Aston Villa fans are eagerly awaiting the start of their Champions League campaign as Unai Emery prepares to take his squad into Europe’s elite club competition.
Unai Emery oversaw an incredible season last year, guiding Aston Villa to a top four Premier League finish alongside a run to the Europa Conference League semi-final.
The reward is a place in this season’s re-formatted Champions League, with a mouth-watering ties against the likes of Bayern Munich, Juventus and Celtic confirmed.
For many Villa fans, this will be the first time they have seen their club compete in the competition, with the Villans last in what was then known as the European Cup in 1982/83.
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However, that excitement soon turned to disappointment as Villa release their pricing strategy for the home Champions League clashes.
Dan Bardell pleads with Aston Villa to reconsider Champions League pricing
In the new Champions League format, each club in the competition will play eight fixtures to determine their place in the initial league phase.
This has replaced the group stages and means that clubs will no longer play home and away against each team in the first stage of the tournament.
Villa welcome Bayern, Bologna, Juventus and Celtic to Villa Park, with tickets sure to be gold dust amongst the club’s supporters.
However, the pricing of tickets has been widely criticised as a blatant money grab, with the cheapest tickets on offer £85.
Sky Sports presenter and 1874 podcast host Dan Bardell has now issued a message to club president Chris Heck following the news where he pleaded with the Villa chief to “put things right”.
Bardell posted on X: “Hi Chris Heck. If you care about the next generation of Villa fans as you state in this video, or any generation of Villa fan in fact, then you will review these Champions League prices and make a change.
“The uproar from the fans and media is truly justified.
“You’ve a chance to put it right before the competition starts.”
Aston Villa’s Champions League schedule
For those fortunate – or perhaps wealthy – enough to get a ticket to see Villa play their first home game in the Champions League in 41 years, that fixture against Bayern will take place on October 2nd against Bayern Munich.
However, Emery takes his side to Switzerland to face Young Boys a fortnight earlier to start their European campaign on 17th September.
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Those two games are followed by Bologna at home and Club Brugge away on October 22nd and November 6th respectively.
Villa then welcome Douglas Luiz back to Villa Park as Juventus come to town on 27th November before a trip to RB Leipzig on December 10th.
The competition resumes in late January as Villa head to Monaco on the 21st before rounding off the league phase at home against Celtic on the 29th.
Of the 36 teams in the Champions League, those who finish in the top eight of the initial league phase will automatically qualify for the knockout stages, whilst those placed ninth to 24th will compete in a play-off.
Once the sides who qualify of the knockout stage are determined the competition will have a more familiar feel as teams play two-legged ties up until the final in Munich.
