1988–1989), Mark One (1989–1992), Triton Showers (1992–1995), Auto Windscreens (1995–2001), Phones 4u (2001–2003), Flybe (2003–2007), F&C Investments (2007–2011), foreign exchange company RationalFX (2011–2012), "lifestyle and leisure" business EZE Group (2012–2013 and 2015–2016), e-cigarette company Nicolites (2013–2014), mobile payment enabler Zapaygo (2014–2015), 888sport (2016–2019) and BoyleSports (2019–2023).

In June 2020, the club announced a four-year partnership with Nike as supplier of kits, upgraded during the 2023–24 season to include bespoke rather than off-the-shelf product. The 2024–25 home kit consists of a royal blue shirt with white trim and – with echoes of the Co-op Milk shirt of the 1980s – a white strip across the front carrying the logo of the club's principal partner, streetwear company Undefeated, white shorts and royal blue socks.

Stadiums
Small Heath Alliance played their first home games on waste ground off Arthur Street, Bordesley Green. As interest grew, they moved to a fenced-off field in Ladypool Road, Sparkbrook, where admission could be charged. A year later, they moved again, to a field adjoining Muntz Street, Small Heath, near the main Coventry Road, with a capacity of about 10,000. The Muntz Street ground was adequate for 1880s friendly matches, and the capacity was gradually raised to around 30,000, but when several thousand spectators scaled walls and broke down turnstiles to get into a First Division match against Aston Villa, it became clear that it could no longer cope with the demand.

Director Harry Morris identified a site for a new ground in Bordesley Green, some three-quarters of a mile (1 km) from Muntz Street towards the city centre. The site was where a brickworks once operated; the land sloped steeply down to stagnant pools, yet the stadium was constructed in under twelve months from land clearance to opening ceremony on Boxing Day 1906. Heavy snow nearly prevented the opening; volunteers had to clear pitch and terraces before the match, a goalless draw against Middlesbrough, could go ahead. The ground is reputed to have been cursed by gypsies evicted from the site; although gypsies are known to have camped nearby, there is no contemporary evidence for their eviction by the club.

The original capacity of St Andrew's was reported as 75,000, with 4,000 seats in the Main Stand and space for 22,000 under cover. By 1938 the official capacity was 68,000, and February 1939 saw the attendance record set at the fifth round FA Cup tie against Everton, variously recorded as 66,844 or 67,341. On the outbreak of the Second World War, the Chief Constable ordered the ground's closure because of the danger from air raids; it was the only ground to be thus closed, and was only re-opened after the matter was raised in Parliament. It was badly damaged during the Birmingham Blitz: the Railway End and the Kop as a result of bombing, while the Main Stand burnt down when a fireman mistook petrol for water.

The replacement Main Stand used a propped cantilever roof design, which meant fewer pillars to block spectators' view of the pitch. Floodlights were installed in 1956, and officially switched on for a friendly match against Borussia Dortmund in 1957. By the early 1960s a stand had been built at the Railway End to the same design as the Main Stand, roofs had been put on the Kop and Tilton Road End, and the ground capacity was down to about 55,000.

Resulting from the 1986 Popplewell Report into the safety of sports grounds and the later Taylor Report, the capacity of St Andrew's was set at 28,235 for safety reasons, but it was accepted that the stadium had to be brought up to modern all-seated standards. After the last home game of the 1993–94 season, the Kop and Tilton Road terraces were demolished – fans took home a significant proportion as souvenirs – to be replaced at the start of the new season by a 7,000-seat Tilton Road Stand, continuing round the corner into the 9,500-seat Kop which opened two months later. The 8,000-seat Railway Stand followed in 1999; ten years later, this was renamed the Gil Merrick Stand, in honour of the club's appearance record-holder and former manager, but the Main Stand has still to be modernised. In 2021, the club website listed the stadium capacity as 29,409.

In 2004 a proposal was put forward to build a "sports village" comprising a 55,000-capacity City of Birmingham Stadium, other sports and leisure facilities, and a super casino, to 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, and Birmingham being chosen as the venue, but this did not happen. The club have planning permission to redevelop the Main Stand, but club and council continued to seek alternative sources of funding for the City of Birmingham Stadium project.

In 2013, the Birmingham City Supporters' Trust's application for listing St Andrew's as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) – 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. – under the Localism Act 2011 was approved by Birmingham City Council. This 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. In 2018, the club's owners agreed a three-year sponsorship deal under which the name became St Andrew's Trillion Trophy Stadium.

