Aston Villa is one of the English teams in the United Kingdom (UK). Formerly known as Aston Villa Football Club, the team plays in the English Premier League (EPL). The club has had ups and downs over the centuries. Nonetheless, the club has emerged as one of the top EPL favourites.
Club history:
The club, Aston Villa F.C, was founded in 1874 and have been playing in Villa Park stadium since 1897. Four investors are behind the club’s establishment: Jack, Matthews, Walter and Scattergood.
The Lions (Aston Villa) won a football league trophy in 1897 – The club’s very first trophy. All along, the club’s kit colours are Claret and Blue.
A rampant lion is Aston Villa’s badge.
Club owners:
Two investors, Nasset Sawiris and Wes Edens are the co-owners of the NSWE group that took over the club. They took over from Tony Xia in 2018. Under the leadership of Xia, the club failed to achieve promotion to the top tier – EPL. A year after taking over, the current owners led the club to a successful EPL return in 2019. The club is debt-free. The owners’ collective wealth amounts to £7.31billion.
Club stadium:
Located in Trinity Road, Birmingham, Villa Park exists as the team’s home ground. Initially referred to as Aston Lower Grounds, the stadium has over 42,000 capacity. On average, the club records attendance of over 36,000 fans.
Fan base:
Aston Villa enjoys support from all over the world. In the United Kingdom, the club is supported by the midlands. However, ethnicity wise, 97% of the supporters are whites. It’s remarkable how the club has gained support from other continents like Asia and Africa.
Top in the list of rivals is Birmingham City. West Brom marks another rated rival.
History and progression:
After a successful period of play, between 1874-1920, Aston Villa would then awake to a downfall. From 1920-1964, Aston Villa experienced a worrisome trend, characterized by shocking defeats. During this period, the club got relegated to the second division before bouncing back to win its first trophy in 37 years: The 1956–57 FA Cup.
Vic Crowe, Ron Saunders and Graham Tylor played a pivotal role in reviving the club. Remarkable revival, amid a series of relegations, happened between 1964-1992. In 1981, Aston Villa won the top-flight title in 71 years.
Then came the surprise: Tony Barton led Aston Villa into a 1-0 victory over Bayern Munich to become the European Champions in 1982.
Did you know: In 1883, Aston Villa was crowned the European Super Cup winners after beating Barcelona 3-1 on aggregate.
Aston Villa in Premier League:
As one among the few teams that founded both the Football league and Premier league in 1888 and 1992 respectively, Aston villa enjoyed a lengthy stay in the premier league: 1992-2016 (24 years!). After its absence in the premier league for 3 years, the team made a grand come back in 2019.
Aston Villa defeated Derby county 2-1 to get back to the premier league. Since then, in 2019, the team has maintained exemplary play.
The future looked bright for Aston villa until the club performed poorly at the start of the 2022/23 season. The first step to revamp performance was to fire the coach, Steven Gerrard on 20th October 2022.
