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West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional
The club was founded as West Bromwich Strollers in 1878 by workers from George Salter's Spring Works in West Bromwich, in the
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
club based in West Bromwich
West Bromwich ( ), commonly known as West Brom, is a market town in the borough of Sandwell, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is northwes ...
, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship
The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, it is the highest divi ...
, the second level of the English football league
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...
. The club was formed in 1878 and has played at its home ground, The Hawthorns
The Hawthorns is an All-seater stadium, all-seater association football, football stadium in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, with a capacity of 26,688. It has been the home of EFL Championship, Championship club West Bromwich Albion F.C. ...
, since 1900.
Albion were a founder member of the Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...
in 1888
Events January
* January 3 – The great telescope (with an objective lens of diameter) at Lick Observatory in California is first used.
* January 12 – The Schoolhouse Blizzard hits Dakota Territory and the states of Montana, M ...
, the first professional football league in the world. The club has spent the majority of its existence in the top tier of English football, where it has played for 82 seasons, most recently competing in the Premier League
The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
in 2021. They have been champions of England once, in 1919–20, and have been runner-up twice, in 1924–25 and 1953–54. Albion have reached ten FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
finals and won the Cup on five occasions. The first win came in 1888
Events January
* January 3 – The great telescope (with an objective lens of diameter) at Lick Observatory in California is first used.
* January 12 – The Schoolhouse Blizzard hits Dakota Territory and the states of Montana, M ...
, the year the league was founded, followed by wins in 1892
In Samoa, this was the only leap year spanned to 367 days as July 4 repeated. This means that the International Date Line was drawn from the east of the country to go west.
Events
January
* January 1 – Ellis Island begins processing imm ...
, 1931
Events
January
* January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics.
* January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa.
* January 22 – Sir I ...
, 1954
Events
January
* January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting.
* January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...
and most recently in 1968
Events January–February
* January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously.
* January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...
, the club's last major trophy. Albion also won the Football League Cup
The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England.
Orga ...
at the first attempt in 1966
Events January
* January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko.
* January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...
, and have reached a further two finals. The club's longest continuous period in the top division spanned 24 years between 1949 and 1973, and from 1986 to 2002 it had its longest spell out of the top division.
The team have played in navy blue and white stripes for most of the club's history, and the club badge features a throstle perched on a hawthorn branch. Albion have long-standing rivalries with their traditional local rivals Aston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...
and Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...
. Albion contest the Black Country derby
The Black Country derby is the name given to any local derby between England, English association football, football teams West Bromwich Albion F.C., West Bromwich Albion, Walsall F.C, Walsall and Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., Wolverhampton Wan ...
with the latter.
History
Early years (1878–1950)
The club was founded as West Bromwich Strollers in 1878 by workers from George Salter's Spring Works in West Bromwich, in the Black Country
The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...
.McOwan pp. 7–10. They were renamed West Bromwich Albion in 1880, becoming the first team to adopt the ''Albion
Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than "Britain" today. The name for Scot ...
'' suffix; Albion was a district of West Bromwich where some of the players lived or worked, close to what is today Greets Green
Greets Green (usually pronounced 'Grits Green') is a residential area of West Bromwich in the West Midlands of England. The appropriate Sandwell ward is called Greets Green and Lyng. The population taken at the 2011 census was 11,769. It was most ...
. The club joined the Birmingham & District Football Association in 1881 and became eligible for their first competition, the Birmingham Cup. They reached the quarter-finals, beating several longer-established clubs on the way. In 1883, Albion won their first trophy, the Staffordshire Cup. Albion joined the Football Association
The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...
in the same year; this enabled them to enter the FA Cup for the first time in the 1883–84 season. In 1885 the club turned professional, and in 1886
Events January
* January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British rule in Burma, British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885.
* January 5–January 9, 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson ...
the team reached the FA Cup final for the first time, losing 2–0 to Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
in a replay. They reached the final again in 1887
Events January
* January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher.
* January 20
** The United States Senate allows the United States Navy to lease Pearl Har ...
, but lost 2–0 to Aston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...
. In 1888
Events January
* January 3 – The great telescope (with an objective lens of diameter) at Lick Observatory in California is first used.
* January 12 – The Schoolhouse Blizzard hits Dakota Territory and the states of Montana, M ...
the team won the trophy for the first time, beating strong favourites Preston North End
Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...
2–1 in the final. As FA Cup winners, they qualified to play in a Football World Championship
The Football World Championship, also known as the United Kingdom Championship or the International Club Championship, was an exhibition association football match played between the English and Scottish club champions (either national cup or lea ...
game against Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Renton, which ended in a 4–1 defeat.
In March 1888, William McGregor wrote to what he considered to be the top five English teams, including Albion, informing them of his intention to form an association of clubs that would play each other home and away each season. Thus when the
In 1953–54, Albion came close to being the first team in the 20th century to win the League and Cup double. They succeeded in winning the
Albion had spent the majority of their history in the top-flight of English football, but when the 
The appointment of
The speed with which the club became established following its foundation is illustrated by the fact that it outgrew four successive grounds in its first seven years. The first was Cooper's Hill, where they played from 1878 to 1879. From 1879 to 1881, they appear to have alternated between Cooper's Hill and Dartmouth Park. During the 1881–82 season, they played at Bunn's Field, also known as the Birches. This had a capacity of between 1,500 and 2,000, and was Albion's first enclosed ground, allowing the club to charge an entrance fee for the first time. From 1882 to 1885, as the popularity of football increased, Albion rented the Four Acres ground from the well-established West Bromwich Dartmouth Cricket Club. But they quickly outgrew this new home and soon needed to move again. From 1885 to 1900, Albion played at Stoney Lane; their tenure of this ground was arguably the most successful period in the club's history, as they won the FA Cup twice and were runners-up three times.
By 1900, when the lease on Stoney Lane expired, the club needed a bigger ground yet again and so made its last move to date. All of Albion's previous grounds had been close to the centre of West Bromwich, but on this occasion they took up a site on the town's border with Handsworth, West Midlands, Handsworth and Smethwick. The new ground was named
The official West Bromwich Albion Supporters Club was founded on 4 October 1951. In the years since then, over 30 branches have been established throughout the United Kingdom, and internationally in Jersey, Ireland, Spain, Malta, Croatia, USA, UAE, India, Thailand and Australia. There are also supporters groups for those with disabilities, for mental health support, Punjabis, Punjabi supporters, supporters in the emergency services and armed forces, and LGBT people.
Albion's "club anthem" is ''The Lord's my Shepherd'', a setting of Psalm 23. The song originated following a rare Sunday game in the 1970s and has been sung at matches ever since. Supporters of the team celebrate goals by bouncing up and down and chanting "Boing Boing". This dates back to the 1992–93 season, when the team was promoted from the new 
In 2002–03 Albion's fans were voted the best in the Premier League by their peers, while in the BBC's 2002 "national intelligence test" ''Test the Nation'', they were found to be "more likely to be smarter than any other football supporters, registering an average score of 138".
