Newly crowned champions West Bromwich Albion have taken the strange decision to refuse the council's offer of a civic reception. Like the previous celebrations after promotion in 2002 and 2004 when fans lined the streets and celebrated with players on an open-top bus, the club have today quashed all further celebrations.
A statement from the club read: ""The club can confirm we have informed Sandwell Council we are unable to participate in a civic reception to celebrate our Championship success.
"As a club, we regard this as only the start of an exciting journey under our management team and we now want to focus all of our attentions on preparing for the Premier League while the players today break up for a well-earned rest.
"We had a full house at The Hawthorns last Monday which celebrated promotion with the team after the 1-1 draw against
"We also had nearly 3,000 supporters at Queen's Park Rangers who celebrated winning the title with the players at
The refusal is in stark contrast to runners-up,