History

Aston Villa Football Club were formed in March, 1874, by four members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel in Aston. The four founders were Jack Hughes, Frederick Matthews, Walter Price and William Scattergood. The first match was against the local Aston Brook St Mary’s Rugby team. As a condition of the match, the Villa side had to agree to play the first half under rugby rules and the second half under football rules. The club were soon playing the modern version of football though and 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 one of the club’s directors, 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 clubs seventh FA Cup win. Even though Villa won the inaugral 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.

The late 1960s saw a period of turbulence for Aston Villa, with fan pressure leading to a takeover and managerial changes. This started with Villa being relegated for the third time, under manager Dick Taylor in 1967. Within two years, pressure from supporters had led to the resignation of the board and relegation to the Third Division. In the 1971–72 season they returned to the Second Division as Champions with a Division record 70 points. In 1973 Ron Saunders was appointed manager and by 1977 he had taken them back into the First Division and into Europe.[1] The club were back amongst the elite and they continued to have much success under Saunders, winning the league in the 1980–81 season. To the surprise of commentators and fans, Saunders quit halfway through the 1981–82 season, after falling out with the chairman, with the club in the quarter-final of the European Cup. He was replaced by his assistant manager Tony Barton who guided them to 1–0 victory over Bayern Munich in the European Cup final in Rotterdam.[2] This marked a pinnacle though and they fell down the table for five years, culminating in their relegation in 1987. This was followed by promotion the following year and second place in the Football League in 1989.

Villa were one of the founding members of the Premier League in 1992, and finished runners-up to Manchester United in the inaugural season. For the rest of the nineties though, the club went through three different managers and their league positions were inconsistent, although they did win two League Cups. They reached the FA Cup Final in 2000 for the first time since 1957, but lost 1–0 to Chelsea in the last game to be played at the old Wembley Stadium. Once again Villa’s league position began to fluctuate under several different managers and in the summer of 2006, David O’Leary left under acrimonious circumstances. Martin O’Neill soon arrived though to a rapturous reception. After 23 years as chairman and single biggest shareholder, owning approximately 38% of the club, Doug Ellis decided to sell his stake to Randy Lerner, the owner of NFL franchise the Cleveland Browns. The arrival of a new owner and manager marked the start of sweeping changes throughout the club, including a new crest, a new kit sponsor and team changes in the summer of 2007.

Source: Wikipedia