Famous fans include goalkeepers Aaron Ramsdale and Ben Foster (footballer), Ben Foster, comedian Frank Skinner, TV presenter Adrian Chiles, One Direction singer Liam Payne, comedian Lenny Henry, actress Julie Walters, The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, tennis players Ann Jones (tennis), Ann Jones and Goran Ivanišević, television presenter Cat Deeley, DJ Dave Haslam, boxers Richie Woodhall and Tommy Langford, and guitarist Eric Clapton.
Although known in their early days as ''"the Throstles"'', the club's more popular nickname among supporters came to be ''the Baggies'', a term which the club itself looked down upon for many years but later embraced. The phrase was first heard at the Hawthorns in the 1900s, but its exact origins are uncertain.McOwan pp. 38–40. One suggestion is that the name was bestowed on Albion supporters by their rivals at
In the club's formative years, West Bromwich Albion were run by a seven-man playing committee, and funded by each member contributing a weekly subscription of 6d (Sixpence (British coin), six pence) (2p). Albion's first chairman was Henry Jackson (football manager), Henry Jackson, appointed in 1885, with the club becoming a limited company in June 1891.Matthews
(2005) pp. 267–269. Other early chairmen of Albion included Jem Bayliss and Billy Bassett, both of whom had earlier played for the club. Indeed, from 1878 to 1986 there was always an Albion player or ex-player on the club's committee or board of directors. Bassett became an Albion director in 1905, following the resignation of the previous board in its entirety. The club was in deep financial trouble and had had a writ served upon them by their bank, but Bassett and returning chairman Harry Keys rescued the club, aided by local fund-raising activities. Bassett became chairman in 1908, and helped the club to avoid bankruptcy once more in 1910 by paying the players' summer wages from his own pocket. He remains Albion's longest-serving chairman, having held the position until his death in 1937. The club's longest-serving director was Major H. Wilson Keys, during the period 1930–1965, including 15 years as chairman. He became vice-president of the The Football Association, Football Association in 1969. Sir Bert Millichip served as Albion chairman from 1974 to 1983, after which he chose to concentrate on his role as chairman of the Football Association.
In 1996, the club became a public limited company, issuing shares to supporters at £500 and £3,000 each, under the Chairmanship of Paul Thompson. The shares were quoted on the Alternative Investment Market, but the club withdrew from the stock exchange in order to become a private company again in 2004. The name of the company thus reverted from West Bromwich Albion plc to West Bromwich Albion Limited, the latter becoming a subsidiary of West Bromwich Albion Holdings Limited.
Other notable honours bestowed upon West Brom players include the PFA Young Player of the Year award, which was presented to Cyrille Regis in 1979. In 1998, Billy Bassett and Bryan Robson were named among the list of Football League 100 Legends, along with Arthur Rowley, Geoff Hurst and
The following managers have all led West Bromwich Albion to at least one of the following achievements while in charge of the club: winning a major trophy or reaching the final, achieving a top three league finish in the top flight, winning promotion or reaching the quarter-finals of a major European competition.
West Bromwich Albion's record victory was their 12–0 league win against Darwen F.C. (1870), Darwen on 4 April 1892. This is still the widest margin of victory for a game in the top-flight of English football, although the record was equalled by Nottingham Forest F.C., Nottingham Forest when they beat Leicester City F.C., Leicester Fosse by the same scoreline in 1909. Albion's biggest FA Cup victory came when they beat Chatham 10–1 on 2 March 1889. The club's record league defeat was a 3–10 loss against Stoke City F.C., Stoke City on 4 February 1937, while a 0–5 defeat to Leeds United F.C., Leeds United on 18 February 1967 represents Albion's heaviest FA Cup loss.
Tony Brown (footballer, born 1945), Tony Brown holds a number of Albion's club records. He has made the most appearances overall for the club (720), as well as most appearances in the league (574), FA Cup (54) and in European competition (17). Brown is the club's top scorer in the league (218), the FA Cup (27) and in Europe (8). He is also the club's record scorer overall, with 279 goals. W. G. Richardson scored 328 goals for the club, but this includes 100 during World War II, which are not normally counted towards competitive totals. Richardson holds the club record for most league goals in a single season, scoring 39 times in 1935–36.
Albion's most capped international player, taking into account only those caps won whilst at the club, is Chris Brunt. He appeared 55 times for Northern Ireland national football team, Northern Ireland as an Albion player, earning 65 caps in total before retiring from international football in 2017. Jesse Pennington is the club's most capped England international, with 25 caps.Matthews (2007) pp. 404–405. The highest transfer fee paid by the club is £15 million to RB Leipzig for Oliver Burke on 25 August 2017. The record transfer fee received by Albion from another club was for the transfer of Salomón Rondón to Dalian Yifang in July 2019 for £16.5 million.
League
*
Official Supporters Club
(archived)
Former Players AssociationWomen's teamWest Bromwich Albion F.C. – Official Hospitality website
. {{Authority control West Bromwich Albion F.C., Football clubs in the West Midlands (county) The Football League founder members Association football clubs established in 1878 English Football League clubs West Bromwich FA Cup winners EFL Cup winners 1878 establishments in England Football clubs in England Premier League clubs
In March 1888, William McGregor wrote to what he considered to be the top five English teams, including Albion, informing them of his intention to form an association of clubs that would play each other home and away each season. Thus when the Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...
started later that year, Albion became one of the twelve founder members. Albion's second FA Cup success came in 1892
In Samoa, this was the only leap year spanned to 367 days as July 4 repeated. This means that the International Date Line was drawn from the east of the country to go west.
Events
January
* January 1 – Ellis Island begins processing imm ...
, beating Aston Villa 3–0. They met Villa again in the 1895
Events January
* January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island (off French Guiana) on what is much later admitted to be a false charge of tr ...
final, but lost 1–0. The team suffered relegation to Division Two in 1900–01, their first season at The Hawthorns
The Hawthorns is an All-seater stadium, all-seater association football, football stadium in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, with a capacity of 26,688. It has been the home of EFL Championship, Championship club West Bromwich Albion F.C. ...
. They were promoted as champions the following season but relegated again in 1903–04. The club won the Division Two championship once more in 1910–11, and the following season reached another FA Cup Final
The FA Cup Final is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attendance of 89,472 ...
, where they were defeated by Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
Barnsley
Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...
in a replay.
Albion won the Football League title in 1919–20 for the only time in their history following the end of World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, their totals of 104 goals and 60 points both breaking the previous league records. The team finished as Division One runners-up in 1924–25, narrowly losing out to Huddersfield Town
Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football league system, English football.
Huddersfield Town we ...
, but were relegated in 1926–27. In 1930–31, they won promotion as well as the FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
, beating Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
2–1 in the final. The "double" of winning the FA Cup and promotion has not been achieved before or since. Albion reached the final again in 1935
Events
January
* January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims.