The lower tiers of the Tilton and Kop stands were closed for asbestos-related repairs for approaching three years, reopening fully in November 2023. In 2024, the stadium was renamed St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park for sponsorship reasons, as "step one in [the owners'] plan to create a world-renowned 'Sports Quarter' in Birmingham."

Supporters
Birmingham fans consider their main rivals to be Aston Villa, their nearest neighbours geographically, with whom they contest the Second City derby. Lesser rivalries include fellow West Midlands clubs Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion. According to a 2003 Football Fans Census survey, Aston Villa fans thought of Birmingham City as their main rivals, though this was not always the case.

Birmingham's supporters are generally referred to as "Bluenoses" in the media and by the fans themselves; the name is also used in a derogatory manner by fans of other clubs. A piece of public sculpture in the form of a ten-times-life-size head lying on a mound near the St Andrew's ground, Ondré Nowakowski's Sleeping Iron Giant, has been repeatedly defaced with blue paint on its nose. Between 1994 and 1997, the club mascot took the form of a blue nose, though it is now a dog named Beau Brummie, a play on the name Beau Brummell and Brummie, the slang word for a person from Birmingham.

A number of supporters' clubs are affiliated to the football club, both in England and abroad. An action group was formed in 1991 to protest against chairman Samesh Kumar, the club blamed an internet petition for the collapse of the purchase of player Lee Bowyer in 2005, and antipathy towards the board provoked hostile chanting and a pitch invasion after the last match of the 2007–08 season, but when the club was in financial difficulties, supporters contributed to schemes which funded the purchase of players Brian Roberts in 1984 and Paul Peschisolido in 1992. A supporters' trust was formed under the auspices of Supporters Direct in 2012.

There have been several fanzines published by supporters. Made in Brum, first issued in 2000, was the only one regularly on sale in 2013. The Zulu began some years earlier and ran for at least 16 seasons. The hooligan firm associated with the club, the Zulu Warriors, were unusual in that they had multi-racial membership at a time when many such firms had associations with racist or right-wing groups.

The fans' anthem, an adaptation of Harry Lauder's "Keep Right On To The End of the Road", was adopted during the 1956 FA Cup campaign. The Times football correspondent described in his Cup final preview how"the Birmingham clans swept their side along to Wembley – the first side ever to reach a final without once playing at home – on the wings of the song 'Keep right on to the end of the road'." Player Alex Govan is credited with popularising the song, by singing it on the coach on the way to the quarter-final and when he revealed in an interview that it was his favourite."In the build-up to the 1956 FA Cup semi-final with Sunderland I was interviewed by the press and happened to let slip that my favourite song was Harry Lauder's old music hall number 'Keep Right on to the End of the Road'. I thought no more about it, but when the third goal went in at Hillsborough the Blues fans all started singing it. It was the proudest moment of my life."

Ownership
Small Heath F.C. became a limited company in 1888; its first share issue was to the value of £650. The board was made up of local businessmen and dignitaries until 1965, when the club was sold to Clifford Coombs. By the mid-1980s the club was in financial trouble. Control passed from the Coombs family to former Walsall F.C. chairman Ken Wheldon, who cut costs, made redundancies, and sold off assets, including the club's training ground. Still unable to make the club pay, Wheldon sold it to the Kumar brothers, owners of a clothing chain. Debt was still increasing when matters came to a head; the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) put the Kumars' businesses into receivership. The club continued in administration for four months until Sport Newspapers' proprietor David Sullivan bought the Kumars' 84% holding for £700,000 from BCCI's liquidator in March 1993. Birmingham City plc, of which the football club was a wholly owned subsidiary, was floated on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in 1997 with an issue of 15 million new shares, raising £7.5 million of new investment. It made a pre-tax profit of £4.3M in the year ending 31 August 2008.

In July 2007, Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung, via the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (SEHK)-listed company Grandtop International Holdings Limited (GIH), bought 29.9% of the plc from its directors. Although his intention to take full control of the club initially came to nothing, GIH completed the purchase in October 2009 at a total cost of £81.5M, re-registered the club as a private company, and renamed the holding company Birmingham International Holdings (BIH).

Trading in BIH shares was suspended in June 2011 after Yeung's arrest on charges of money-laundering. Publication of financial results was repeatedly delayed, which led the Football League to impose a transfer embargo, and offers for the club were entertained from 2012 onwards. After Yeung resigned his positions with both club and company in early 2014, share trading resumed, and following his conviction, efforts intensified to dispose of the club, which had to be done piecemeal in order to retain BIH's share listing.

