page_title: Sports-related curses
section_title: Birmingham City F.C.
hierarchical_section_title: Sports-related curses / Association football / Birmingham City F.C.
caption_attribution_description: English: St Andrews, the home ground of Birmingham City. Norsk bokmål: St Andrews, Birmingham City sin hjemmebane.
context_page_description: A sports-related curse is a superstitious belief in the effective action of some power or evil, that is used to explain the failures or misfortunes of specific sports teams, players, or even cities. Teams, players, and cities often cite a "curse" for many negative things, such as their inability to win a sports championship, or unexpected injuries.
context_section_description: English football side Birmingham City F.C. played 100 years under an alleged curse from 1906 to 2006. As the legend goes, the club moved from nearby Muntz Street into its current location at St Andrew's, building the stadium on land that was being used by the Romani people. After they were forced to move, the angry Romani people put a 100-year hex on the stadium.
  Throughout the years many Birmingham City managers would try to remove the curse but with little success. Former manager Ron Saunders tried to banish the curse in the 1980s by placing crucifixes on floodlights and painting the bottom of his players' boots red. Another manager, Barry Fry, in charge from 1993 to 1996, urinated in all four corners of the pitch after a clairvoyant said it would break the spell. On Boxing Day 2006 the curse was finally lifted and on that day Birmingham City celebrated a 2–1 win over Queens Park Rangers F.C.. Just over four years after the alleged curse ended, Birmingham City finally won the first major final in their history – beating Arsenal 2–1 to win the League Cup at Wembley. Unfortunately, Birmingham City was relegated to Football League Championship in the same of the season after they lift the 2010-11 Football League Cup trophy, and they never promoted to Premier League since 2011 until now.
caption: According to legend, Romani people put a 100-year curse on St Andrew's in 1906
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