* January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...
, losing to Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system.
Formed in 1867 as an off ...
, but were relegated three years later. They gained promotion in 1948–49, and there followed the club's longest unbroken spell in the top flight of English football, a total of 24 years.
Success and decline (1950–1992)
In 1953–54, Albion came close to being the first team in the 20th century to win the League and Cup double. They succeeded in winning the FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
, beating Preston North End 3–2, but injuries and a loss of form towards the end of the season meant that they finished as runners-up to fierce rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...
in the league. Nonetheless, Albion became known for their brand of fluent, attacking football, with the 1953–54 side being hailed as the "Team of the Century". One national newspaper went so far as to suggest that the team be chosen ''en masse'' to represent England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
at the 1954 FIFA World Cup
The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the 5th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June ...
finals. They remained one of the top English sides for the remainder of the decade, reaching the semi-final of the 1957 FA Cup and achieving three consecutive top five finishes in Division One between 1957–58 and 1959–60.
Although their league form was less impressive during the 1960s, the second half of the decade saw West Brom establish a reputation as a successful cup side. Albion entered the Football League Cup for the first time in 1965–66 and, under manager Jimmy Hagan
James Hagan (21 January 1918 – 26 February 1998) was an English association football, football player and manager. He played between 1938 and 1958 for Sheffield United F.C., Sheffield United and once for England national football team, Engla ...
, won the final by defeating West Ham United
West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...
5–3 on aggregate. That was the last two-legged
In sports (especially association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum of ...
final and, the following year, Albion reached the final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...
again, the first played at Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...
. They lost 3–2 to Third Division Queens Park Rangers
Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...
after being 2–0 up at half-time. Albion's cup form continued under Hagan's successor Alan Ashman. He guided the club to their last major trophy to date, the 1968 FA Cup, when they beat Everton in extra time
Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...
thanks to a single goal from Jeff Astle
Jeffrey Astle (13 May 1942 – 19 January 2002) was an English professional footballer who played the majority of his career as a centre-forward for West Bromwich Albion. Nicknamed "the King" by the club's fans, he played 361 games for them an ...
. Albion reached the FA Cup semi-final and European Cup Winners Cup
The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renamed the UEFA Cup Winne ...
quarter-final in 1969
1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...
, and were defeated 2–1 by Manchester City
Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...
in the 1970 League Cup Final.
The club were less successful during the reign of Don Howe
Donald Howe (12 October 1935 – 23 December 2015) was an English football player, coach, manager and pundit. As a right back Howe featured for clubs West Bromwich Albion and Arsenal together with the England national football team in his pla ...
, and were relegated to Division Two at the end of 1972–73, but gained promotion three years later under the guidance of player-manager Johnny Giles
Michael John Giles (born 6 November 1940) is an Irish former association football player and manager best remembered for his time as a midfielder with Leeds United in the 1960s and 1970s. After retiring from management in 1985, Giles served as ...
. Under Ron Atkinson
Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939) is an English former football player and manager. Nicknamed "Big Ron", he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Nicknamed "The Tank" during his ...
, Albion reached the 1978 FA Cup semi-final but lost to Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football.
Ipswich Town were founded in 1878 but did not turn ...
. In May of that year, Albion became the first English professional team to play in China, going unbeaten on their five-game trip. In 1978–79, the team finished third in Division One, their highest placing for over 20 years, and also reached the UEFA Cup
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star.
Computer scientists and Mathematici ...
quarter-final, where they were defeated by Red Star Belgrade
Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club), commonly referred to as Crvena zvezda () and colloquially referred to as Red Star Belgrade in anglophone media, is a ...
. The team around this time was notable for simultaneously fielding three black players: Cyrille Regis
Cyrille Regis (9 February 1958 – 14 January 2018) was a professional footballer who played as a forward. His professional playing career spanned 19 years, where he made 614 league appearances and scored 158 league goals, most prolifically at ...
, Laurie Cunningham
Laurence Paul Cunningham (8 March 1956 – 15 July 1989) was an English professional footballer who played as a left winger. He notably played in England, France, and Spain, where he became the first-ever English player to sign for Real Madr ...
and Brendon Batson; and is considered to be an integral part of the acceptance of black footballers in the English leagues. In his second spell as manager, Ronnie Allen
Ronald Allen (15 January 1929 – 9 June 2001) was an English international football player and manager. He was a professional footballer for 19 years, between 1946 and 1964, making 638 appearances in the Football League and scoring 276 goals. ...
guided the team to both domestic cup semi-finals in 1981–82. The mid-1980s saw the start of Albion's longest and deepest decline. They were relegated in 1985–86 with the worst record in the club's history, beginning a period of 16 years outside the top flight. Five years later, the club were relegated to the Third Division for the first and only time.
Recent years (1992–present)
Albion had spent the majority of their history in the top-flight of English football, but when the Premier League
The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
was founded in 1992 the club found themselves in the third tier, which had been renamed Division Two Division II or Division 2 may refer to:
Sports
* NCAA Division II, an intermediate-level division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association
* Division 2 (Swedish football)
* Division 2 (Swedish ice hockey), the fourth tier of ice hockey in S ...
. In 1992–93, Albion finished fourth and entered the play-offs
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
for the first time. Albion's first appearance at Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...
for over 20 years – and their last at the original stadium – saw them beat Port Vale
Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in , the third tier of the English football league system. Vale are named after the valley of ports on the Trent and Mersey Canal ...
3–0 to return to the second level – now renamed the First Division 1st Division or First Division may refer to:
Military
Airborne divisions
*1st Parachute Division (Germany)
*1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom)
* 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine)
* 1st Guards Airborne Division
Armoured divisions
*1st Armoure ...
. Manager Ossie Ardiles
Osvaldo César Ardiles (born 3 August 1952), more commonly known as Ossie Ardiles, is an Argentine football manager, pundit and former player.
A competitive and skilled midfielder, Ardiles became a cult hero in England, along with Glenn Hoddl ...
then joined Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...
, however, and a succession of managers over the next few seasons saw Albion consolidate their Division One status without mounting a serious promotion challenge.
The appointment of Gary Megson
Gary John Megson (born 2 May 1959) is an English former football player and manager.
He has previously managed Norwich City, Blackpool, Stockport County, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Nottingham Forest, Leicester City, Bolton Wanderers and ...
in March 2000 heralded an upturn in the club's fortunes. Megson guided Albion to Division One safety in 1999–2000, and to the play-offs a year later. He went on to lead the club to promotion to the Premier League in 2001–02. After being relegated in their first Premier League season, they made an immediate return to the top flight in 2003–04. In 2004–05, Megson's successor, former Albion midfielder Bryan Robson
Bryan Robson (born 11 January 1957) is an English association football, football manager and former player. He began his career with West Bromwich Albion F.C., West Bromwich Albion in 1972, where he amassed over 200 appearances and was club ca ...
