History of Birmingham City F.C. (1965–present)
Businessman Clifford Coombs took over as Birmingham chairman in 1965, and appointed Stan Cullis as manager. Cullis's attractive football took them to cup semi-finals, but league football needed a different approach. Successor Freddie Goodwin produced a team playing skilful, aggressive football that won promotion to the First Division 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. In 1979, with relegation a certainty, the club sold Trevor Francis to Nottingham Forest, making him the first British player transferred for a fee of £1 million; Francis had scored 133 goals in 329 appearances over his nine years at Birmingham. Jim Smith took Birmingham back to the top tier, but a poor start to the 1981–82 season saw him replaced by Ron Saunders of league champions Aston Villa. The team still lacked goals, and were relegated in 1984. The last home game of the 1984–85 promotion season was marred by rioting and the death of a boy when a wall collapsed; the events formed part of the remit of the Popplewell inquiry into safety at sports grounds. 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 84% of 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 a bank collapse put the Kumars' businesses into receivership. David Sullivan bought the club out of administration for £700,000 and installed the 23-year-old Karren Brady as managing director. They avoided relegation in 1992–93, but went down to the third tier in 1994. Barry Fry's first full season brought promotion as champions and victory in the Football League Trophy, beating Carlisle United via Paul Tait's golden goal. The new owners had converted the stadium to all-seater, were to float the club as a plc, and saw Trevor Francis as the manager to take it forward. Francis introduced players with top-level experience, such as Manchester United captain Steve Bruce. They reached the 2001 League Cup final, losing on penalties to Liverpool, and three successive play-off semi-finals, losing all three, and lack of progress made Francis's position untenable. Bruce took the team from mid-table in November 2001 to the play-off final in which they beat Norwich City on penalties to win promotion to the Premier League. Motivated by World Cup-winner Christophe Dugarry, Birmingham's first top-flight season for 16 years finished in mid-table. Three years later, they were relegated in a season whose lowlight was a 7–0 FA Cup defeat at home to Liverpool. Bruce retained the confidence of the board and delivered