User:Horcoff/sandbox/FootballClub

Tabajara Futebol Clube, commonly referred to as Tabajara, or simply Tabajara , is a Brazilian professional football club based in Americana, São Paulo. The club competes in the Série B, the second tier of the Brazilian football league system, as well as in the Campeonato Paulista Série A1, the top division in the São Paulo state football league system. Founded in 1500, they are located in the bairro of Botafogo and play their home matches at St James' Park in the centre of Newcastle.

They won their first major honour, the League championship, in 1955. Tabajara has won six league titles, eight FA Cups, five League Cups, and four FA Community Shields.

The club colours, reflected in their crest and kit, are sky blue and white, with sky blue shirts, white shorts and sky blue socks being the club's traditional kit colours. The club crest has traditionally depicted the xxx. Tabajara have a long-standing rivalry with nearby club XXXXXXXXXX. The club mascot is a dinosaur.

As of 2022, Trem is the fifth-best ranked team from Amapá in CBF's national club ranking, being placed 228th overall.

Their activities are currently closed due to financial difficulties. Ariquemes has last played in a professional match in June 2017.

Guaratinguetá Futebol Ltda., commonly referred to as simply Guaratinguetá, is a currently inactive Brazilian professional football club based in Guaratinguetá, São Paulo. Due to financial challenges, the activities of the club are currently suspended and the last time they participated in a professional match was in September 2016.

The club's senior team is inactive since 2014, having last played in a professional match in August 2011.

Aston Villa Football Club is a Brazilian multi-sport club based in Santana, Amapá. The club is most notable for its association football team, that plays in the xxxx.

Resumo da História: Títulos e Campanhas relevantes

History
Aston Villa F.C. were formed in 1874, by fifteen members [Report by the Sports Argus on a talk by co-founder Jack Hughes, 1899] of the Wesleyan Chapel at Villa Cross (known as early as 1867 as Aston Villa Wesleyan Chapel) in Lozells. Four of the founders were Jack Hughes, Frederick Matthews, Walter Price and William Scattergood. The club won its first FA Cup in 1887. Aston Villa were one of the dozen teams that competed in the inaugural Football League in 1888 with the club's outgoing chairman William McGregor being the league's founder. Aston Villa emerged as the most successful English club of the Victorian era. By the end of Villa's "Golden Age" at the start of the First World War, the club had won the League Championship six times and the FA Cup five times.

Aston Villa won their sixth FA Cup in 1920. For the remainder of the inter-war years though, Villa were on a slow decline that would lead to them being relegated to the Second Division in 1936 for the first time in their history. They returned to the top-tier of English football by the outbreak of the Second World War. As with many clubs, the war brought much change to Villa Park and remainder of the 1940s were spent rebuilding the team. By 1957, Villa were a Cup winning side once again with the club's seventh FA Cup win. Even though Villa won the inaugural League Cup in 1960, the club were to enter into a very unsuccessful period. The 1960s saw much change at Villa Park. By the end of the 1960s, Villa were languishing in the Second Division and fan pressure led to the resignation of the Board and the introduction of Doug Ellis as Villa Chairman.

Formation by Villa Cross Cricketers
Co-founder Jack Hughes insisted that Aston Villa Football Club was formed by fifteen players, mainly from the Aston Villa Wesleyan Chapel cricket team. The players were looking for something to keep them occupied during the winter. The club's official history states that soccer (association football) was chosen after witnessing an "impromptu game on a meadow off Heathfield Road". Four of the founders of Aston Villa FC and those who were delegated to view the game were Jack Hughes, Frederick Matthews, Walter Price and William Scattergood. Villa moved to their first official home, Wellington Road in Perry Barr, in 1876 after their recently-appointed captain, George Ramsay, noted that in order to progress, Villa would need to move into an enclosed ground to be able to collect gate money. The site was taken on a three-year lease at a rent of £7,10 shillings for the first year, rising to £15 and £20 in subsequent years. By the late 1870s, Villa were improving greatly and by 1880, Villa won their first senior honour when they won the Birmingham Senior Cup under the captaincy of Scotsman Ramsay.

Rise to prominence
The club won its first FA Cup in 1887, under the captaincy of another Scotsman, Archie Hunter. They beat West Bromwich Albion 2–0 in the final held at The Oval. Up until 1885, football had remained an amateur sport. It turned professional in 1885, when the FA legalized professional football, but with a national wage limit. However, the Scottish draper and director of Aston Villa, William McGregor had become frustrated with watching his team in one-sided friendly matches and low attendances for all games but FA Cup ties. He saw that in order to keep interest in the game alive, the top teams needed to play each other in a league much like American baseball teams did. McGregor wrote to the twelve leading clubs in England proposing the formation of a league, what would later be known as the English Football League. Aston Villa were one of the dozen teams that competed in the inaugural Football League in 1888. Villa's first League game came on 8 September 1888, when they drew 1–1 Wolverhampton Wanderers as Tom Green scored the club's first League goal. Villa finished runners-up to Preston North End in that inaugural season.