Going into 2015, the Football League made public their concerns over Yeung's attempts to impose his choice of directors on the BIHL board despite his conviction disqualifying him from exerting influence over a club. Relationships became increasingly factional, as illustrated by the failure of three directors, including the club's de facto chief executive Panos Pavlakis, to gain re-election, followed the next day by their reinstatement. On 17 February, the board voluntarily appointed receivers from accountants Ernst & Young to take over management of the company. Their statement stressed that no winding-up petition had been issued and the company was not in liquidation.

In June 2015, the receivers struck deals with the previous major shareholders such that legal action against them would be dropped in return for their agreement not to obstruct any transfer of ownership to their preferred bidder, the British Virgin Islands-registered investment vehicle Trillion Trophy Asia (TTA), wholly owned by Chinese businessman Paul Suen Cho Hung, who in turn agreed that the company would not be sold on within two years. The process completed in October 2016, leaving TTA owning 50.64% of BIH's share capital, a level of ownership that required them to make an offer for the remainder.

To keep the company running, TTA arranged loans which it settled with discounted shares to the same value; the process of creating such shares diluted the percentage holding of all shareholders. Attempts to diversify the company's holdings to make it less reliant on the football club were similarly funded. To reduce the club's losses in light of breaches of the EFL's Profitability and Sustainability Regulations, the stadium was sold for £22.8 million to Birmingham City Stadium Ltd, a new company wholly owned by the football club's parent, and would be leased back to the club, In December 2020, 21.64% of the club and 25% of Birmingham City Stadium were sold to Vong Pech's Oriental Rainbow, and in April 2021, the remaining 75% of the stadium was sold.

A June 2022 attempt to purchase the club by a group fronted by former Watford F.C. owner Laurence Bassini, involving financier Keith Harris and with money loaned by David Sullivan, came to nothing. A consortium led by fashion industry businessman Paul Richardson and Argentine former footballer Maxi López announced in July that they were close to completing the purchase of a stake in the club, and later confirmed that they were providing operating funds, but pulled out in December citing a failure to agree revisions to the original terms of agreement; in April 2023, Richardson, López and their proposed chief executive, former Charlton Athletic chairman Matt Southall, were sanctioned by the EFL after admitting breaching regulations by taking effective control of the club without approval.

In April 2023, Birmingham Sports Holdings confirmed letters of intent had been signed to sell 24% of Birmingham City plc shares held by themselves and the 21.64% owned by Oriental Rainbow, as well as the whole of Birmingham City Stadium Ltd, to a then unnamed potential purchaser, definitive agreements to be reached within a two-month exclusivity period. The purchaser was named as Shelby Companies Ltd, a subsidiary of asset management company Knighthead Capital Management fronted by Tom Wagner, Knighthead's co-founder and co-CEO. The agreements were subject to approval by the English Football League (EFL), which was forthcoming in early June, and by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE), and an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on 13 July voted overwhelmingly to accept. Although BSH retain 51% of the shares, Wagner confirmed that Shelby were "responsible for the operations of the club moving forward" and that "nothing about the way the transaction is structured will prevent us from obtaining the long-term goals we have for the club."

Honours
Birmingham City's honours include the following:

League
 * Second Division / First Division / Championship (level 2)
 * Champions: 1892–93, 1920–21, 1947–48, 1954–55
 * Runners-up: 1893–94, 1900–01, 1902–03, 1971–72, 1984–85, 2006–07, 2008–09
 * Play-off winners: 2002
 * Third Division / Second Division (level 3)
 * Champions: 1994–95
 * Runners-up: 1991–92

Cup
 * FA Cup
 * Runners-up: 1930–31, 1955–56
 * Football League Cup
 * Winners: 1962–63, 2010–11
 * Runners-up: 2000–01
 * Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
 * Runners-up: 1958–60, 1960–61
 * Associate Members' Cup / Football League Trophy
 * Winners: 1990–91, 1994–95
 * Birmingham Senior Cup
 * Winners: 1905

Small Heath first entered the Birmingham Senior Cup in 1878–79 – ten years before the foundation of the Football League – and won for the first time in 1905, defeating West Bromwich Albion 7–2 in the final. Its importance declined with the increase in League fixtures, and from the 1905–06 season onwards, Birmingham fielded teams containing reserve-team players.

 * Football League South (wartime)
 * Champions: 1945–46

Preparatory to the Football League resuming in 1946–47, the First and Second Division clubs from the last pre-war season were divided geographically between the Leagues North and South for 1945–46. Going into the last day of the season, Aston Villa were top of League South but had finished their programme two points (one win) ahead of the chasers but with a worse goal average. Charlton Athletic were second, above Birmingham by 0.002 of a goal. While Charlton could only draw at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers, Birmingham won away at Luton Town, so claimed the title by 0.3 of a goal.

