Is West Brom vs Birmingham City a derby?
West Brom face Birmingham City on Saturday in the latest edition of their local rivalry.
While Wolves and Aston Villa are firmly considered as derby matches for the Baggies, the relationship with Blues is more murky.
They have played each other a total of 139 times, with Albion winning on 61 occasions.
The St Andrew's side have triumphed 39 times, with a further 39 draws between the sides.
The upcoming meeting will be the 140th time that they have faced off against each other.
West Brom News examines whether it is a derby match or that tag should not apply.
How close are West Brom and Birmingham City?
The main consideration to label a match as a derby is proximity.
The Hawthorns is just 4.65 miles away from St Andrew's as the crow flies.
The straight-line distance to Wolves' Molineux is 8.96 miles, while Villa Park is just 3.33 miles away.
So, Blues are right in the middle of the Throstles' two main rivals in terms of proximity.
How fierce is the West Brom vs Birmingham rivalry?
The ferocity of the encounters is probably the second most important thing when it comes to a clash being classed as a derby.
The clash with Birmingham is not a very anywhere near as vicious as the Wolves or Villa rivalries.
The recent match with the Old Gold did not have any serious trouble, but the previous FA Cup meeting in January 2024 was suspended for 38 minutes after fights between supporters in the stands.
Meanwhile, Villa's FA Cup win over the Baggies in 2015 saw pitch invasions, things being thrown from the crowd and clashes in the stands.
That does not tend to happen with the B9 outfit, and they probably both hate Villa more, so it does not qualify for a derby under that metric.
Have players moved much between the sides?
Another factor that defines a derby is a lack of players transferring between both sides.
The last direct transfer between Wolves and West Brom was Paul Edwards's £55,000 switch to B71 in 1994.
The Villans have sent Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba and Samuel Iling-Junior on loan to the Baggies recently, but the last direct senior move was James Chester in 2016.
Meanwhile, Birmingham sold Krystian Bielik to Albion in August 2025 in a deal worth over £1million.
Other transfers between the sides include Liam Ridgewell joining the Throstles in 2010, Craig Garner going the other way after a loan spell in 2017.
Geoff Horsfield and Darren Purse also moved to The Hawthorns in the early 2000s directly from the Blues.
Therefore, it is much more likely to see deals between West Brom and the Bordesley-based side, than it is with either of their other rivals.
The term local rivalry is surely more fitting than derby then, as it does not satisfy the transfer or ferocity categories.