The 2020–21 season is Birmingham City Football Club's 118th season in the English football league system and 10th consecutive season in the second-tier Championship. As with all English Football League clubs, the first team competed in the EFL Cup, in which they lost to Cambridge United in the first round, and in the FA Cup, in which they lost to Manchester City in the third round. Aitor Karanka was appointed head coach on 31 July 2020, and was replaced by Lee Bowyer on 16 March 2021, with the team 21st in the table with ten matches left. With five wins and two draws from the next eight, Birmingham avoided relegation with two matches to spare, and eventually finished 18th. The season covers the period from July 2020 to 30 June 2021. Background and pre-season With nine matches of the 2019–20 season still to play and Birmingham lying 16th in the table, football was interrupted for three months because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 8 June12 days before the Championship resumed behind closed doorsthe club confirmed that head coach Pep Clotet would leave at the end of the season to "explore other coaching opportunities"; after a series of poor results, he left by mutual consent on 8 July. Steve Spooner and Craig Gardner acted as caretakers for the last four matches. Birmingham accrued just three points after the resumption, extending a winless run to 14 league matches, and finished 20th, avoiding relegation on the final day thanks to favourable results elsewhere and a 12-point deduction because of Wigan Athletic's entering administration. On 31 July, former Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest manager Aitor Karanka was appointed as head coach on a three-year contract. Of the senior players, goalkeeper David Stockdale, defenders Jonathan Grounds and Cheick Keita, and wingers Jacques Maghoma and Kerim Mrabti were released at the end of their contracts; Lee Camp extended his contract to cover the last nine games of the season, and then left; and midfielder Craig Gardner retired to concentrate on coaching. Forward Álvaro Giménez' loan at Cádiz was converted to a permanent move after that club were promoted. Jude Bellingham, who became Birmingham's youngest first-team debutant at the age of 16 years 38 days and youngest goalscorer 25 days later, set more records, for transfer fee received by the club and as the world's most expensive 17-year-old, when he joined Borussia Dortmund for a fee reported as