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Aston Villa will begin the new Premier League season without access to the multiball system after the club was sanctioned for repeated breaches of the competition’s rules last term.
The Midlands side has been fined £125,000 and prohibited from using multiball during their opening three home fixtures of the 2025/26 campaign, against Newcastle United, Crystal Palace and Fulham.
In a statement, the Premier League confirmed it had reached a “sanction agreement” with Villa after identifying five separate rule breaches during home games last season. The system, introduced in 2022/23, is designed to improve match flow and prevent time-wasting.
“The accepted breach was the club’s fifth of the multiball rules during the 2024/25 season,” the league said. “The club will pay a £125,000 fine and will be prohibited from operating the multiball system in its first three home League matches of the 2025/26 season.”
Villa’s final violation occurred in their 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in May, a match pivotal to their Champions League qualification. According to the Premier League, ball assistants wrongly supplied Villa players with balls from cones for corners and free kicks, while extra assistants behind the Spurs goal were in possession of more balls than allowed. One incident even saw a ball thrown onto the pitch as Spurs goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky prepared to restart play.
The league added: “Clubs are required to adopt a multiball system at every league match and adherence to the relevant rules and guidance is of vital importance to maintain consistency and, crucially, to ensure that home clubs do not gain a competitive advantage through their misuse of the system.”
Officials had warned Villa before kick-off and again at half-time of that Spurs clash, but the breaches persisted. Similar issues were also noted in matches against Manchester United, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Brentford earlier in the season.
Featured Image Credit: Instagram / @avfcofficial, Unsplash / Trung Tran
