View: Aston Villa Women will be set back by FA investment rejection
Aston Villa Women will be set back by the FA’s decision to turn down £150million in new investment for the Women’s Super League.
Carla Ward’s side are relatively new in the Women’s Super League after getting promoted in 2020 but has found it difficult to compete.
There was hope on the horizon when a major investment was proposed to the FA, but the Daily Mail have reported that the investment was rejected.
According to the report, the FA still want to sell the league at some point but are persisting with its slower rate of development.
This will come as a huge blow to Villa who could have used the extra funding to kick on and leave perpetual relegation battles behind.
Plays into the hands of the Big Three
The nature of WSL finances has made the league even more static than the Premier League, seeing Chelsea win five of the last six titles.
Emma Hayes’ Blues are joined by Arsenal and Manchester City as the league’s ‘Big Three’, which is practically impossible to break into.
With Villa’s current financial situation, they are only able to invest so much before they are unable to compete.
This has left Villa unable to sign a regular source of goals, with no Villa player scoring more than three goals in a season.
They have also been unable to hold on to their stars, losing Asmita Ale and Ramona Petzelberger in the last two seasons.
While the board can invest in elite-level facilities, if they cannot have an elite-level budget then they will be stuck at the bottom of the league.
The investment would have seen much of the money centred around the top, but the Premier League has shown that this does not stop smaller teams from breaking into the elite.
Despite the Big Six controlling so much in the Premier League, we have seen West Ham and Leicester break into the top six recently.
Without this boost in funding, Villa are going to have to continue in lower midtable for the time being.
In other Aston Villa news, the club has announced the signing of Rory Wilson.