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

Invitations to enter theInter-Cities Fairs Cup, a football tournament set up to promote industrialtrade fairs, were extended to the city hosting the trade fair rather than to clubs. Some cities entered a select team including players from more than one club, butAston Villa, the other major club based in the city ofBirmingham, rejected the opportunity to field a combined team.^[1] Thus Birmingham City became the first English club side to play in European competition when they played their first match in the1955–58 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup on 15 May 1956. They were also the first English club side to reach a European final, the1960 Fairs Cup final, in which they metBarcelona. The home leg, a goalless draw, was played on 29 March 1960 and the away leg, which Barcelona won 4–1, some six weeks later.^[A] In the semifinal of the1961 Fairs Cup Birmingham beatInternazionale home and away; no other English club beat them in a competitive match in theSan Siro untilArsenal did so in theChampions League more than 40 years later.^[3]

Victory in the2011 Football League Cup Final earned Birmingham qualification for the2011–12 UEFA Europa League, which they entered at theplay-off round.^[4] A 3–0 aggregate victory overC.D. Nacional of Portugal^[5] qualified Birmingham for thegroup stage, in which they were drawn alongsidelast season's finalists,S.C. Braga of Portugal, Slovenian championsNK Maribor, and fourth-placed Belgian teamClub Brugge. They finished third in group H, one point behind Club Brugge and Braga, so failed to qualify for the knockout rounds.^[6]

Birmingham City's scores are given first in all scorelines.

Season	Competition	Round	Opponent		Home leg	Away leg	Play- off	Notes	Refs
			Country	Club
1955–58	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	GS	Italy	Internazionale	2–1	0–0		[B]	[8]
		GS	Yugoslavia	Zagreb XI	3–0	1–0			[8]
		SF	Spain	Barcelona	4–3	0–1	1–2	[C]	[8]
1958–60	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	1R	Germany	Cologne XI	2–0	2–2		[D]	[10]
		2R	Yugoslavia	Zagreb XI	1–0	3–3			[10]
		SF	Belgium	Union Saint-Gilloise	4–2	4–2			[10]
		F	Spain	Barcelona	0–0	1–4			[10]
1960–61	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	1R	Hungary	Újpesti Dózsa	3–2	2–1		[D]	[11]
		2R	Denmark	KB	5–0	4–4			[11]
		SF	Italy	Internazionale	2–1	2–1			[11]
		F	Italy	A.S. Roma	2–2	0–2			[11]
1961–62	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	2R	Spain	RCD Espanyol	1–0	2–5		[D]	[12]
2011–12	UEFA Europa League	PO	Portugal	C.D. Nacional	3–0	0–0			[5]
		GS	Portugal	S.C. Braga	1–3	0–1			[6]
		GS	Slovenia	NK Maribor	1–0	2–1			[6]
		GS	Belgium	Club Brugge	2–2	2–1			[6]

Key

• PO = play-off round
• GS = group stage
• 1R = first round
• 2R = second round
• SF = semifinal
• F = final

• Highest home attendance: 40,524, againstBarcelona,1960 Fairs Cup final first leg, 29 March 1960.^[13]
• Lowest home attendance: 14,152, againstUnion Saint-Gilloise, 1958–60 Fairs Cup semifinal second leg, 11 November 1959.^[13]
• Highest away attendance: 75,000, against Barcelona, 1958–60 Fairs Cup final second leg, 4 May 1960.^[13]
• Lowest away attendance: 2,500, againstKB,1960–61 Fairs Cup second round first leg, 23 November 1960.^[13]

General

• Matthews, Tony (1995).Birmingham City: A Complete Record. Derby: Breedon Books.ISBN 978-1-85983-010-9.
• Matthews, Tony (2000).The Encyclopedia of Birmingham City Football Club 1875–2000. Cradley Heath: Britespot.ISBN 978-0-9539288-0-4.
• "The Birmingham City FC Archive". Tony Jordan. Archived fromthe original on 26 March 2003.

Specific

• Birmingham City F.C. official site

• Birmingham City F.C.
• English football clubs in international competitions

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022