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The 2011–12 season was Birmingham City Football Clubs 109th season in the English football league system. It ran from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012. After relegation from the Premier League in 2010–11 under previous manager Alex McLeish, the team finished in fourth position in the 24-team Football League Championship under manager Chris Hughton, who was appointed in June. They lost on aggregate to fifth-placed Blackpool in the promotion play-offs semi-finals. Having won the 2011 League Cup, they qualified for the Europa League, in which they reached the group stage and finished third in their four-team group, only one point behind the two teams qualifying for the knockout rounds. In the 2011–12 League Cup, they were eliminated in the third round by Manchester City, and they lost to Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup after a replay. Twenty-nine players made at least one appearance in first-team competition, and there were thirteen different goalscorers. Chris Burke, who received Birmingham's Player of the Season and Players' Player of the Season awards, played in 61 of the 62 matches over the season, scored 14 goals and made 19 assists. Marlon King was leading scorer with 18 goals, of which 16 came in league games; he also made 12 assists. Nathan Redmond was the club's young player of the year.〔 Curtis Davies was named in the PFA Championship Team of the Year. ==Background and pre-season== After leading the club to victory in the League Cup and relegation from the Premier League in 2010–11, Alex McLeish unexpectedly resigned on 12 June, having already made two signings and with another two players close to an agreement with the club. He was immediately linked with the managerial vacancy at Aston Villa. Acting chairman Peter Pannu threatened to report Villa to the League for making an illegal approach to McLeish, and insisted that they could speak to him only if they agreed to pay the £5.4 million compensation due under the terms of his contract.〔 〕 On 17 June, McLeish was appointed manager of Aston Villa. The matter was finally settled on 11 July, when the clubs issued a joint statement confirming that Villa would pay an undisclosed amount in compensation, all proposed legal action would cease, and coach Peter Grant and medical officer Dr Ian McGuinness would be free to follow McLeish to his new club. Chris Hughton, who had led Newcastle United to the Championship title in 2010, was appointed manager on 21 June. He confirmed that promotion back to the Premier League, rather than progress in the Europa League, was his main objective for the season, and brought Paul Trollope in to replace Andy Watson as first-team coach.〔 〕 On 29 June, club president Carson Yeung was arrested in Hong Kong on charges of money laundering, relating to a period before his involvement with the club. He was bailed to re-appear in August, his assets were frozen, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange suspended trading of shares in the club's holding company, Birmingham International Holdings (BIHL), in which Yeung was the single largest shareholder with around 26%. BIHL appointed acting chairman Peter Pannu and Yeung's 18-year-old son Ryan to the board of the football club, and Michael Wiseman stepped down from the board, ending an 83-year formal association between the club and the Wiseman family. Although it appeared that HSBC, the club's bankers, were unlikely to call in a loan secured on the St Andrew's site, as such a course of action would make it difficult for the club to continue, thus reducing the likelihood of HSBC recovering their money, Yeung's situation impeded the search for new investment.〔 Such a combination of factors, added to the reduced income to be expected following relegation, left the club in financial difficulty and ready to off-load high-earning players, particularly in light of the Football League's adoption of UEFA's financial fair-play regulations relating to clubs not spending in excess of their revenue. After the shirt sponsorship deal with F&C Investments expired at the end of the 2010–11 season, no long-term sponsor met the value the club set on the brand, so they chose to sell advertising on the shirt on a match-by-match basis. This had the by-product of replica shirts being sold without advertising. However, a one-year shirt sponsorship deal was reached with foreign exchange and money transfer company RationalFX. It emerged that the club had taken legal action against kit manufacturers Xtep for using a derivative version of the club's logo on their own leisurewear, thus infringing intellectual property rights and reducing royalties from sales of officially licensed clothing on the Chinese market.〔 The players reported back for pre-season training on 4 July〔 ahead of a training camp in Ireland that included a friendly fixture with League of Ireland First Division side Cork City. Without Cameron Jerome and Nikola Žigić, who did not travel due to injury, and Barry Ferguson, who returned to England ahead of his transfer to Blackpool, Hughton used 19 players in a game settled by a 30th-minute goal from new signing Adam Rooney.〔 In the next friendly, at League Two club Hereford United, Hughton made fewer changes but the game finished goalless as his team failed to convert several chances,〔 a pattern continued at Oxford United, also of League Two, where Curtis Davies and Chris Burke both hit the bar as Birmingham lost 2–0.〔 A Birmingham side without Scott Dann, Liam Ridgewell, Jerome, Žigić and Marlon King lost 2–1 to a strong Everton eleven. Everton opened the scoring after an hour through a Leighton Baines free kick, then after Louis Saha was allowed too much time on the edge of the penalty area, his shot bounced awkwardly in front of debutant Boaz Myhill. Rooney pulled one back with a back-heel to turn Morgaro Gomis' shot into the net.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「2011–12 Birmingham City F.C. season」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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