Victorian and Edwardian eras
Despite Villa founding the league, by 1893 they had yet to win it. Villa Committee Member Frederick Rinder was the instigator of a club meeting at Barwick Street in February 1893 that removed the committee running the club at the time. All fourteen committee members resigned and were replaced by a committee of five led by Rinder after he gave a speech criticising the board's tolerance of ill discipline and players' drinking. The following season saw Villa win their first League Championship, the season after that they won their second FA Cup in 1894-95. This was followed by back-to-back League titles in 1895-96 and 1896-97.

Villa were attracting large crowds; the club could regularly expect 25,000 people to attend home games at a time when the FA Cup Final would attract only about 20,000. With poor spectator facilities and an uneven pitch, the Wellington Road ground was increasingly unsuitable, and in 1897, the year the club won the League and FA Cup Double, Villa's financial secretary Rinder negotiated the purchase of their current home ground, the Aston Lower Grounds. Villa achieved back-to-back league titles again in 1898-99 and 1899-1900, in the latter season Billy Garraty became the top goalscorer in world football scoring a total 30 goals in 39 league and cup games. The name of Villa Park was not used until about 1900. It came about through fan usage and no official declaration was made that listed the name as Villa Park. The ground was not purchased outright until 1911.

Villa began the 20th century as champions but the gap that distinguished them from their competitors was diminishing. Football in England was becoming more competitive as more teams formed. Villa did remain a significant force in the game though. Despite a run of four victories at the start of the 1900–01 season, Villa finished fourth from bottom. In the 1902–03 season Villa won 12 of their last 15 games to finish only one point behind champions Sheffield Wednesday. In 1905, Villa won the FA Cup for the fourth time with a then record crowd of 101,117 watching the match at Crystal Palace, where Villa beat Newcastle United 2–0. In the same season, Villa finished fourth and this helped to boost the coffers at the club. After the success of 1905, Villa went through a barren patch and it was not until the 1909–10 season that Villa threatened to regain the title. In that season, they beat the reigning champions Manchester United 7–1. Villa won the championship for the first time in 10 years to take a then record, sixth title. The 1910–11 season was very close and the title was decided on the last day of the season when Villa lost to Liverpool and Manchester United beat Sunderland to take the title. The following season, Villa finished sixth. Yet in 1913, Villa won the FA Cup for a then record-equalling fifth time. By the end of what was to be called Villa's golden era, when the First World War began, the club had won the League Championship six times and the FA Cup five times. This included the League and Cup Double in 1896–97, a feat which would not be repeated for more than 60 years.

Inter-war years
Football resumed after the war for the 1919–20 season and Villa won their sixth FA Cup at the end of season, beating Huddersfield Town 1–0 at Stamford Bridge. In November 1923, Villa's centre-half Tommy Ball was killed by his neighbour, thus becoming the only active Football League player to have been murdered. In their Golden Jubilee season of 1923–24, Villa got through to the second final to be held at the then new Wembley Stadium, where they lost 2–0 to Newcastle United. This Cup final was to be something of a pinnacle though as Villa then had League finishes of sixth and tenth in the following seasons. The Directors attempted to stop the slump with transfer dealings. In 1927, they bought both Jimmy Gibson and Eric Houghton. In 1928, they bought in one of the most prolific goalscorers to have ever played in the English football league. When Villa signed Tranmere Rovers striker Tom Waring for £4,700, he was relatively unknown. Waring scored a record 49 league goals in the 1930–31 season as Villa finished runners-up to Arsenal. One of the other purchases, Eric Houghton, scored 30 goals.

The team were playing well and scoring many goals. In the 1933–34 season, Villa had no fewer than fourteen full internationals and they continued to challenge for honours being second in the League in 1933. Yet this success did not last and the complacency at Villa Park led to a slump in form. This slump culminated in their relegation from the first tier of English football for the first time in their history in the 1935–36 season. The relegation coincided with the decision to appoint their first manager. Before the 1935–36 season, the team had been appointed by a committee and the team was coached by a "secretary" to the committee. The relegation though was largely due a dismal defensive record, they conceded 110 goals, 7 of them coming from Arsenal's Ted Drake in a 1–7 defeat at Villa Park. Villa came ninth in their first season in the Second tier of English football but they were crowned Second Division Champions in 1937–38 under the guidance of Jimmy Hogan. By the outbreak of the Second World War, Aston Villa were back in the top-flight of English football.

