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1997–98 Birmingham City F.C. season

season of football team

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ4593085 ↗
Source-derived summary

The 1997–98 season was Birmingham City Football Club's 95th in the Football League. They finished in seventh position in the 24-team Division One, the second tier of the English football league system, missing out on the playoff places on goals scored. Needing to win their last game, at home to Charlton Athletic, and hope that Sheffield United failed to win theirs, Birmingham "were repeatedly foiled in this emotionally-charged game by a brilliant display from Charlton's goalkeeper" Saša Ilić; the game finished goalless. They entered the 1997–98 FA Cup at the third round, losing to Leeds United in the fifth, and entered the League Cup in the first round and lost to Arsenal in the third.

In August 1997, co-owner David Gold took up the post of chairman after Jack Wiseman's retirement.

Football League First Division

Match details

League table

Results summary

FA Cup

League Cup

Transfers

In

a. Purse joined from Oxford United in exchange for £600,000 and Kevin Francis, with Francis valued at £100,000.

Out

† Brackets round a club denote the player joined that club after his Birmingham City contract expired.

a. Valued at £100,000 in the deal in which Darren Purse joined Birmingham from Oxford United in exchange for £600,000 plus Francis.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “1997–98 Birmingham City F.C. season” as season of football team. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1997—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Birmingham, City and season can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as season of football team. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4593085. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1997.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “1997–98 Birmingham City F.C. season”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 1997–98 Birmingham City F.C. season primary sources, 1997–98 Birmingham City F.C. season archive and Birmingham research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1997–98 Birmingham City F.C. season”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “1997–98 Birmingham City F.C. season” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.