Records and statistics
Birmingham achieved their highest finishing position, of sixth in the top flight, in the 1955–56 First Division. Frank Womack holds the record for Birmingham league appearances, having played 491 matches between 1908 and 1928, closely followed by Gil Merrick with 485 between 1946 and 1959. If all senior competitions are included, Merrick has 551, less closely followed by Womack's 515 which is the record for an outfield player. The player who won most international caps while at the club is Maik Taylor with 58 for Northern Ireland.

The goalscoring record is held by Joe Bradford, with 249 league goals, 267 altogether, scored between 1920 and 1935; no other player comes close. Walter Abbott holds the records for the most goals scored in a season, in 1898–99, with 34 league goals in the Second Division and 42 goals in total.

The club's widest victory margin in the league was 12–0, a scoreline which they achieved once in the Football Alliance, against Nottingham Forest in 1899, and twice in the Second Division, against Walsall Town Swifts in 1892 and Doncaster Rovers in 1903. They have lost a league match by an eight-goal margin on eight occasions: twice in the Football Alliance and five times in the First Division, all away from home, and once at home, beaten 8–0 by AFC Bournemouth in the Championship in 2014. Their record FA Cup win was 10–0 against Druids in the fourth qualifying round of the 1899 competition; their record FA Cup defeat was 7–0 at home to Liverpool in the 2006 quarter-final.

Birmingham's home attendance record was set at the fifth-round FA Cup tie against Everton on 11 February 1939. It is variously recorded as 66,844 or 67,341. The highest transfer fee received for a Birmingham player is, according to the Sky Sports website, "a guaranteed £25 million up front" received in July 2020 from Borussia Dortmund for Jude Bellingham, which made him the most expensive 17-year-old in world football; the deal also included add-ons "worth 'several millions more'". The highest fee paid is £6.3m for Croatian midfielder Ivan Šunjić, who joined from Dinamo Zagreb in July 2019.

First-team squad

 * Squad numbers apply to 2023–24 season.

Retired numbers
In appreciation of Jude Bellingham's contribution in a short time with the first team – the club's youngest debutant, at 16 years and 38 days, and youngest goalscorer, he completed a full season in the Championship before becoming Birmingham's record transfer and the world's most expensive 17-year-old, "showing what can be achieved through talent, hard work and dedication" while retaining a "caring, humble and engaging off-the-field demeanour" – the club retired his number 22 shirt "to remember one of our own and to inspire others."

Birmingham City Women
Birmingham City Ladies Football Club was formed in 1968. The first team worked their way through the leagues until promoted to the FA Women's Premier League in 2002. After Birmingham City F.C. withdrew financial support in 2005, the club were only able to continue because of a personal donation. They re-affiliated with Birmingham City in 2010, were founder members of the FA WSL the following year, and won the FA Women's Cup in 2012. A second-place finish in the 2012 FA WSL earned them qualification for the 2013–14 Champions League, in which they reached the semi-final. After TTA took over Birmingham City F.C. in November 2016, the women's club became an integral part of the organisation. It was formally renamed Birmingham City Women in 2018, and would be known as plain Birmingham City except where that would cause confusion with the men's team.

Club officials
Owners:
 * Birmingham Sports Holdings 51.7%
 * Shelby Companies Ltd 45.96%

Board:
 * Chairman: Tom Wagner
 * CEO: Garry Cook
 * Directors: Matthew AlvarezAndrew ShannahanKyle KneislyWenqing ZhaoGannan Zheng

Football staff:
 * Technical director: Craig Gardner
 * Manager: Chris Davies
 * Assistant manager: Ben Petty
 * Coaching staff: Ashley ColeNathan Gardiner
 * Goalkeeper coach: Maik Taylor
 * Head of physical performance: Sean Rush

Managers
Gil Merrick was the first Birmingham manager to win a major trophy, the League Cup in 1963. Merrick also led the club to the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final in 1961, following Pat Beasley who had done the same in 1960. Leslie Knighton took the club to the final of the FA Cup in 1931; Arthur Turner did likewise in 1956, as well as taking charge of the club's highest league finish, sixth place in the 1955–56 First Division. Birmingham reached the 2001 Football League Cup Final under Trevor Francis, whose successor as permanent manager, Steve Bruce, twice achieved promotion to the Premier League. Birmingham won the League Cup for the second time under Alex McLeish in 2011. The 1966 World Cup-winning manager, Sir Alf Ramsey, took charge of the club briefly in 1977.

title: Birmingham City F.C.