West Bromwich Albion F.C.

For the women's football club, see West Bromwich Albion F.C. Women.
"The Baggies" redirects here. For other uses, see Baggies (disambiguation).

West Bromwich Albion
Full nameWest Bromwich Albion Football Club
Nickname(s)
  • The Baggies
  • The Throstles
  • The Albion
Short name
  • WBA
  • West Brom
  • Albion
Founded1878; 146 years ago (1878)
GroundThe Hawthorns
Capacity26,850[1]
OwnerBilkul Football WBA
ChairmanShilen Patel
ManagerCarlos Corberán
LeagueEFL Championship
2023–24EFL Championship, 5th of 24
Websitehttps://www.wba.co.uk/
Current season

West Bromwich Albion Football Club (/ˈbrɒmɪdʒ, -ɪtʃ/), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league. The club was formed in 1878 and has played at its home ground, The Hawthorns, since 1900.

Albion was a founder member of the Football League in 1888, 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 in 2021. The club has been champions of England once, in 1919–20, and has been runner-up twice, in 1924–25 and 1953–54. Albion has reached ten FA Cup finals and won the Cup on five occasions. The first win came in 1888, the year the league was founded, followed by wins in 1892, 1931, 1954 and most recently in 1968, the club's last major trophy. Albion also won the Football League Cup at the first attempt in 1966, and has 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 has long-standing rivalries with its traditional local rivals Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Albion contests the Black Country derby with the latter.

  1. ^ "Premier League Handbook 2020/21" (PDF). Premier League. p. 38. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 12 April 2021.