Their Aston Villa reserves (or seconds) team enlisted in the army and were captured at the Dunkirk evacuation in June 1940. In December in an Eastern German camp, a German Guard regiment challenged British prisoners of war to a game of football; the guards were being defeated 27–0 when they stopped the game, only then learning these prisoners were Aston Villa's second team.

Post-war rebuilding
For Villa, as with all English clubs, the Second World War brought about the loss of seven seasons, and several careers were brought to a premature end by the conflict. The first game played at Villa Park after the cessation of hostilities was against Middlesbrough and Villa lost 1–0 in front of a crowd of 50,000. Aston Villa went about rebuilding the team, under the guidance of former player Alex Massie for the remainder of the 1940s. Massie made some bold signings in his time with the club, the first of which was 23-year-old Wales international Trevor Ford, who was bought from Swansea for £9,500 in 1946, when Villa finished eighth in the League. Ford would go on to score 60 times in his four seasons at Villa Park, before he was sold in the 1950–51 season to Sunderland for a then British record of £30,000 (£0 today).

For the remainder of the 1940s and early 1950s, Massie continued to bring in new players whilst the team regularly had mid-table finishes. One of the more influential signings was Danny Blanchflower in 1951 for £15,000. Villa had a good start to the 1951–52 season when, after eight games, Villa were second behind Manchester United. This was their best start of the last 19 years, and they eventually finished in sixth place. After a mid-table finish in the 1952–53 season, the following season, saw the return of Eric Houghton, this time in a managerial capacity. One of his first actions was to introduce 19–year–old Peter McParland to the first team. His first season in charge ended with Villa in 13th place. Nevertheless, "Houghton had done well to guide a transitional Villa team to a respectable position in the top flight." Under Houghton's stewardship, Villa won the 1957 FA Cup Final against Manchester United's celebrated Busby Babes. Peter McParland scored both goals in a 2–1 victory, in a record-equalling ninth FA Cup final. It was Aston Villa's first trophy for 37 years.

Fluctuating fortunes
The success of the previous season proved to be something of a false dawn though, with the team finishing 14th, seven points above relegation. After refusing to resign, Eric Houghton was sacked when relegation seemed imminent in 1958–59. His successor Joe Mercer was unable to prevent the club being relegated in 1959, for only the second time in its history. The fact that Villa reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup only served to highlight the complacency that had set in at the club that led to Villa being relegated. Villa only spent one season in the Second Division, returning as Champions in 1960. The 1960–61 season was a successful one; it saw Villa reach the semi-finals of the FA Cup, finish ninth in the League, and win the inaugural League Cup. This was helped by the emergence of an exciting group of youth players, who became known as "Mercer's Minors".

Instability
Winning the League Cup in 1961 was a pinnacle for the club. Although Villa finished seventh in 1961–62, the following season saw the beginning of a decline in form that would see them finish in 15th place in 1963 and fourth from the bottom in 1964. Manager Joe Mercer parted company with the club in July 1964 because of these results and his declining health. His replacement, Dick Taylor, managed to avoid relegation in the 1964–65 season as Villa finished 16th after a poor start to the season. The following year Villa finished 16th once again. Following a 4–2 final day defeat by Everton the club was relegated to the Second Division in the 1966–67 season. Dick Taylor was sacked, and Tommy Cummings was appointed in his place. The decline was not solely the responsibility of the manager; the club had an ageing five-man board "who had failed to adapt to the new football reality". The club had neither developed a scouting network nor an effective coaching structure. The board had also sold two of Villa's best players, Phil Woosnam and Tony Hateley. The fans' calls for the board to resign became more and more pronounced when Villa finished 16th in the Second Division in 1968.

Events on the pitch came to a head in November 1968. With Villa lying at the bottom of Division Two, the board sacked Cummings. On 21 November 1968 the problems in the boardroom were highlighted when board member George Robinson resigned. Following his resignation, the board issued a statement: "[The board] would make available, by their resignation, such seats as new financial arrangements might require". Aston Villa F.C. was up for sale. After much speculation London financier Pat Matthews bought control of the club. He brought in local travel agent Doug Ellis as chair of the new board that was convened on 16 December 1968. Two days later Tommy Docherty was appointed as manager.