, led the team to a last-day "Great Escape", when Albion became the first Premier League club to avoid relegation having been bottom of the table at Christmas, as well as bottom on the final day of the season. They failed to avoid the drop the following season, and Robson was replaced by Tony Mowbray
Anthony Mark Mowbray (born 22 November 1963) is an English football manager and former footballer who was most recently the manager of EFL Championship club West Bromwich Albion. Mowbray played for Middlesbrough, Celtic and Ipswich Town as a d ...
in October 2006. The club competed in the Championship play-off
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this syst ...
final at Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...
on 28 May 2007, but lost 1–0 to Derby County
Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system.
One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...
. The following season, Mowbray led the Baggies to Wembley again, this time in the semi-finals of the FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
, where they lost 1–0 to Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...
. One month later, Albion were promoted to the Premier League as winners of the Championship, but were relegated at the end of the 2008–09 campaign. Mowbray left the club and was replaced by Roberto Di Matteo
Roberto Di Matteo (; born 29 May 1970) is an Italian professional football manager and former player.
A midfielder, he played for Swiss clubs Schaffhausen, Zürich and Aarau early in his career. After winning the Swiss league title with Aarau i ...
, who led the club back to the Premier League at the first attempt, but was dismissed in February 2011 and replaced by Roy Hodgson
Roy Hodgson (born 9 August 1947) is an English former football manager and player.
He has managed 22 different teams in eight countries, beginning in Sweden with Halmstad in the 1976 season. He later guided the Switzerland national team to t ...
.
Hodgson guided Albion to an 11th-place finish for the 2010–11
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...
season. Then followed an eight-season continuous run in the Premier League
The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
. It included an 8th-place finish in 2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...
under Steve Clarke
Stephen Clarke (born 29 August 1963) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Scotland national team.
Clarke played for St Mirren, Chelsea and the Scotland national team, winning three majo ...
, and 10th-place finishes under Roy Hodgson in 2011–12 and Tony Pulis
Anthony Richard Pulis (; born 16 January 1958) is a Welsh former professional football manager and former footballer who last managed Sheffield Wednesday.
Pulis obtained his FA coaching badge at age 19, followed by his UEFA 'A' licence aged 2 ...
in 2016–17. In August 2016, it was announced that long-term owner Jeremy Peace
Jeremy Roland Peace (born 13 August 1956) is a British businessman, and the former chairman and owner of West Bromwich Albion F.C, a professional association football, football Club (organization), club in the West Midlands (county), West Midland ...
had sold the club to a Chinese investment group headed up by Lai Guochuan. By this time, the club had begun to fall into a state of torpor, and were relegated at the end of the 2017–18 season, ending their eight-year Premier League stay. Pulis and his replacement Alan Pardew
Alan Scott Pardew (born 18 July 1961) is an English football manager and former professional footballer, who most recently managed Greek Super League club Aris Thessaloniki.
Pardew's highest achievements in the sport include reaching the FA Cup ...
were both dismissed during the season. Albion finished fourth in their first season back in the Championship under the management of Darren Moore
Darren Mark Moore (born 22 April 1974) is a professional football manager and former player who played as a centre-back. He is the manager of club Port Vale.
Moore was born in Birmingham, though represented Jamaica at international level. He ...
, losing the Championship play-off semi-final on penalties.
Slaven Bilić
Slaven Bilić (; born 11 September 1968) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player.
Bilić, who played as a defender, began his career in 1988 with his hometown club Hajduk Split, later having successful spells with Karls ...
took over as manager in June 2019, and led Albion to automatic promotion back to the Premier League during the 2019–20 season. Back in the Premier League, Bilić was controversially sacked on 16 December 2020, with Sam Allardyce
Samuel Allardyce (born 19 October 1954) is an English football manager and former professional player. Allardyce made 578 league and cup appearances in a 21-year career spent mostly in the Football League, as well as brief spells in the North ...
named as his replacement the same day. After Albion were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2020–21
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...
season, Allardyce resigned from his position. The club endured disappointing results back in the Championship during the tenures of Valérien Ismaël
Valérien Alexandre Ismaël (born 28 September 1975) is a French professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of EFL Championship club Blackburn Rovers.
A centre-back, Ismaël played for Strasbourg, Crystal Palace, Len ...
and Steve Bruce
Stephen Roger Bruce (born 31 December 1960) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player who was a centre-back in a twenty-year playing career. He is currently the head coa ...
, who left the club in the relegation places in the 2022–23
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...
season. Carlos Corberán
Carlos Corberán Vallet (born 7 April 1983) is a Spanish Association football, football Coach (sport), coach and former Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper who is currently head coach of La Liga club Valencia CF, Valencia.
Previously ...
was named as successor on 25 October 2022. He guided Albion to a 5th-place finish and the play-off semi-finals at the end of the 2023–24 season.
In February 2024, the English Football League approved a takeover of the club by American entrepreneur Shilen Patel.
Crest and colours
Badge
Albion's main club badge dates back to the late 1880s, when club secretary Tom Smith suggested that a throstle (song thrush) sitting on acrossbar
Crossbar may refer to:
Structures
* Latch (hardware), a post barring a door
* Top tube of a bicycle frame
* Crossbar, the horizontal member of various sports goals
* Crossbar, a horizontal member of an electricity pylon
Other
* In electroni ...
be adopted for the badge.McOwan p. 15. The badge has been subject to various revisions since then. It has always featured a throstle, usually on a blue and white striped shield, although the crossbar was replaced with a hawthorn branch at some point after the club's move to the Hawthorns
The Hawthorns is an All-seater stadium, all-seater association football, football stadium in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, with a capacity of 26,688. It has been the home of EFL Championship, Championship club West Bromwich Albion F.C. ...
. The throstle was chosen because the public house
A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...
in which the team used to change kept a pet thrush in a cage. It also gave rise to Albion's early nickname, ''the Throstles''. The hawthorn bush is also a favourite bush of throstles, which were regularly seen on the pre-stadium estate and local area. As late as the 1930s, a caged throstle was placed beside the touchline during matches and it was said that it only used to sing if Albion were winning. In 1979, an effigy of a throstle was erected above the half-time scoreboard of the Woodman corner at the Hawthorns, and was returned to the same area of the ground following redevelopment in the early 2000s.
