Football is a passionate game. That is like saying cliff-walking is a dangerous one. Plenty of sports have their passion, but to me, football's remains the most tribalistic. How many people do you know who can transform from run-of-the-mill Mr. Average to vein-through-the-head Mr. Angry, and all because of a contentious penalty decision.

According to a recent NBC report in Alabama, you could soon be adding the state's largest city, Birmingham, to the expansion-bid list.
A groundbreaking is scheduled for next Tuesday night, as the City of Birmingham begins work on expanding the B.J.C.C.
Tuesday, the city council voted to spend the first eight million dollars of a new business tax to begin the dome project.

This weekend's headlines were stolen by Emmauel Adebayor even before a ball was kicked. Saturday morning, Adebayor finally lashed out at his former club Arsenal, moments before the Gunners kicked-off a challenging visit to the Eastlands.

Fantasy footie alert! Premier League new boys Birmingham have confirmed the signing of 23 year old Ecuadorian Christian Benitez from Mexican club Santos Laguna. He will be the club's most expensive signing in history, presuming he passes a medical and picks up a good old work permit.
Benitez has scored 10 goals in 17 appearances for the Ecuadorian national team.

Burnley, a "Lite" version of a real Premier League team
With the tech world abuzz today over the announcement that Facebook has created a Facebook Lite product to take on Twitter, I figured we'd take a quick look at the Premier League's "lite" offering: the newly promoted clubs Birmingham, Burnley, and Wolves.

If there is one team that is secretly thriving in a summer of high-profile transfers, it is Birmingham City. As mentioned by my fellow Premiership Talk writer, Brian Lofrumento, the newly promoted outfit is reportedly pursuing former Arsenal captain Patrick Viera, which is in addition to a handful of other acquisitions made recently.

Goals:

Van Persie, Diaby and Arshavin

Transfer campaign has hit the boiling point and many of the players from English lower tiers have been in the heat over the past couple of days. Let's start chronologically, from our last briefing. Firstly, Bristol City striker, Steve Brooker, has finally become a Doncaster member and Sean O'Driscol's wish has finally come true.

.Arsenal Transfered In: Thomas Vermaelen (Ajax, £11m), Damian Martinez (Club Athletico Independiente, £1.3m), Jamie Edge (Cheltenham, undisc) Transfered Out: Abu Ogogo (Dag & Red, free), Amaury Bischoff (Academica de Coimbra, free), Emmanuel Adebayor (Man C, £25m), Kolo Toure (Man C, £14m), Jay Simpson (QPR, loan), James Dunne (Exeter, free), Rui Fonte (Lisbon, free), Rene Steer (Oldham, free), [.

A report by the Commission on the Future of Women's Sport which the BBC's Gordon Farquhar blogged about earlier this month points out that just 2% of media coverage on elite sport focuses on women. Now I first got into writing about football by following one of my best friend's journeys through the matches, tournaments and politics of women's football in Oxford.

No tongues, boys Birmingham duo Garry O'Connor and Keith Fahey let their emotions get the better of them after the former grabbed the winning goal against Hull on Saturday. We don't know what they will get up to if they score against half-decent opposition.

This weeks little honey is Birmingham City's finest ever soccerette, 23 year Soccer AM's Ashleigh Gibson.

If you would like to be our girl of the week then e-mail ukffgirls@ukfootballfinder.co.uk

Age

23

Martial status

Attached (Boo)

Location

Birmingham

Worst chat up line

Can I buy you some bongos

Occupation

Student/Promogirl/Admin Temp

Supports

Birmingham City

Fav player

Seb Larsson

Fav film

White Chicks

Fav band

Funeral for a friend

Finest hour

Being on Soccer AM

Ambition

To have a big centre for all the poor and mistreated animals come to and be taken care of

Click here to play the Sexy Football League

Just hold me After Alex McLeish guided Birmingham back into the Premier League at the first time of asking (congratulations, Blues), Kevin Phillips just wanted to be close to his manager. Just look how delicately Phillips' hand is placed upon Big Eck's shoulder. They may or may not have enjoyed a tango up and down the [.

Now that the Coca Cola Championship has come to a halt (temporarily, at least, with the playoffs still to be played), us Premier League fans have three new teams to look forward to seeing next season. While only Wolves and Birmingham have locked up promotion spots for next season, within the next few weeks we'll know who out of Reading, Burnley, Sheffield United, and Preston North End will be playing top flight footbal come August.

Pompey mount revival. Following a miserable season start of 7 losses, conceding 13 goals and netting just 3 in the process, the South Coast club, rooted in last place, were everyone's early season pick for relegation. But how quickly things change in football. In the last 4 matches, Portsmouth have scored 10 goals, conceded just 2 and amassed 7 crucial points on the way to Premiership survival.

As soon as Emmanuel Adebayor started limping off the field in the 38th minute, it was clear that the North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham would swing into the favor of the hosts at the White Hart Lane. The more important implication of Adebayor's injury, however, was obviously much beyond this afternoon's game.

Baby steps. That's what most people take when recovering from injury. Eduardo took a few and decided he was good to run. One year ago - almost to the day -  Eduardo suffered an injury that not many people come back from. The injury? A compound fracture of his ankle. The images? Sickening to look at.