Rebuilding
Docherty rebuilt confidence in the team, and Villa went on to win five consecutive games and retained a place in the Second Division. In the short time that Docherty had been at the club, attendances rose significantly from a low of just over 12,000 against Charlton Athletic in December. In the summer of 1969 the first share issue since 1896 raised £200,000 for the club, £140,000 of which was spent on new players. In the following season, however, Villa took ten games to register a win. By Christmas 1969, they were at the bottom of the Second Division, and Docherty was sacked. His successor, Vic Crowe, was unable to prevent the team from being relegated to the third tier of English football for the first time in its history in the 1969–70 season. Despite finishing fourth in the Third Division in the 1970–71 season, Villa reached the League Cup final after beating Manchester United in the semi-final. They were defeated in the final by Tottenham Hotspur 2–0. The 1971–72 season saw the club return to the Second Division as champions with a then divisional record 70 points. They were invited to take part in the 1972 FA Charity Shield but lost 1–0 to Manchester City. In the autumn of 1972, there was a revolt in the boardroom, and four of the five directors voted to oust Doug Ellis from the board. Within 43 days though, Ellis was reinstated as chair after he had received the support of the largest shareholder Pat Matthews, and supporters at an extraordinary general meeting who voted to replace the existing directors. Their first season back in the Second Division in 1972–73 saw Villa narrowly miss out on a second successive promotion when they finished third. However, the following season Villa finished 14th and Ellis sacked Crowe, replacing him with Ron Saunders.

For the club's centenary season of 1974–75, Saunders brought in only two new players, Frank Carrodus and Leighton Phillips. At the end of his first season in charge, Villa were back in the First Division after finishing second, and won the 1975 League Cup final at Wembley Stadium. Villa beat Norwich City 1–0 with Ray Graydon scoring the winning goal. At the beginning of the 1975–76 season Doug Ellis resigned as chair but remained on the board. Ellis left the club in a good position on the field. They were in the First Division and the UEFA Cup for the first time due to the League Cup win of 1975. The club's first season of European football was short-lived as they were beaten 5–1 by Antwerp in the first round. In the following season, Villa finished fourth in the League and reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. In the 1976–77 season, two years after their last League Cup win, they beat Everton 3–2 in the 1977 Final after a second replay.

League and European victories
In the 1977–78 season Villa reached the quarter-final of the UEFA Cup where they went out 4–3 on aggregate against Barcelona. In the domestic league, however, they struggled, and Saunders started rebuilding the team. As he began the restructuring in the summer of 1979, there were more changes in the boardroom. Doug Ellis tabled a resolution to have several directors removed from the board. It was unsuccessful, and Ellis resigned from the board. Meanwhile, Saunders signed several new players who were to become some of Villa's most prolific players in terms of goals and appearances. Allan Evans, Ken McNaught and Kenny Swain were brought into the defence, and Des Bremner was brought into the midfield to play alongside Dennis Mortimer and Gordon Cowans. Tony Morley and Gary Shaw were the new strike partnership. When Peter Withe was signed from Newcastle United in the summer of 1980, Saunders had built a team that saw much success over the next few years.

Its first success was in the 1980–81 season. Villa won their first League Championship in 71 years, fighting off competition from Liverpool and Ipswich Town using only 14 playing staff in the season. The title was sealed the last day of Villa's season when they lost 2–0 at Arsenal but still finished top as Ipswich Town, the only side still in contention for the title, lost to Middlesbrough. This triumph was popularly known as the "transistor championship" as Villa fans had turned up at the game listening to the progress of the Ipswich game on their Transistor radios.

The following season Villa did not start well and were in mid-table at Christmas, although the club was still in the European Cup. In the first round Villa beat Valur 7–0 on aggregate. In the second round they scored twice at BFC Dynamo to achieve a 2–2 draw, which saw them go through due to the away goals rule. These victories contrasted with their poor performance in the league. By February 1982, the club were lying 19th in the First Division and Saunders resigned. It was later disclosed that the then chair, Ron Bendall, had offered him a revised, short-term contract, which he had refused to accept. Saunders' assistant Tony Barton was promoted in his place. When Barton took over, although Villa were in a poor league position, they were in the quarter-final of the European Cup. In the quarter-finals, they beat Dynamo Kiev over two legs. Gordon Cowans is quoted as saying, "Once we got past Dynamo Kiev we began thinking we could go all the way." In the semi-final, they played Anderlecht over two legs, with Tony Morley scoring to secure Aston Villa's place in the final.

European Champions and subsequent decline
On 26 May 1982, just three months after being appointed manager, Barton guided Villa to a 1–0 victory over Bayern Munich in the European Cup final in Rotterdam. As of November 2020, Villa remain one of only five English teams to have won the European Cup, along with Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest. They were the underdogs in the final and were expected to lose.

