Mittal has emerged as a contender to buy English Premiership football club Birmingham City after making an initial inquiry, The Daily Telegraph reported here today.

The 56-year-old Mittal, at £19.25 billion, is twice as rich as Roman Abramovich, the Russian owner of Chelsea. He is, however, yet to follow up on his preliminary inquiry, the newspaper said.

Besides Mittal, a London-based NRI, another unnamed business magnate from the Far East was also said to be interested in the club and was likely to make a formal bid later this week.

David Sullivan and David and Ralph Gold, owners of Birmingham City, who caused a flutter by getting promoted to the top league of the competition, were looking to sell the club and would be glad to finish a speedy handover.

Besides Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur are the other English Premiership clubs that have been bought over by business tycoons in recent years.

SOME CITY FACTS

• Birmingham City were founded in 1875 and was known as Small Heath Alliance by a group of cricketers belonging to Holy Church in Bordesley Green.

• Turned professional in 1885

• Joined the Football League in 1892 as the founder members of the Football League Second Division.

• In 1905, a proposal was made to rename the club Birmingham City F.C., as they were the only Football League club in the city since Birmingham St George’s folded up in 1892. But with shareholdes not in favour, they were called Birmingham Football Club and moved to St Andrews, their home, a year later.

• In 1931 the club reached the final of the FA Cup and lost to West Bromwich Albion 1-2.

• Birmingham City suffered relegation from the top division at the end of the 1985-86season. They were relegated to Third Division for the first time ever at the end of the 1988-89 season. They won promotion as Third Division runners-up three years later, at the end of the 1991-92 season. Came into the new Division One in the 1992-93 season. But they got relegated in the next season. They became Division Two champions next season.

• Qualified for Division One promotion playoffs in 2001-02 and was promoted to the Premier League where they finished at 13th place.

• After an initial strong start to the 2006-07 season, they faltered a bit but returned to the top of the league in March.