In 1975, a version of the badge (on a roundel
A roundel is a circular disc used as a symbol. The term is used in heraldry, but also commonly used to refer to a type of national insignia used on military aircraft, generally circular in shape and usually comprising concentric rings of differ ...
rather than a shield) was granted by the College of Arms
The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional Officer of Arms, officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the ...
to the Football League for licensing to the club. The badge was described in heraldic blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...
as, "On a roundel paly of thirteen argent and azure a mistle thrush
The mistle thrush (''Turdus viscivorus'') is a bird common to much of Europe, Palearctic, temperate Asia and North Africa. It is a year-round resident in a large part of its range, but northern and eastern populations bird migration, migrate s ...
perched on a raspberry
The raspberry is the edible fruit of several plant species in the genus ''Rubus'' of the Rosaceae, rose family, most of which are in the subgenus ''Rubus#Modern classification, Idaeobatus''. The name also applies to these plants themselves. Ras ...
branch leaved and fructed proper." This is the only known occasion on which the branch has been described as a raspberry branch rather than a hawthorn branch: Rodney Dennys
Rodney Onslow Dennys, (16 July 1911 – 13 August 1993) was a British foreign service operative and long-serving officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. During World War II he served in the Intelligence Corps of the British Army. ...
, the officer of arms
An officer of arms is a person appointed by a sovereign or state with authority to perform one or more of the following functions:
* to control and initiate armorial matters;
* to arrange and participate in ceremonies of state;
* to conserve ...
responsible, may have been imperfectly briefed.
The badge was re-designed in 2006, incorporating the name of the club for the first time. The new design aimed to safeguard and consolidate the club's identity. Prior to this, the main club badge rarely coincided with that worn on the first team strip. No badge appeared on the kit for most of the club's history, although the Stafford knot
The Stafford knot, more commonly known as the Staffordshire knot, is a distinctive three-looped knot that is the traditional symbol of the English county of Staffordshire and of its county town, Stafford. It is a particular representation of the s ...
featured on the team jerseys for part of the 1880s.Matthews (2007) p. 64. The West Bromwich
West Bromwich ( ), commonly known as West Brom, is a market town in the borough of Sandwell, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is northwes ...
town arms
Arms or ARMS may refer to:
*Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body
Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to:
People
* Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader
Coat of arms or weapons
*Armaments or weapons
**Fi ...
were worn on the players' shirts for the 1931
Events
January
* January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics.
* January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa.
* January 22 – Sir I ...
, 1935
Events
January
* January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims.
* January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...
and 1954
Events
January
* January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting.
* January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...
FA Cup finals. The town's Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
motto, "'' Labor omnia vincit''", translates as "labour conquers all things" or "work conquers all". The town arms were revived as the shirt badge from 1994 until 2000, with the throstle moved to the collar of the shirts.
Albion's first regular shirt badge appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s where it was blue. Although it featured the throstle, it did not include the blue and white striped shield of the club badge. A similar design was also used during the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the mid-1970s, a more abstract version of the throstle was used on the club's shirts, while in the late 1970s through to the mid-1980s, an embroidered WBA logo was displayed, a common abbreviation of the club's name in print. Not until the early 21st century did the full club badge appear on the team's shirts.
Colours
West Brom have played in navy blue and white striped shirts for the majority of their existence, usually with white shorts and white socks. The team is occasionally referred to as ''the Stripes'' by supporters. A number of different colours were trialled during the club's formative years however, including cardinal red and blue quarters in 1880–81, yellow and white quarters in 1881–82, chocolate and blue halves in 1881–82 and 1882–83, red and white hoops in 1882–83, chocolate and white in 1883–84 and cardinal red and blue halves in 1884–85. The blue and white stripes made their first appearance in the 1885–86 season, although at that time they were of a lighter shade of blue; the navy blue stripes did not appear until after the First World War. For the regional leagues played during the Second World War, Albion were forced to switch to all-blue shirts, asrationing
Rationing is the controlled distribution (marketing), distribution of scarcity, scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resourc ...
meant that striped material was considered a luxury.
Like all football clubs, Albion sport a secondary or "change" strip when playing away from home against a team whose colours clash with their own. As long ago as the 1890s, and throughout much of the club's early history, a change strip of white jerseys with black shorts was worn.Matthews (1987) p. 241. The away shirt additionally featured a large 'V' during the First World War. In the 1935 FA Cup Final, however, when both of Albion and Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system.
Formed in 1867 as an off ...
's kits clashed, a switch was made to plain navy blue shirts. An all-red strip was adopted at the end of the 1950s, but was dropped following defeat in the 1967 Football League Cup Final, 1967 League Cup Final, to be replaced by the all-white design that was worn during the club's 1967–68 FA Cup, FA Cup run of 1967–68. Since then the away strip has changed regularly, with yellow and green stripes the most common of a number of different designs used. In the 1990s and 2000s a third kit has occasionally been introduced.
Albion players – along with those of other English Football League, Football League teams – first wore numbers on the back of their shirts in the abandoned season of 1939–40, and names on the back of their shirts from 1999–2000. Red numbers were added to the side of Albion players' shorts in 1969.
Kit sponsors
BSR Housewares became the club's first shirt English football sponsorship, sponsor during the 1981–82 season. The club's shirts have been sponsored for the majority of the time since then, although there was no shirt sponsor at the end of the 1993–94 season, after local solicitors Coucher & Shaw were closed down by the Law Society of England and Wales. Unusually for a Premier League club, Albion were again without a shirt sponsor for the start of the 2008–09 campaign, as negotiations with a new sponsor were still ongoing when the season began. The longest-running shirt sponsorship deal agreed by the club ran for seven seasons between 1997 and 2004 with the West Bromwich Building Society. Today the club's principal sponsor is Ideal Heating. Since June 2024, West Brom's Kit (football), kit has been manufactured by Macron (sportswear), Macron. Previous manufacturers have included Scoreline, Influence, Pelada, Patrick (sportswear company), Patrick, Diadora, Umbro, Adidas and Puma (brand), Puma.Stadium
The speed with which the club became established following its foundation is illustrated by the fact that it outgrew four successive grounds in its first seven years. The first was Cooper's Hill, where they played from 1878 to 1879. From 1879 to 1881, they appear to have alternated between Cooper's Hill and Dartmouth Park. During the 1881–82 season, they played at Bunn's Field, also known as the Birches. This had a capacity of between 1,500 and 2,000, and was Albion's first enclosed ground, allowing the club to charge an entrance fee for the first time. From 1882 to 1885, as the popularity of football increased, Albion rented the Four Acres ground from the well-established West Bromwich Dartmouth Cricket Club. But they quickly outgrew this new home and soon needed to move again. From 1885 to 1900, Albion played at Stoney Lane; their tenure of this ground was arguably the most successful period in the club's history, as they won the FA Cup twice and were runners-up three times.
By 1900, when the lease on Stoney Lane expired, the club needed a bigger ground yet again and so made its last move to date. All of Albion's previous grounds had been close to the centre of West Bromwich, but on this occasion they took up a site on the town's border with Handsworth, West Midlands, Handsworth and Smethwick. The new ground was named The Hawthorns
The Hawthorns is an All-seater stadium, all-seater association football, football stadium in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, with a capacity of 26,688. It has been the home of EFL Championship, Championship club West Bromwich Albion F.C. ...