The final was held in Feyenoord Stadium, Rotterdam, with an attendance of 39,776. Only nine minutes into the game, Villa lost their experienced goalkeeper Jimmy Rimmer to a shoulder injury. He was replaced by 23-year-old reserve goalkeeper Nigel Spink, who had only played one match for the club in five years since joining from Chelmsford. Spink made one of his best performances for the club against the highly experienced Bayern strike force, which included Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. Other key players in this Villa side included Tony Morley, Gordon Cowans and Dennis Mortimer.

The win was not followed with more success, and the team performed badly in the following seasons. At the annual general meeting in October 1982, it was revealed that the club were £1.6 million in debt, mainly due to escalating wages and building costs, including the construction of the North Stand. At the end of November Ron and Donald Bendall resigned from the board to be replaced by Doug Ellis, who bought Ron Bendall's 42% shareholding. In January 1983, Villa beat Barcelona 3–1 on aggregate to win the 1982 UEFA Super Cup. Barton remained in charge for two seasons after the European Cup triumph, but was sacked at the end of the 1983–84 season, despite Villa finishing tenth in the First Division and reaching the semi-finals of the League Cup. Shrewsbury Town manager Graham Turner was brought in as his successor. He was unable to reverse the decline, and in 1986 Villa narrowly avoided relegation to the Second Division. A lacklustre start to the following season saw Turner sacked halfway through September. Billy McNeill was hired in his place but was unable to save Villa from relegation. They were relegated to the Second Division just five years after winning the European Cup. McNeill handed in his notice and moved to Celtic when the season ended. Ellis persuaded Watford manager Graham Taylor to take over the reins and set about rebuilding the team.

Taylor, Vengloš and Atkinson
Taylor's first season at Villa ended with automatic promotion as Second Division runners-up, being pipped to the title by Millwall. One player who contributed to that season's success was the recently signed David Platt, a former Manchester United reserve who had signed from Crewe Alexandra for £200,000 just after Taylor's arrival. Before he left in 1991, Platt scored 68 goals in his 155 appearances for the club. Villa avoided relegation the last day of the 1988–89 season as other results favoured them. In the 1989–90 season they emerged as surprise contenders for the title, leading for three weeks in the latter stages of the season before finishing in second place, nine points behind Liverpool. Taylor departed for the England manager's job and was succeeded by Slovak coach Jozef Vengloš, the first foreign manager in the First Division.

The 1990–91 season was Vengloš's only season as manager of Aston Villa. Their second-place finish the previous season earned them qualification for the UEFA Cup as one of the first English clubs to enter European competition after the ban resulting from the Heysel Stadium disaster was lifted. They beat first round opponents Baník Ostrava over two legs, and won the first leg of the second round tie against Inter Milan. However, this lead was overturned by Inter in the return leg 3–0 and Villa were eliminated. The defeat started a decline, and by the end of the season they were two places above the relegation zone. Vengloš stepped down and David Platt was sold to Italian side Bari for £5 million. The team's new manager was Ron Atkinson, who had taken West Bromwich Albion to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup and had won the League Cup with Sheffield Wednesday. In his first season in charge, 1991–92, Villa finished in sixth place and thus became one of the founder members of the FA Premier League.

Villa in the Premiership
In his first 18 months in charge, Atkinson bought Earl Barrett, Dean Saunders, Andy Townsend, Dalian Atkinson, Kevin Richardson, Ray Houghton and Shaun Teale. They helped the club to finish as runners-up to Manchester United in the inaugural Premier League season of 1992–93. The strike partnership of Saunders and Atkinson established itself as one of the most successful partnerships in the Premiership. On 27 March 1994 Villa won the League Cup final 3–1, to secure a second successive UEFA Cup campaign, although their Premier League form dipped and they finished 10th. At the end of the 1993–94 season, they played their last game at a terraced Villa Park before it was converted over the summer to an all-seater stadium to comply with the Taylor Report. In November 1994, Atkinson was dismissed following a poor start to the season.

Leicester City's manager Brian Little was forbidden to speak to Aston Villa by his board, after rumours began circulating that Ellis wanted to hire him. Although maintaining he had not spoken to Ellis about the possibility of taking over at Villa, Little resigned from his post at Leicester even though he was contracted to the club until the end of the 1997–98 season. Three days after his resignation, Ellis hired him as the new Villa manager. Little kept Villa in the Premiership, and then reshaped the squad in the 1995 close-season by selling most of the club's older players and buying several younger ones. Villa won the 1996 League Cup with a win over Leeds United, reached the FA Cup semi-finals, and finished fourth in the Premiership in the 1995–96 season. In February 1998, with Villa standing 15th in the Premiership, and speculation rife that he would be sacked, Little resigned, stating that, "There were certain things going on behind the scenes which were affecting my own managerial position." Ellis came out with a statement directly challenging that it had anything to do with the management at Villa Park. Instead, he suggested it was due to a "variety of pressures" including abuse directed towards Little and his family by irate fans.

