Greetings,
I hope you’re having a decent summer despite the weather (if you’re in the UK).
Apologies for the lack of frequency on the WTF newsletters. With so many plates to spin in the MOMS ecosystem, it’s hard to keep on top of things with the time available. There are several of these newsletters in draft stage, that haven’t seen the light of day. The information in them is still very relevant and not realised elsewhere, so I will definitely endeavour to get them out for you in the forthcoming weeks, before the new season starts. So make sure you are subscribed.
With fan media and social media tending to stick to the frequency of parroting whatever the club or media release, it’s important to provide supporters with real information that impacts them and cut through the false narratives that can get perpetuated.
Before I release some of the previously planned newsletters, let’s get up to date with what’s been happening since the close of the season…
Villa’s Emery Transformation
Last season was certainly a big step in the right direction for the football club on the pitch. An excellent start to the season, including that long-winning run at Villa Park, set Villa up for top four. In the second half of the season, Villa faded, but luckily the likes of Spurs, West Ham and Manchester United had similar injury and form issues and didn’t take advantage.
There are concerns with momentum going into the 2024/25 season, when the Champions League will also perhaps take away the focus from the Premier League. Hopefully, though, new players and the return of familiar faces can refocus the team to kick-on in a season full of great opportunity.
While PSR may still temper the extent of any major headline signings, Emery and co will need to box clever to freshen up the team and make it more robust for the tough season ahead. Help is on its way though, with the return of Emi Buendia, Jacob Ramsey and Tyrone Mings, who will all feel like proverbial new signings, while the eventual return of Boubar Kamara, will provide a big boost too.
You can’t help but think that the injuries to Kamara and Mings took away the defensive resilience the team would have needed to get past Olympiacos in the semi-final of the Europa Conference League.
I was lucky enough to go to the final in Athens, and I have to say, based on what I saw, if Villa had got there, they would have beaten Fiorentina and lifted the trophy. The Italians simply set-up to sit deep and stay compact to nullify the Greek team’s undoubted threat on the break (that had made short work of Villa).
If you’re a match-going fan, the Europa Conference League is certainly hard to beat. Away ticket prices are capped at 20 Euros and the home prices are potentially under half of what Champions League prices will be. It has a proper sporting element to it too, with seven or eight teams in it having realistic designs on winning it.
Speaking of Champions League prices…
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PRICES
I remember a Villa Fan Advisory Board (FAB) meeting last season when the Everton League Cup pricing was challenged as being incorrect. The club representative replied that Newcastle United had charged £60 for their European fixtures. They were reminded that Newcastle were in the Champions League.
Ironically, Villa’s Champions League prices are expected to be well above £60. Due to the novelty of playing in the Champions League, the club will certainly take advantage of fans who will understandably be desperate to go.
Single Premier League match tickets have gone up on average by 12%. Next season, a Category A game in Price Zone 1 (top zone) will increase from £68 to £78, while the common Price Zone 2 will be £72.50. Wolves was a Category A game last season - £72.50 to watch Villa vs Wolves in the Holte End is bordering on a joke.
The FAB had proposed that Champions League prices be capped at Category A Premier League prices, but that seems to have been ignored.
The club stated publicly in the last FAB meeting notes, that in terms of Champions League prices:
‘There will be no categorisation. There will be one price for the League stages of the Champions League played at Villa Park.’
Also, the club warned that most likely won’t be any bundle deals on group game pricing ala the Europa Conference League, last season.
Of course, the actual group draw on August 29th will provide a clearer picture of what the club is likely to do, but hopefully they won’t take the pi** out of supporters.
WAITING LIST
To any Villa fans asking, “Where am I on the season ticket waiting list?”
It’s pretty irrelevant. Being on the waiting list fans won’t give any fans access to any season tickets this season. The amount of normal season ticket holders has been trimmed by 2000 over the past two seasons, with their seats taken up by hospitality offerings.
As the club stated in the FAB notes:
We have 27,000 season ticket holders (this figure does not include GA+ or hospitality season ticket holders). Two years ago, we had 29,000. As a result of the small net reduction in GA ticket availability for the 2024/25 season we will not be offering new season tickets to those on the waiting list this summer.
