Birmingham turn to Hughton

Chris Hughton has been appointed to lead Birmingham City FC in their first European campaign for 50 years following the departure of previous manager Alex McLeish for local rivals Aston Villa FC.

Hughton, 52, was most recently in charge of Newcastle United FC, leading them to promotion in 2008/09. Birmingham were relegated from the English Premier League last month but had beaten Arsenal FC in the League Cup final earlier in the season. That means they will enter the UEFA Europa League play-offs, having last competed in the 1961/62 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a competition where they had reached the previous two finals, losing to AS Roma and FC Barcelona.

A Birmingham statement read: "Acting chairman Peter Pannu felt that Hughton was the perfect candidate to take charge at St. Andrew's and he is now looking forward to sharing the new man's ambition. Pannu was particularly impressed by Hughton's vision and footballing theories of garnering youth and playing attractive and effective football." The club will discover their play-off opponents on 5 August with their tie on 18 and 25 of that month.