Ellis appointed John Gregory, a former Aston Villa coach, as Little's successor. He revitalised the team, and Villa finished seventh in the Premiership and qualified for the UEFA Cup. Usually, only the top six teams qualified for European competition, but due to the progress of other teams in the top seven it was the first time that a seventh placed club had automatically qualified for the UEFA Cup. Despite the £12.6 million sale of Dwight Yorke, a player who had scored 97 goals in 287 appearances for the club, to Manchester United in August 1998, John Gregory had guided Aston Villa to the top of the Premiership by the middle of the 1998–99 season. Villa reached the FA Cup final in 2000 for the first time since 1957, but lost 1–0 to Chelsea in the last final played at the old Wembley Stadium. The 2000–01 season saw Villa finish eighth in the Premiership, although they did eventually qualify for the UEFA Cup by winning the Intertoto Cup in August 2001. In November 2001, Gregory accused Ellis of "living in a time-warp" but was forced to apologise a few days later after provoking an uproar. While Gregory remained in his job, the relationship between the two was strained. Gregory resigned on 24 January 2002, with Villa occupying a familiar mid-table position in the league.

In January 2002, Ellis once again appointed Graham Taylor as manager. Villa finished the 2001–02 season in eighth place, which was similar to most of their other Premiership finishes. Taylor quit as manager for the second time after the end of the 2002–03 season. Villa had just finished 16th in the Premiership, losing twice to arch rivals Birmingham City. David O'Leary, who had taken Leeds United to the semi-finals of the 2000–01 Champions League, was brought in as Taylor's replacement. He took the team to sixth in the table, with a 2–0 home defeat against Manchester United on the final day meaning that they narrowly missed out on a UEFA Cup place. In 2005–06, Villa slowly fell down the table and finished in 16th place. The poor placing came despite O'Leary having spent more than £13 million the previous summer on players like as Milan Baroš, Kevin Phillips and Wilfred Bouma.

Frustration within the club soon reared its head when, on 14 July 2006, a group of Villa players criticised Ellis's alleged parsimony and lack of ambition in an interview with a local newspaper. The club immediately dismissed the report as "ridiculous", but it emerged over the following few days that a group of senior players had indeed instigated the move, possibly with O'Leary's backing. The following week, O'Leary left the club by mutual consent after three years as Aston Villa manager and his assistant Roy Aitken became caretaker manager.

Lerner era
At a press conference on 4 August 2006, Doug Ellis introduced Martin O'Neill as the new manager. O'Neill described his position as a "fantastic challenge" saying he wanted "to restore [the team] to its days of former glory".

After several years of speculation and failed bids, the 23-year reign of Doug Ellis as chair came to an end. Ellis, the largest shareholder with approximately 38%, decided to sell his stake. For many years supporters' groups had urged him to resign, though the actions including two "Ellis out" protests, and an "Ellis out" march marked an increase in intensity. The decision to leave the club was likely prompted by Ellis' ill-health. Randy Lerner, owner of the NFL franchise Cleveland Browns, was announced as the preferred bidder. On 25 August, it was announced that he had secured 59.69% of the club's shares. By 26 September 2006, he had achieved a 90% shareholding and could complete his buy-out of the rest of the shares. Lerner appointed several new people to the board including General Charles C Krulak. Ellis was given a President Emeritus (Life President) role.

The arrival of a new owner and manager marked the start of sweeping changes throughout the club. This included a new crest, a new kit sponsor and new players in the summer of 2007. Aston Villa started the 2006–07 Premiership campaign well, with Olof Mellberg scoring the first competitive goal at Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium. The January signings of John Carew, Ashley Young and Shaun Maloney bolstered the squad. Villa finished in 11th place in the league with 50 points, ending the season with an unbeaten run of nine league games. The last home game of the season, a 3–0 victory over Sheffield United was used to mark the 25th anniversary of Villa winning the European Cup in 1982. Before kick-off, the 1982 winning team paraded the trophy in front of a full stadium. Scarves bearing the words "Proud History—Bright Future" were given out to all home team supporters attending the match.

