Credit: PA Images
Over 500 staff are set to lose their jobs at Aston Villa, with the club undergoing extensive restructuring following last weekend's relegation from the Premier League.According to the Birmingham Mail, employees were told on Wednesday that around a third of the club's 1,600 staff members would be made redundant ahead of next season. This includes full-time, part-time and matchday staff. The club are reportedly hoping the majority of cuts will be voluntary, but compulsory redundancies are also an option.Villa's relegation to the Championship represents a plunge in income for the club. The massive loss of television revenue and a projected decline in matchday revenue, sales and marketing are all factors in their poor financial outlook. This – combined with the recent resignations of David Bernstein and Mervyn King from the board – gives them the distinct look of a club in crisis.Nonetheless, the loss of so many jobs has come as a shock. Lee Barron, regional secretary of the TUC and a Villa season ticket holder for over 30 years, has reportedly offered to assist staff members facing redundancy, despite the lack of union recognition at the club. He told the Birmingham Mail: "Everybody is just sitting there open-mouthed at the moment."It seems to me the cuts started with the people who worked for Aston Villa not just for the money but because of their connection to the club."We have had people leave the board now and it's a total disaster. It's very unsettling for people working there. What they are going through is frankly unimaginable."Meanwhile, club captain Gabriel Agbonlahor will continue to pick up around £50,000 a week – despite being both unfit to play competitive football and indefinitely suspended over the sport's latest laughing gas furore.Likewise, none of his underachieving teammates are thought to be affected. In the words of Joleon Lescott, relegation is "a weight off their shoulders."
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