Aston Villa Women Football Club is the women's

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team of

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

, currently playing in the English women's

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

. The club has been in existence since 1973. Originally titled ''Solihull F.C.'', the team affiliated to Aston Villa in 1989, becoming ''Villa Aztecs'', and became the official Aston Villa women's side in 1996. The club have a senior team, a reserve team and several other teams of younger age groups under a ''Regional Talent Club'' FA license.

History

Aston Villa Women Football Club was formed in 1973 as ''Solihull FC''. When Aston Villa asked for help in forming a ladies team in 1989, Solihull responded. The club agreed to change their name in 1996 to become the officially recognised ladies team of Aston Villa. As Villa Aztecs, they reached the 1995

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

Final but lost 2–0 to Wimbledon, and played in the 1995–96 FA Women's Premier League but were relegated. The senior team, renamed to ''Aston Villa Ladies F.C.'', continued to play mainly in the 2nd-tier Northern Division. The club won promotion twice more and played in the

FA Women's Premier League National Division The FA Women's Premier League National Division (originally WFA National League Premier Division) was a football division in England. From 1991 until 2010, the National Division functioned as the top league in English women's football. Durin ...

in 1999–2000 and in 2003–04, but ended in the relegation zone in both seasons. The Lady Villans won the Northern Division for the fourth time in 2011 and gained promotion to the WPL National Division, which had become the 2nd tier below the

FA WSL The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

. On 5 May 2013, the club had its greatest achievement by winning its first ever trophy, the Women's Premier League Cup, beating Leeds United Ladies 5–4 on penalties. In 2014 they were one of ten teams who were elected to WSL2, and in 2018 to the

Women's Championship The Women's Championship (formerly The FA Women's Championship) is the second-highest division of women's football in England. The division was established in 2014 as the FA Women's Super League 2 (WSL 2). WSL 2 replaced the previous level 2 d ...

. On 4 July 2019, the team was renamed Aston Villa Women F.C., CEO

Christian Purslow Christian Purslow (born 14 December 1963) is a British businessman who is the chief executive officer of the Premier League club Aston Villa Football Club. He was the co-founder of private equity firm MidOcean Partners and was the former managing ...

, said that the name "aligns more appropriately with women’s football in this country". On the same day, Chief Commercial Officer, Nicola Ibbetson, was elected to the FA WSL and Women's Championship board - making Aston Villa Women one of only two Championship clubs to have a representative on the board. In 2019–20, Villa won promotion to the WSL and entered the top flight of women's football for the first time since 2004. For the 2022-23 Women's Super League season the women will play four of their eleven home matches at

Villa Park Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway stations ...

, where the men's team play.

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Former players

Honours

Nadine Hanssen Lewes FC Women 1 Aston Villa Ladies 1 17 11 2018-726

* FA Women's Premier League (Northern Division) (Level 2)
Winners (4): 1992–93, 1994–95, 2002–03, 2010–11 *

FA Women's Premier League Cup The Women's National League Cup is an annual English football cup competition, founded in 1991 by the Women's Football Association (WFA). It was renamed the FA Women's Premier League Cup from 1994 to 2018. The first edition of the Cup includ ...

Winners (1): 2012–13 *

FA Women's Championship The Women's Championship (formerly The FA Women's Championship) is the second-highest division of women's football in England. The division was established in 2014 as the FA Women's Super League 2 (WSL 2). WSL 2 replaced the previous level 2 d ...

(Level 2)
Winners (1): 2019–20

Non-playing staff

Corporate hierarchy

Reference:

Management hierarchy

Regional Talent Club

The club also run several other teams under the auspices of an FA Tier Two ''Regional Talent Club''. This centre aims to develop the talent from within the local area. The RTC teams include an ''under-10'', ''under-12'', ''under-14'', ''under-16'' and ''development squad'' In August 2010, Aston Villa Women FC supplied eight players to a 30-strong

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Under-17 training camp.

References

External links

AVFC Ladies official website
{{FA Women's Super League

Women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

Sport in Birmingham, West Midlands Women's football clubs in England Association football clubs established in 1973 1973 establishments in England Women's Championship (England) teams FA Women's National League teams