After months of leaks and sneak previews, English Premier League club Aston Villa officially made the switch to a new crest on Friday.
The club posted a video to their social media channels on May 31 confirming their new crest. They’ve also switched over all their social media profile photos and are using the new crest on their website.
The new crest matches what had been leaked in January and what appeared in graphics that accompanied an announcement earlier in May that Aston Villa had signed a kit deal with Adidas.
The crest features a yellow lion rampant with a drop shadow on a light blue shield with claret and white outlines. “ASTON VILLA” is arched along the inside bottom of the shield, with the year of the club’s founding (1874) above in white. A white star above the lion’s paw marks Villa’s European Cup win in 1982.
Villa’s previous circular crest won a fan vote in November 2022, but was only used for one season before the club announced plans to ditch it and come up with a new crest for its 150th anniversary.
The club never fully committed to the new crest either; while it was used on kits for the 2023-24 season, Villa often used the version of the crest that came before — a light blue shield with a yellow lion and claret “AVFC” monogram — on their website and social media channels. The Premier League also used the previous version of the crest on their website and in highlight videos. Members of the club’s Fan Advisory Board (FAB) were told it was “too close to Chelsea” and media outlets were encouraged to not adopt the new crest.
When the new crest leaked back in January, Villa supporters were not impressed, with one calling it the “worst badge in Aston Villa history.” There were also concerns raised that Villa had not properly consulted with supporters and the FA during the crest change process.