2007–08 saw Villa progress further, finishing sixth to qualify for the Intertoto Cup. A victory against Danish side Odense BK, over two legs in the final during the summer of 2008, put Villa into European competition for the 2008–09 season for the first time in seven years. They reached the group stage of the UEFA Cup that season with relative ease, and played their first match against Dutch club Ajax at Villa Park, winning 2–1. The first major final of the Lerner era was the 2010 Football League Cup Final; Villa lost 2–1 to Manchester United at Wembley Stadium. Five days before the opening day of the 2010–11 season, O'Neill resigned as manager with immediate effect. The reserve team coach, Kevin MacDonald, took over as caretaker manager for the opening games of the season. Randy Lerner returned to England from the United States to interview potential candidates for the post. On 8 September 2010, the club announced Gérard Houllier would become the manager of Aston Villa, the first managerial appointment of Lerner's reign. On 20 April 2011, Houllier was admitted to hospital suffering from chest pains. Further tests showed he had suffered from a recurrence of a heart problem. The last games of the season saw his assistant, Gary McAllister, take over in a caretaker capacity. On 1 June 2011, the club issued a statement that Houllier had left the club by mutual consent leaving it looking for their fifth manager, including caretakers, of the year. Houllier was replaced by the former Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish on 17 June 2011, despite numerous protests from fans against his appointment. His appointment marked the first time in history that a manager had moved directly from Birmingham to Villa.

McLeish's contract was terminated at the end of the 2011–12 season after Villa finished in 16th place, only just above the relegation zone. On 2 July 2012, Aston Villa confirmed the appointment of former Norwich City manager Paul Lambert as McLeish's replacement. On 28 February 2012, the club announced a financial loss of £53.9 million. Lerner put the club up for sale on 12 May 2014, with an estimated value of £200 million. With Lerner still on board, in the 2014–15 season Aston Villa scored just 12 goals in 25 league games, the lowest in Premier League history, and Lambert was sacked on 11 February 2015. He was replaced by Tim Sherwood, who saved Villa from relegation in the 2014–15 season and took them to the 2015 FA Cup Final.

Despite saving them from relegation the previous season, Sherwood was fired on 15 October 2015, after six consecutive league losses, with Kevin MacDonald taking the role of interim manager. On 2 November 2015, Frenchman Rémi Garde agreed to a three-and-a-half-year deal to become the manager, but he left on 29 March 2016 with the club rooted to the bottom of the table. The club was eventually relegated from the Premier League on 16 April following a 1–0 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Tony Xia and Championship football
In June 2016, Chinese businessman Tony Xia bought the club for £76 million. Roberto Di Matteo was appointed as the club's new manager before the new season in the Championship. He was sacked after 12 games with the club in 19th place having only won one match against Rotherham. He was replaced by former Birmingham City manager Steve Bruce, however Bruce could only lead the club to 13th in the table that season.

In the 2017–18 season Bruce led Villa to a fourth place after their best winning sequence since 1990, including winning seven games in a row. Having qualified for the play-offs and beating Middlesbrough in the semi-final they ultimately lost 1–0 to Fulham in the 2018 EFL Championship play-off Final at Wembley Stadium. Following the play-off final financial problems began to emerge with Xia struggling to move money out of China to maintain basic football operations. On 5 June 2018, Aston Villa missed the deadline for a £4 million tax bill, and the club was faced with a winding up order and the real possibility of going out of business. On 7 June 2018, Xia managed to negotiate an agreement with HM Revenue and Customs to pay £500,000 of the £4 million bill, promising to pay the remaining portion at a later date. This saved the club from immediate danger, but Xia confirmed that the club was still in significant financial difficulty and it became clear that the club were facing an existential threat if they did not acquire new ownership.

Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens takeover
In July 2018 Aston Villa were taken over by Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens with a 55% controlling stake. They promised significant investment and restructuring of the club. In October 2018 they sacked Bruce with Villa sitting 12th in the table after 11 games. They appointed boyhood Villa fan Dean Smith. Under Smith performances and results improved, with a team record 10-game winning streak in March and April. The team finished 5th in the league and were in the playoffs for the second time in two seasons. They won the playoff final on 27 May 2019 over Derby County 2&#x2013;1 to return to the Premier League after a three-year absence.

The club spent a net total of £144.5 million to bring in 12 players in the summer 2019 transfer window ahead of their Premier League return: Jota, Anwar El Ghazi, Wesley, Kortney Hause, Matt Targett, Tyrone Mings, Ezri Konsa, Björn Engels, Trézéguet, Douglas Luiz, Tom Heaton and Marvelous Nakamba. In the EFL Cup, Villa reached the final, losing 2–1 to Manchester City. In the league though, Villa were four points deep inside the relegation zone with four games left to play, but pulled off what Smith called a "magnificent achievement" to clinch survival on the last day with a 1–1 draw at West Ham United.

Villa continued to spend heavily the following season, notably signing Matty Cash, Ollie Watkins and Emiliano Martínez. Villa consolidated their Premier League status, finishing the season in 11th place.

