Some Background to Aston Villa Football Club

The English Football League was founded by twelve football clubs in England in 1888.

One of those 12 clubs was Aston Villa and the man responsible for making the English League a reality was an Aston Villa Director by the name of William McGregor.

Aston Villa was founded in 1874 and has a very proud history.

The other eleven clubs that joined Aston Villa to form the League were: Accrington Stanley, Blackpool, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Derby County, Everton, Notts County, Preston North End, Stoke City, West Bromich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

A biased Villa supporter could argue that we actually founded the English League as we know it today!

Villans Worldwide Website & Worldwide Supporters

Aston Villa has a very proud history, supportered by long standing avid fans and a growing worldwide supporter base that spans the globe.

Originally (circa 1990's) this site was known as "Aussie Villans" and has been one of many sites operating over the years. Villa fan sites have come and gone during the past fifteen years as have supporters clubs and new ones pop up sporadically being operated by passionate Villa Fans doing what any avid fan wants to do and that is to show support of their beloved club.

Unfortunately it takes a lot of effort, time and money to maintain a website, let alone a Supporters Club on an ongoing basis particularly if you want to keep it interesting and keep people returning to the site time and time again. The other core issue is that the passion of running a site can only be sustained whilst the passion and time to commit is available.

The first Aston Villa site on the web "TheVillaWeb" came to a close at the end of 2004 after 10 years of amazing contributions from Christian in Denmark, an individual that inspired and influenced many of the web sites that followed including "Aussie Villans" and this one. You can read Christians reasons for finally closing the door by clicking the VillaWeb link in this article.

So what makes this site any different?

This site is all about providing the means for small supporters clubs, particularly in remote locations to leverage each others information, discussion point on or about Aston Villa Football Club topics, through contributions by fans and supporters clubs that form a worldwide community.

This is not just another fan site or forum, it has been setup for the following reasons.

1. To provide an online community for loyal and passionate Villa supporters based overseas.
2. Provide the means for supporters overseas to benefit from the Official Aston Villa Supporters Network.
3. There are many fans outside of Birmingham and the UK that are just as passionate as any Villa fan in the UK that happen to be expats in many cases, living in areas where there are only a few fellow supporters or no supporters club.  Villans Worldwide is an online community specifically for such supporters and for those supporters that want to be a part of a community to make new friendships.
4. Promote Aston Villa Football Club with a view to growing the world wide supporter base.
5. Support Aston Villa Football Club through various initiatives.
6. We want to see a successful team on the field week in and week out, so that the aspirations become a reality. This point seems to be lost on some people. Without success on the field there is no growing the club - period!
7. Provide a framework for those that would like to help run the club, through web development and contributions under the banner of the wider Villa umbrella.
8. Assist supporters to form social or official clubs.
9. Gather Information on meeting places, pubs and supporters clubs from around the world that fans can call upon should they so desire, knowing they can meet and make new friends with a common interest.
10. Sharing and contributing to a common Newsletter
11. Provide up to date information on things going on at Villa Park and a mechanism for Villa supporters to put forward ideas and questions to the Aston Villa management concerning international issues.
12. Allow fellow Villans to review and contribute articles and views on players, matches, Supporters Clubs, sites and pubs from around the world.
13. Provide links to long standing Villa sites that have unique topic structures and
14. Our Goal is for this site to stand the test the time

This site forms the hub of a worldwide community of genuine Aston Villa supporters, who want to meet fellow Villans and truly support the Villa.  If you add all the supporters clubs from around the world up and they were in one community my guess is that it be approaching a thousand members or more and growing. There are many clubs with between 5 and 30 members so multiply that out, grow the base and we can make a significant contribution.

We are not here to compete with:

1. The Official Web Site (This is the most up to date news on Villa)
2. The fantastic wiki pedia (Why replicate their great work? Instead contribute to them) or
3. Other Fan sites (Join them and help them)

We hope you enjoy the site and find the information and services of Villans Worldwide useful.

If you live in a remote part of the world with little or no supporters in your area and would like to support the Villa and the growth of our online club, then join us and be a part of the community.  We want to be able to organise trips to Villa park as often as possible.  Meeting up in Brum is one heck of a part of your holiday.

For those Villa fans that are part of a supporters club or know of great pubs or clubs in your area, we look forward to hearing from you and encourage contributions plus constructive feedback on the site so that we can keep improving it.

The vision for this site is for it to be the property of Villa supporters living abroad.  A place that can be developed by passionate supporters over time, where like the open source community we can work together in a collaborative way.

If you don't have a web presence or considering your options and would like to be a part of Villans Worldwide please take a look at our services that we offer or alternatively if you would like to help grow and develop this site and you would like to join the team please see the Villans Worldwide Team.

Cheers

Shirdi

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