, after the hawthorn bushes that covered the area and were cleared to make way for it. Albion drew 1–1 with Derby County
Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system.
One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...
in the first match at the stadium, on 3 September 1900. The record attendance at the Hawthorns was on 6 March 1937, when 64,815 spectators saw Albion beat Arsenal F.C., Arsenal 3–1 in the FA Cup quarter-final. The Hawthorns became an all-seater stadium in the 1990s, in order to comply with the recommendations of the Taylor Report. Its capacity today is 26,688, the four stands being known respectively as the Birmingham Road End, Smethwick End, East Stand and West Stand (Halfords Lane). At an altitude of 551 feet (168 m) above sea level, the Hawthorns is the highest of all the 92 Premier League and Football League grounds.
The Hawthorns is certificated under the highest UEFA pitch surfaces which means it is ready to host almost any competition if required. The stadium's West Stand has the potential to be developed over the Halfords Lane at the back of the stand to allow for an upper tier, bringing the capacity of The Hawthorns to around 30,000.
West Bromwich Albion own retail outlets around The Hawthorns, including its Stadium Megastore and seasonally a club store in West Bromwich
West Bromwich ( ), commonly known as West Brom, is a market town in the borough of Sandwell, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is northwes ...
town centre. They also own the former Hawthorns Pub, a Grade II listed building behind the West Stand on the corner of Halfords Lane and the Birmingham Road. This has served as the official club fanzone with licensed bars, live music, fan favourites – such as mascots and children activities – as well as being shared with a high street food outlet. The pub competes with The Vine pub in Roebuck Lane, a popular destination for visiting and home football fans year-round.
Supporters
Fan culture
The official West Bromwich Albion Supporters Club was founded on 4 October 1951. In the years since then, over 30 branches have been established throughout the United Kingdom, and internationally in Jersey, Ireland, Spain, Malta, Croatia, USA, UAE, India, Thailand and Australia. There are also supporters groups for those with disabilities, for mental health support, Punjabis, Punjabi supporters, supporters in the emergency services and armed forces, and LGBT people.
Albion's "club anthem" is ''The Lord's my Shepherd'', a setting of Psalm 23. The song originated following a rare Sunday game in the 1970s and has been sung at matches ever since. Supporters of the team celebrate goals by bouncing up and down and chanting "Boing Boing". This dates back to the 1992–93 season, when the team was promoted from the new Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
, with the origin of the chant still unclear. ''The Liquidator (instrumental), The Liquidator'' instrumental by the Harry J. Allstars has also been popularly played in the stadium and sung to since the late 1960s. The reggae song ''"West Bromwich Albion"'' by Ray King is another club anthem popularly played before matches. In recent years fans of the team have celebrated the end of each season by adopting a Costume party, fancy dress theme for the final away match, including dressing as Vikings in 2004 in honour of Player of the Season Thomas Gaardsøe.
In 2002–03 Albion's fans were voted the best in the Premier League by their peers, while in the BBC's 2002 "national intelligence test" ''Test the Nation'', they were found to be "more likely to be smarter than any other football supporters, registering an average score of 138".
Famous fans include goalkeepers Aaron Ramsdale and Ben Foster (footballer), Ben Foster, comedian Frank Skinner, TV presenter Adrian Chiles, One Direction singer Liam Payne, comedian Lenny Henry, actress Julie Walters, The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, tennis players Ann Jones (tennis), Ann Jones and Goran Ivanišević, television presenter Cat Deeley, DJ Dave Haslam, boxers Richie Woodhall and Tommy Langford, and guitarist Eric Clapton.
Publications
The club has published an official matchday Football programme, programme for supporters since 1905. The publication was entitled ''Albion News'' for many years, but was renamed ''Albion'' from the 2002–03 season until the close season of 2013, when it was renamed back to ''Albion News''. It won Premier League Programme of the Year in 2002–03 and Third Division Programme of the Year in 1991–92. In 2007–08, it was awarded Championship Programme of the Year by both Programme Monthly and the Football Programme Directory. The programme has a circulation in excess of 8,000 copies. The first West Bromwich Albion fanzine, ''Fingerpost'', was published from 1983 until 1992, and was followed by several others, most notably ''Grorty Dick'' (1989–2005) and ''Last Train to Rolfe Street'' (1992–1995). Since ''Grorty Dick'' ceased publication in 2005, the club now only has one fanzine dedicated to it; 'Baggie Shorts' which is produced by the West Bromwich Albion Supporters' Club London Branch."Baggies" nickname
Although known in their early days as ''"the Throstles"'', the club's more popular nickname among supporters came to be ''the Baggies'', a term which the club itself looked down upon for many years but later embraced. The phrase was first heard at the Hawthorns in the 1900s, but its exact origins are uncertain.McOwan pp. 38–40. One suggestion is that the name was bestowed on Albion supporters by their rivals at Aston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...
, because of the large baggy trousers that many Albion fans wore at work to protect themselves from molten iron in the factories and foundries of the Black Country
The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...
. Club historian Tony Matthews, however, suggests that it derives from the "bagmen", who carried the club's matchday takings in big leather bags from the turnstiles to the cash office on the halfway line. Other theories relate to the baggy shorts worn by various players during the club's early years. The official club mascots are named ''Baggie Bird'' and ''Albi''; both are based on the throstle depicted on the club crest.
Rivalries
Historically, Albion's greatest rivals wereAston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...
from nearby Birmingham. The two clubs contested three FA Cup Finals between 1887 and 1895 (Villa winning two and Albion one). More recently, however, some Albion fans tend to see Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...
as their main rivals, particularly as between 1989 and 2002 Albion and Villa were never in the same division, but Albion were in the same division as Wolves for 11 out of 14 seasons. This had led to Aston Villa supporters now considering Birmingham City F.C., Birmingham City to be their fiercest rivals. A less-heated rivalry also exists with Birmingham City, with whom Albion contested the 1931 FA Cup final, as well as a semi-final in 1968.
A number of hooligan firms associate themselves with Albion, including Section 5 (hooligan firm), Section 5, Clubhouse and the Smethwick Mob.
Black Country derby
Albion and Wolves contest theBlack Country derby
The Black Country derby is the name given to any local derby between England, English association football, football teams West Bromwich Albion F.C., West Bromwich Albion, Walsall F.C, Walsall and Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., Wolverhampton Wan ...
, one of the longest standing derbies in world football. It is considered one of the fiercest rivalries in English football. A 2008 survey found it to be the most intense rivalry in the country, with one in four fans from both clubs claiming that their rivalry went much deeper than football. The two sides have played each other 160 times, with their first major clash being an FA Cup tie in 1886. Both Albion and Wolves were founding members of the Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...
in 1888
Events January
* January 3 – The great telescope (with an objective lens of diameter) at Lick Observatory in California is first used.
* January 12 – The Schoolhouse Blizzard hits Dakota Territory and the states of Montana, M ...