The 2021–22 began with Villa breaking the British transfer record for a fee received, selling captain Jack Grealish to Manchester City for £100m and breaking their own record for a transfer fee paid, signing Emiliano Buendía for £33m from Norwich City. Smith's team started the season slowly, however, and in November 2021 Dean Smith was sacked after a run of 5 successive defeats. He was replaced by former Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard who had just won the Scottish Premiership in his first management job at Rangers.

Crest
The club's first badge was a.../The club's current crest is.....

Colours
The club's traditional home colours are blue shirts with white shorts and blue socks.

The Manchester United away strip has often been a white shirt, black shorts and white socks...

The club's third kit is often all-blue...

Stadium
Aston Villa's current home venue is Villa Park; which is used by the club for training and state league matches, but due to its small capacity (4,000) the club plays national-level games in Modena's Stadio Alberto Braglia.

the team previously played at Aston Park (1874–1876) and Wellington Road (1876–1897). Villa Park is the largest football stadium in the English Midlands, and the eighth largest stadium in England. It has hosted 16 England internationals at senior level, the first in 1899, and the most recent in 2005. Thus, it was the first English ground to stage international football in three different centuries. Villa Park is the most used stadium in FA Cup semi-final history, having hosted 55 semi-finals. In 2022, the club announced plans to rebuild the North Stand and part of the Trinity Road stand, which will take the maximum capacity over 50,000.

The current training ground is located at Bodymoor Heath near Kingsbury in north Warwickshire, the site for which was purchased by former chairman Doug Ellis in the early 1970s from a local farmer. Although Bodymoor Heath was state-of-the-art in the 1970s, by the late 1990s the facilities had started to look dated. In November 2005, Ellis and Aston Villa plc announced a state of the art £13 million redevelopment of Bodymoor in two phases. The new training ground was officially unveiled on 6 May 2007, by then manager Martin O'Neill, then team captain Gareth Barry and 1982 European Cup winning team captain Dennis Mortimer, with the Aston Villa squad moving in for the 2007–08 season.

Supporters
Manchester City's average attendances have been in the region of 30,000, compared to an average for the division of fewer than 8,000.

The main groupings of supporters are...

Rivalries
The club's main rivals are Norwich City, because of geographical proximity. Watford have remained the higher ranked team at the end of every season since 1997. However, overall Luton still hold the superior record in the fixture between the two clubs; out of 119 competitive matches there have been 53 Luton victories and 37 for Watford, with 29 draws

Academy
Chelsea F.C. Academy is the under-18 team of Chelsea Football Club. It is a member of the Professional U18 Development League. They have won the FA Youth Cup nine times, including five consecutive titles between 2014 and 2018. The academy has produced many successful players such as the brothers Ron and Allan Harris, Peter Bonetti, Bobby Tambling, Barry Bridges, Bert Murray, John Hollins, Peter Osgood, Ray Wilkins, Graeme Le Saux, Bobby Smith, Terry Venables, Jimmy Greaves, John Terry, Mason Mount, and Reece James. Moreover, Chelsea have earned a reputation for being the only English club so far to reach the final of the UEFA Youth League, winning it twice in four final appearances.

Notable players
List criteria:


 * player has made more than 50 appearances overall for the club, or
 * player was a starter in a trophy-winning season

Current technical staff
Sergio Alegre

Toni Lobo David Prats

Notable managers
The following 15 managers either have won at least one major honour with IFK Göteborg or have managed the team for 100 or more league matches. The managers are listed according to when they were first appointed manager for IFK Göteborg.

Women's Football section
Aston Villa have a women's football side that compete in Division 1 Féminine, the top division of French football. The women's section has won the Division 1 Féminine fourteen times and the Coupe de France nine times. Aston Villa hosts its matches at the Groupama OL training Center

Men's Volleyball section
Tabajara's men's volleyball team plays in the Campeonato. Their home games are played at the Ginásio Tabajara in Istanbul.

National

 * Football League First Division / Premier League
 * Champions (1): 1961–62
 * Runners-up (2): 1980–81, 1981–82
 * Football League Third Division
 * Champions (2): 1953–54, 1956–57
 * Southern League
 * Champions (1): 1936–37

State

 * FA Cup
 * Winners (1): 1977–78
 * Texaco Cup
 * Winners (1): 1972–73

Academy Team
National


 * Campeonato Brasileiro Série B
 * Winner (1): 2006

State


 * Campeonato Mineiro
 * Winner (47): 1915, 1926, 1927, 1931, 1932, 1936, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1962, 1963, 1970, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022

Women's Team
State

Kent Senior Cup
 * Winners: 1945–46, 1947–48
 * Runners-up (5): 1938–39, 1948–49, 1949–50, 1994–95, 2014–15