Today has been a big day for Arsenal; We are to face Celtic in Champions league qualifying which as "harregas the gooner" said on the post below is very ironic and many transfer stories have stated prevailing in the last few hours, so the papers should be full of them tomorrow.

Arsenal to up Chamakh bid

The Daily Mail is saying Wenger will up his bid for the Moroccan forward to £7.

12 goals from defense the past two seasons, beat that Vermaelen
Our Funny Feeling Friday selection this week - an unpopular (by fantasy terms), underrated, or out of form player who we think will start producing in the coming weeks is Birmingham's central defensive summer signing Roger Johnson.

It may be a little early, but it never hurts to look ahead to what could be. As we twist through the final stretch of the 2008/09 Premiership season, let's take a look at the potential newcomers coming up from the Championship next season. Wolverhampton Wanderers The club most refer to as Wolves not only has the best looking shield in football, but they also are sitting atop of the Coca-Cola Championship with 63 points.

Perhaps one of the biggest prizes in English football is promotion from the Championship, giving clubs the opportunity to play against some of the biggest clubs in the world. This season the race out of the Championship is tight, as always, but it looks as if the two automatic promotion places will go to two from [.

The latest transfer stories affecting the English Premier League

They Think It's All Over... begins its Premier League Preview with a detailed look at Arsenal, Villa, Birmingham, Blackburn and Bolton.

Gallery, images, photos and pictures of Birmingham City v Portsmouth, Premier League, Round 2, the 19th of August.

This match has yet to start..

.Back in January the odds on Burnley beating both Manchester United and Everton by one goal to nil would have been significantly high. The town of Burnley only is only home to around 73,000 residents (the smallest in the division), they have the smallest wage bill in the Premier League and their transfer funds are [.

Well, Luka Modric suffered a broken leg in Spurs' 2-1 win over Birmingham Saturday on a challenge where he was the one credited with a foul and Eduardo, of course, also had a horrible injury against Birmingham way back in February 2008. So, you know, the English especially that Birmingham hit squad are obviously out to systematically destroy all Croatians.

There have only been 46 games so far this season but already there are some notable - or perhaps anomolous - statistics. Courtesy of Football365, here are the most salient in a club-by-club format...

Arsenal
*Tomas Rosicky's first outing in 20 months also included a goal.

A big thank you to all who took part in the poll. I really needed your help as I couldn't decide who our best player was. At best I could have narrowed it down to 3 but no further.

The Poll is now closed and I have the results. (I sound like an X factor presenter!). The player you voted as our man of the match is.

In the wee small hours of Sunday morning, a 10-man brawl broke out in the RnB Room at Bambu club in Birmingham where Wolverhampton and Birmingham City players were partying after their respective matches on Saturday. Those involved in the brawl, including Wolves backup keeper Carl Ikeme and Birmingham striker Cameron Jermone, were banned from the club for life.

We think diving is as much a stain on the modern game as the next person, but it's come to the point that when someone wins a penalty the armchair fans instinctively brandish the player a liar and a cheat. Such was the case after Monday's Liverpool v Birmingham match, when Lee Carsley's lunge at David Ngog in the penalty box earned the Reds a penalty kick, a valuable point, and ultimately gave Rafa Benitez a stay of execution.

Jermaine Pennant is in store for an exciting month.

With Manchester United and Aston Villa joining most of the other Premier League clubs in the fourth round, the FA Cup draw has cooked up some interesting draws. The pick of the bunch is perhaps the Merseyside derby. Everton will be making the short trip to Anfield in the fourth round to take on cross-town rivals Liverpool.

Just when the window opened, some interesting deals have already been made. First of all, we should point out that teams that didn't do their job right this summer are now in the worst position. Teams like Blackpool, Norwich or Charlton have all been looking to fill in the squad with loanies and now, when [.

When the transfer window was brought in to the Premier League (being the last of the major European leagues to take up this format) it was met with a very mixed reception. Although it makes for some interesting television in the final few days, particularly in the January version, I believe that the transfer window [.

Awards on Thursday and Top 10 goals on Friday should wrap up the season review stuff unless something strikes me. In addition, there may be a review of the CL final tomorrow, depending on circumstances (yes, you know what I'm implying).
But first, relegation.
I don't know why the idea hadn't struck me sooner, but promotions and relegations affect Liverpool.

Michael Owen's transfer to Manchester United may not be the shock of the summer. Birmingham manager Alex McLeish is hitting the streets to find a new midfielder, and all rumors point to Joey Barton, Barry Ferguson, and... Patrick Vieira.

The former Arsenal captain has fallen hard and far from his days as a Premier League winner, and with his place in the Inter Milan squad all but gone, Vieira could be on the move this summer.

The Premier League kicks off tomorrow - here is the second part of our preview, you can read Part One here.

Man Utd

It could be a difficult season for United. Ronaldo is irreplaceable, and only time will tell if Owen is a suitable replacement for Tevez. Giggs, Scholes and Neville are all a season older.

The Premier League kicks off tomorrow - here is the second part of our preview, you can read Part One here.

Man Utd

It could be a difficult season for United. Ronaldo is irreplaceable, and only time will tell if Owen is a suitable replacement for Tevez. Giggs, Scholes and Neville are all a season older.

Gallery, images, photos and pictures of Manchester United v Birmingham City, Premier League, Round 1, the 15th of August.

This match has yet to start..

have defence Premier with victory City. scored goal game also chances it two.
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