, making the derby the joint oldest in English league football.
The rivalry came to prominence when the two clubs contested the league title in 1953–54, and during the 1990s it intensified to new heights among supporters, with both clubs languishing in Division One for much of the decade and only local pride at stake. Moreover, in 2002 Albion came from being 11 points adrift to overhaul Wolves to gain promotion. The rivalry was further heightened after the sides met in the play-offs in 2007. A 2004 survey by Planetfootball.com confirmed that the majority of both Albion and Wolves supporters consider the other to be their main rival. In February 2012 the Baggies beat Wolves 5–1 away from home, with Peter Odemwingie scoring a hat-trick. The game became known as the 'demolition derby', and remains the highest scoring Black Country derby of the 21st century. Despite their geographical location, fellow Black Country club Walsall F.C., Walsall are seen as lesser rivals, having played in a lower division than Albion for most of their history.
Rivalry with Aston Villa
Ranked by ''The Daily Telegraph'' in 2010 as the most fierce in the region, games betweenAston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...
and West Brom are particularly ferocious. The two first met on 9 December 1882, in the second round of the Staffordshire Cup: Villa hosted a 3–3 draw in front of 13,900 fans, while in the replay West Brom won by a single goal with an attendance of 10,500. On 3 January 1885, they met for the first time in the third round of the FA Cup: a goalless draw at West Brom was followed by a 3–0 victory for them away at Villa. The following year, both teams became founder members of the Football League. They met first in a league fixture on 19 January 1889, Villa winning 2–0 at home, before a draw the next week ending 3–3. The two teams met in two further FA Cup finals in the 19th century, a 3–0 win for West Brom in 1892
In Samoa, this was the only leap year spanned to 367 days as July 4 repeated. This means that the International Date Line was drawn from the east of the country to go west.
Events
January
* January 1 – Ellis Island begins processing imm ...
and a 1–0 win for Aston Villa in 1895
Events January
* January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island (off French Guiana) on what is much later admitted to be a false charge of tr ...
.
Birmingham City were relegated from the Premier League in 2011 and Wolverhampton Wanderers a season later, leaving Aston Villa and West Brom as the only West Midlands teams in England's top division. Without their respective main rivals and with Albion finishing above their nearest rivals for the second season in a row, the historic rivalry was rekindled to pre-1990s competitiveness. At the end of the 2015–16 Premier League, 2015–16 season, Aston Villa were relegated, leaving West Brom as the only West Midlands team in the top flight for the 2016–17 Premier League, 2016–17 season. After Albion's relegation at the end of the 2017–18 Premier League, the teams faced each other in the Championship. In the 2019 English Football League play-offs, 2018–19 EFL Championship play-off semi-finals, Villa controversially knocked out Albion on penalties, after the Albion had two men sent-off over both legs.
Ownership and governance
''As of 1 September 2024'':Board of directors
Senior management
History of Albion's ownership and governance
In the club's formative years, West Bromwich Albion were run by a seven-man playing committee, and funded by each member contributing a weekly subscription of 6d (Sixpence (British coin), six pence) (2p). Albion's first chairman was Henry Jackson (football manager), Henry Jackson, appointed in 1885, with the club becoming a limited company in June 1891.Matthews
(2005) pp. 267–269. Other early chairmen of Albion included Jem Bayliss and Billy Bassett, both of whom had earlier played for the club. Indeed, from 1878 to 1986 there was always an Albion player or ex-player on the club's committee or board of directors. Bassett became an Albion director in 1905, following the resignation of the previous board in its entirety. The club was in deep financial trouble and had had a writ served upon them by their bank, but Bassett and returning chairman Harry Keys rescued the club, aided by local fund-raising activities. Bassett became chairman in 1908, and helped the club to avoid bankruptcy once more in 1910 by paying the players' summer wages from his own pocket. He remains Albion's longest-serving chairman, having held the position until his death in 1937. The club's longest-serving director was Major H. Wilson Keys, during the period 1930–1965, including 15 years as chairman. He became vice-president of the The Football Association, Football Association in 1969. Sir Bert Millichip served as Albion chairman from 1974 to 1983, after which he chose to concentrate on his role as chairman of the Football Association.
In 1996, the club became a public limited company, issuing shares to supporters at £500 and £3,000 each, under the Chairmanship of Paul Thompson. The shares were quoted on the Alternative Investment Market, but the club withdrew from the stock exchange in order to become a private company again in 2004. The name of the company thus reverted from West Bromwich Albion plc to West Bromwich Albion Limited, the latter becoming a subsidiary of West Bromwich Albion Holdings Limited. Jeremy Peace
Jeremy Roland Peace (born 13 August 1956) is a British businessman, and the former chairman and owner of West Bromwich Albion F.C, a professional association football, football Club (organization), club in the West Midlands (county), West Midland ...
took up the post in 2002, after a rift between previous chairman Paul Thompson and manager Gary Megson
Gary John Megson (born 2 May 1959) is an English former football player and manager.
He has previously managed Norwich City, Blackpool, Stockport County, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Nottingham Forest, Leicester City, Bolton Wanderers and ...
forced Thompson to quit the club.
In September 2007, Peace acquired additional shares in West Bromwich Albion Holdings Limited, taking his total stake in the company to 50.56%. This triggered a requirement, under the Takeover Code, for him to make a mandatory cash offer for the remaining shares in both WBA Holdings Ltd and WBA Ltd. Later that year, Michelle Davies became Albion's first female director. She stepped down in 2010. Jeremy Peace announced in June 2008 that he was looking for a major new investor for the club, but no firm proposals were received by the 31 July deadline. On 24 July 2015, Jeremy Peace announced that his sale exclusivity deal was called off after a potential buyer was unable to fulfil the terms of sale.
In July 2016, Peace announced that he had found a buyer in the form of a Chinese investment group headed by Lai Guochuan. The figure agreed upon is believed to have been in the region of £175 million – £200 million. The takeover was successfully completed on 15 September the same year. John Williams (football executive), John Williams was originally appointed Chairman of the club before Lai replaced him with associate Li Piyue after the club's relegation in the 2017–18 season. Lai himself took over as Chairman on 2 February 2022. The 2022–23
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...
season saw increased scrutiny of the club's ownership, and the practices of majority shareholder Guochuan Lai. The club's financial situation began to receive national media attention, having already been commented on frequently in local press. Supporter action groups and in-stadium protests by fans to raise awareness of the club's off-field issues took shape during the season, but were briefly paused in April 2023 as the club's fans supported the side's promotion push.
On 15 February 2024, it was announced that Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father, philanthropist Kiran C Patel had reached an agreement to acquire an 87.8% stake in the club, under the name Bilkul Football WBA. Shilen Patel would also be named as the Chairman of the club.
