Premier League corruption united two fanbases who had previously had growing animosity as Newcastle United took on Aston Villa
Ever since that awful day that Newcastle United were relegated from the Premier League in 2009 after failing to win at Villa Park, there has been a growing animosity between Newcastle and Aston Villa fans.
Banners unfurled in the Villa Park stands hit a nerve with Newcastle fans, which painted a target on the Villans' backs. Over the years, things haven't been helped by the online troll Villa Watch on X, who seems more obsessed with Newcastle than Aston Villa.
However, the divide has slowly been repaired over the last couple of seasons as both clubs have hit a similar wall.
Newcastle and Aston Villa are now huge threats to the established 'Big Six'. The cartel of clubs which are desperate to do everything they can to protect that status. The Premier League are terrified of upsetting them in any way after they all tried to break away and create a European Super League.
Aston Villa and Newcastle became united over the Premier League's corruption
Last summer, Newcastle had to sell two promising youngsters to comply with PSR, and now Aston Villa are being hit with sanctions and threats of expulsion from European competition over financial issues that shouldn't exist.
Both clubs have the money there to spend freely without putting themselves in danger, but because of tight regulations, they are forced to remain second-class clubs, scrapping for anything that they can find to claw themselves closer to breaking that cartel.
At Villa Park yesterday, both sets of fans joined together in several choruses of "Premier League corrupt as F***!".
Unai Emery hit the nail on the head in the Aston Villa programme
In the wake of their sanctions, Unai Emery made a point in Aston Villa's pre-match programme that if nobody speaks up, nothing will change.
“Financial control rules came to football to avoid bankruptcies and payment defaults, with good purpose.”
“But as professionals we should review it, for this good tool to become a limitation for the clubs that are doing good management, who will never be allowed to dream and get higher goals because the revenue, key for these financial rules, needs time to come to reality after sporting success.”
The 'Big Six' wield far too much power, and the Premier League is terrified of them, and that's why these things never change. They have a pocket of smaller clubs that are also scared of going against the Cartel in case it somehow affects them when there's a rule change.
We understand that not every club has the backing we do, and opening the floodgates could create a bigger divide, but the problem is that we're not all starting on a level playing field. We already have clubs that are miles ahead after being able to take advantage of times before these restrictions were in place. Unless there's a way to reset to zero where everyone starts with the same resources, there's no way to repair that, but there is. away to open up the field.