The supposed 30,000 waiting list has ultimately proved to be a useful marketing tool for the club, to intensify the FOMO and channel fans into buying GA+ season tickets and memberships. Considering approximately less than 20% of people on the waiting list have visited Villa Park in the last four years, according to information I’ve heard, it shows you that the composition of the list wasn’t robust enough to push ahead with the new North Stand rebuild.
It is expected that the waiting list will become a benefit of paid Villa membership packages, which it’s been mooted will also have a tiered revamp at some point.
VAR VOTE
As you may have read, Wolves, spurred on by their fan groups, tabled a motion to the Premier League AGM to scrap VAR. It lost with a vote of 19-1. It was obvious that Villa would vote for VAR, as Unai Emery is for it. The fact it provides certainty to his offside high-line largely dictates this.
While I personally don’t agree with Wolves binary approach to VAR, hopefully their blunt sentiment will make PGMOL and the Premier League actually think about the application of it in-stadia and how its impact is ruining the in-the-moment emotion of the game for both supporters and players alike.
CREST ISSUES
The club has maintained that, in their opinion, they have not breached FA rules. In reality, as with most rules in English football, they are retrospective, and the situation is only now being examined by the FA.
The club didn’t register their crest with the FA until Friday, May 17th, giving the FA zero working days to respond, since Villa released the badge publicly 48 hours later, on the following Sunday. This is despite the club deciding to change the crest back in the autumn of 2023 and registering variations of the new crest with the Intellectual Property Office in both December 2023 and February 2024.
The FA couldn’t address the situation until it was registered with them. The club’s legal team obviously identified this weakness in the rules, and the club seemingly waited until the last minute to submit it to the FA.
This is all well and good, but when they actual said, “no” to any supporter consultation process, telling the FAB, it “would be left to the professionals”, it’s a bit fanciful that all their public communication since boasts about a supposed thorough consultation process with supporters.
Chris Heck, Villa Business President on the crest - December 2023
Let’s not forget, the FA, Premier League, and the club themselves, have come up with their respective rules, standards and plans to be seen to be giving supporters a voice in protecting a club’s heritage assets, after pressure from the government’s football governance review.
As I’ve said to the club, it seems they preferred to look for loopholes rather than honor consultation on a heritage asset.
This isn’t about opinions or agendas around the actual badge design itself, but respecting the process and supposed protection of heritage assets that they agreed to. The point here is that, at the first stress test of heritage asset protection for supporters, all initiatives seem to be uncovered as empty posturing and box-ticking.
It’s a worrying precedent for all English football club supporters whose clubs have been bought out by overseas owners who may be disconnected from tradition and the fanbase in search of boosting the commercial bottom line. We’ve seen concerning recent examples in the cases of Hull City and Cardiff City, where their owners tried to change everything from club names to colours and crests.
Villa Park Trademark
A couple of weeks ago, on 25th June 2024, the above image was listed at the Intellectual Property Office for trademarking and is currently in the ‘Pre-Publication’ stage. Most likely, it is for use for merchandise and/or as a logo for commercial activity.
NO TURKEY
Reflecting on the night last season when Aston Villa squeezed past Lille on penalties in the Europa Conference League, there had been the prospect of playing Fenerbahçe in the semi-final until Olympiacos beat them on penalties.
Due to the government's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office travel warnings about traveling to Turkey because of terror threats and the Syria conflict, the club was deliberating whether to take up an away allocation if Villa were to play in Istanbul.
After discussing the situation with the club, they told me that they would most likely have leaned on the side of caution and not requested away tickets for Villa fans.
Something to think about next season in the Champions League, if you’re planning on advance booking flights to a country that might have some issues.
Can You Do Better Than Gareth Southgate?
On a more fun note, Retro Football Manager has brought out a new free mobile games, where you can manage a national team in the current European Championship in 2024. So, you can see if you can do a better job than the much maligned England boss, Gareth Southgate.
Based the old retro Championship Manager of a couple of decades ago, it’s easy to play and good for killing time on your commute or even on the toilet!
You can also manage international teams in classic World Cups and Euros, so relive the World Cups of 1966, 1970 or 1990. Or even, try and go one better in Euro ‘96.
You can download and play International Football Manager, for free, here - https://rfmie.onelink.me/CLvo/momsinternational
There’s more WTF newsletters coming your way soon, so please do subscribe to make sure they land in your inbox