Back Aston Villa Afrikaans Aston Villa Football Club AN أستون فيلا Arabic استون ڤيلا ARZ Aston Villa Football Club AST Aston Villa FK Azerbaijani استون ویلا فوتبال کولوبو AZB Aston Villa F.C. BAN ФК Астан Віла Byelorussian Астан Віла Бірмінггэм BE-X-OLD

Aston Villa F.C.

For the women's team, see Aston Villa W.F.C. For their youth teams, see Aston Villa Under-21s and Academy.

Aston Villa
Full nameAston Villa Football Club
Nickname(s)The Villans
The Lions
Short nameVilla
Founded1874 (1874)
GroundVilla Park
Capacity42,657[1]
Owner(s)V Sports (Nassef Sawiris, Wes Edens & Atairos)
ChairmanNassef Sawiris[2]
Head coachUnai Emery
LeaguePremier League
2022–23Premier League, 7th of 20
WebsiteClub website
Current season

Aston Villa Football Club, commonly referred to as Villa, is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, competes in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. The team have played at their home ground Villa Park since 1897. Aston Villa is one of the oldest and most successful clubs in England, having won the Football League First Division seven times, the FA Cup seven times, the League Cup five times, and the European Cup and European Super Cup once.

Aston Villa has been a leading English club since the 1880s, when its team were pioneers of the modern passing game. This short, quick combination passing style was introduced by Scotsman George Ramsay, who was appointed as the world's first professional football manager in 1886. The club was influential in the sport's move to professionalism in 1885, and it was a Villa director, William McGregor, who founded the world's first Football League in 1888.[3][4][5][6]

George Ramsay's trophy haul of six League Championships and six FA Cups established Aston Villa as the most successful club in England, a position it held from the 1890s until the 1970s. Villa scored 128 goals in season 1930–31, which remains the all-time top-flight record,[7] however the club began its first decline in the mid-1930s; the 1940s and 1950s were generally a period of mediocrity followed by a steep decline in the 1960s which culminated in a takeover of the club by Doug Ellis in 1968 and Villa's first and only relegation to the third tier of English football in 1969–70. Villa returned to the elite from the mid-1970s under manager Ron Saunders, who led the club to a seventh top-flight league title in 1980–81. They became only the fourth English club to win the European Cup, in 1981–82, followed by the European Super Cup in 1982.

Aston Villa was a founding member of the Premier League in 1992, one of just three clubs to have been founding members of both the Football League and the Premier League. The club regularly qualified for European football in the 1990s, but following a period in which the club struggled to compete with the high levels of spending of the leading clubs, Doug Ellis sold his stake in the club to American billionaire Randy Lerner, whose ownership of the club ended with Villa's first and only relegation from the Premier League in season 2015–16. The club returned to the Premier League in 2019.

During its history Villa has spent 110 seasons in the top-flight, the second highest of any club, and provided 77 England internationals, also the second highest of any club. Aston Villa is currently ranked 5th in the all-time English top flight table, since its creation in 1888[8] and is the seventh most successful club in English football by competitive honours.

Villa have a fierce local rivalry with Birmingham City and the Second City derby between the teams has been played since 1879.[9] There is also a local rivalry with West Bromwich Albion, with matches between the sides known as the West Midlands derby. The club's traditional kit colours are claret shirts with sky blue sleeves, white shorts and sky blue socks. Their traditional club badge is of a rampant lion.[10][11] The club is currently owned by V Sports, a company owned by the Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris, the American billionaire Wes Edens, and American investment company Atairos.

  1. ^ "Premier League Handbook 2022/23" (PDF). Premier League. p. 8. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 August 2022. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  2. ^ "Aston Villa: Wes Edens & Nassef Sawiris to make 'significant investment' in club". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  3. ^ Ward, Adam; Griffin, Jeremy; p. 161.
  4. ^ "10 Oldest Clubs in the Football League". SQaF. 20 February 2022. Archived from the original on 15 September 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  5. ^ "All Time English Trophy Winners". Myfootballfacts.com. Archived from the original on 9 June 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  6. ^ "William McGregor". Spartacus Educational. Archived from the original on 23 December 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  7. ^ "Aston Villa". Goal.com. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 20 August 2010.
  8. ^ "All-Time English Football Top Flight 1888-89 to 2021-22". Archived from the original on 9 January 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  9. ^ Matthews, Tony (2000). "Aston Villa". The Encyclopedia of Birmingham City Football Club 1875–2000. Cradley Heath: Britespot. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-9539288-0-4.
  10. ^ Woodhall, Dave (2007). The Aston Villa Miscellany. Vision Sports Publishing Ltd. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-905326-17-4.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference introducing was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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