Players
Current squad
Under-23s and Academy
Coaching staff
''As of 1 June 2025''First team
Academy
Notable former players
As part of the club's 125th anniversary celebrations in 2004, a survey was commissioned via the official West Bromwich Albion website and the ''Express & Star'' newspaper to determine the greatest West Brom players of all time. A modern-day, 16-man squad was compiled from the results; all selected players are depicted on a commemorative mural displayed atThe Hawthorns
The Hawthorns is an All-seater stadium, all-seater association football, football stadium in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, with a capacity of 26,688. It has been the home of EFL Championship, Championship club West Bromwich Albion F.C. ...
. Fourteen of the sixteen players are English-born, with a fifteenth, Cyrille Regis, a French Guiana-born full England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
international. The list of 16 is as follows:
Other notable honours bestowed upon West Brom players include the PFA Young Player of the Year award, which was presented to Cyrille Regis in 1979. In 1998, Billy Bassett and Bryan Robson were named among the list of Football League 100 Legends, along with Arthur Rowley, Geoff Hurst and Johnny Giles
Michael John Giles (born 6 November 1940) is an Irish former association football player and manager best remembered for his time as a midfielder with Leeds United in the 1960s and 1970s. After retiring from management in 1985, Giles served as ...
. Bryan Robson was also an inaugural inductee into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002, to be joined two years later by Geoff Hurst. Bobby Robson, a player with Albion, has also been inducted, although this was for his achievements as a manager. In 1919–20, Fred Morris (footballer born 1893), Fred Morris became the first Albion player to finish as top goalscorer in Football League First Division, Division One, a feat which has since been repeated by Ronnie Allen, Derek Kevan, Jeff Astle and Tony Brown. Brown, who holds the club records for goals and appearances, was voted into the Professional Footballers' Association, PFA Centenary Hall of Fame in July 2007.
Player of the Year
Partial list of managers
The following managers have all led West Bromwich Albion to at least one of the following achievements while in charge of the club: winning a major trophy or reaching the final, achieving a top three league finish in the top flight, winning promotion or reaching the quarter-finals of a major European competition.
Records
West Bromwich Albion's record victory was their 12–0 league win against Darwen F.C. (1870), Darwen on 4 April 1892. This is still the widest margin of victory for a game in the top-flight of English football, although the record was equalled by Nottingham Forest F.C., Nottingham Forest when they beat Leicester City F.C., Leicester Fosse by the same scoreline in 1909. Albion's biggest FA Cup victory came when they beat Chatham 10–1 on 2 March 1889. The club's record league defeat was a 3–10 loss against Stoke City F.C., Stoke City on 4 February 1937, while a 0–5 defeat to Leeds United F.C., Leeds United on 18 February 1967 represents Albion's heaviest FA Cup loss.
Tony Brown (footballer, born 1945), Tony Brown holds a number of Albion's club records. He has made the most appearances overall for the club (720), as well as most appearances in the league (574), FA Cup (54) and in European competition (17). Brown is the club's top scorer in the league (218), the FA Cup (27) and in Europe (8). He is also the club's record scorer overall, with 279 goals. W. G. Richardson scored 328 goals for the club, but this includes 100 during World War II, which are not normally counted towards competitive totals. Richardson holds the club record for most league goals in a single season, scoring 39 times in 1935–36.
Albion's most capped international player, taking into account only those caps won whilst at the club, is Chris Brunt. He appeared 55 times for Northern Ireland national football team, Northern Ireland as an Albion player, earning 65 caps in total before retiring from international football in 2017. Jesse Pennington is the club's most capped England international, with 25 caps.Matthews (2007) pp. 404–405. The highest transfer fee paid by the club is £15 million to RB Leipzig for Oliver Burke on 25 August 2017. The record transfer fee received by Albion from another club was for the transfer of Salomón Rondón to Dalian Yifang in July 2019 for £16.5 million.
Honours
Reference:
League
*First Division 1st Division or First Division may refer to:
Military
Airborne divisions
*1st Parachute Division (Germany)
*1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom)
* 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine)
* 1st Guards Airborne Division
Armoured divisions
*1st Armoure ...
(level 1)
**Champions: 1919–20
**Runners-up: 1924–25, 1953–54
*Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
/ First Division / EFL Championship, Championship (level 2)
**Champions: 1901–02 Football League, 1901–02, 1910–11 Football League, 1910–11, 2007–08 Football League, 2007–08
**Runners-up: 1930–31 Football League, 1930–31, 1948–49 Football League, 1948–49, 2001–02 Football League, 2001–02, 2003–04 Football League, 2003–04, 2009–10 Football League Championship, 2009–10, 2019–20
*Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
(level 3)
**Play-off winners: 1993 Football League Second Division play-off final, 1993
Cup
*FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
**Winners: 1887–88 FA Cup, 1887–88, 1891–92 FA Cup, 1891–92, 1930–31 FA Cup, 1930–31, 1953–54 FA Cup, 1953–54, 1967–68 FA Cup, 1967–68
**Runners-up: 1885–86 FA Cup, 1885–86, 1886–87 FA Cup, 1886–87, 1894–95 FA Cup, 1894–95, 1911–12 FA Cup, 1911–12, 1934–35 FA Cup, 1934–35
*EFL Cup, Football League Cup
**Winners: 1965–66 Football League Cup, 1965–66
**Runners-up: 1966–67 Football League Cup, 1966–67, 1969–70 Football League Cup, 1969–70
*FA Community Shield, FA Charity Shield
**Winners: 1920 FA Charity Shield, 1920, 1954 FA Charity Shield, 1954 ''(shared)''
**Runners-up: 1931 FA Charity Shield, 1931, 1968 FA Charity Shield, 1968
*Tennent Caledonian CupMcOwan p. 269.
**Winners: 1977
Footnotes
:A. : Older sources quote the year of formation as 1879, as evidence of a Strollers match from 1878 came to light only as recently as 1993. :B. : ''Throstle'' is a colloquialBlack Country
The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...
name for the song thrush.
:C. : The town crest remained on the away strip until 2001.
:D. : Kevan was joint-top scorer with Ray Crawford (footballer), Ray Crawford of Ipswich Town.
:E. : Secretary-manager. Albion did not appoint a full-time manager until 1949.
:F. : The Football League First Division was the top division of English football until 1992, when the Premier League became the top division. At the same time, the second, third and fourth tiers of English football became known as the Football League First Division, Second Division and Third Division respectively. These three divisions were renamed again in 2004 as part of a Football League re-branding exercise, becoming known as the Football League Championship, League One and League Two respectively.
:G. : This feat was repeated by Sunderland in the 2013–14 season and Leicester the following year.
References
;General * * * * * ;SpecificExternal links
*Official Supporters Club
(archived)
Former Players Association
. {{Authority control West Bromwich Albion F.C., Football clubs in the West Midlands (county) The Football League founder members Association football clubs established in 1878 English Football League clubs West Bromwich FA Cup winners EFL Cup winners 1878 establishments in England Football clubs in England Premier League clubs