Villa’s Champions League Qualification a Special Day, Says Boss Emery 

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery after a Premier League match on May 13, 2024. (Reuters)
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery after a Premier League match on May 13, 2024. (Reuters)
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Villa’s Champions League Qualification a Special Day, Says Boss Emery 

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery after a Premier League match on May 13, 2024. (Reuters)
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery after a Premier League match on May 13, 2024. (Reuters)

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery celebrated a "very special day" after the Premier League club clinched a spot in Europe's top-tier club-football competition for the first time since 1983 and said he is excited by the future of his team.

The West Midlands side secured the Champions League spot on Tuesday after Tottenham Hotspur suffered a 2-0 home loss to Manchester City in the Premier League. Aston Villa had won the old European Cup, precursor to the Champions League, in 1982, but have not played in the continental competition for 41 years.

Villa are fourth in the Premier League standings with 68 points, five more than Tottenham, who sit fifth with one game to play. City are now within touching distance of an unprecedented fourth successive Premier League title.

"It's a very special day today," Emery told Villa's website. "It was our dream when we started the season to be here. To play Champions League is, after the Premier League, the best.

"You can play in the Premier League against the best teams in the world, it's very difficult. When you are playing in the Champions League you are playing against the best teams, at the same time, from other countries. And it's amazing.

"And we are always responsible about the history here, we know the history of Aston Villa is so long and so successful. Even in the Champions League, before it was the European Cup, we knew the responsibility was to try to increase our level, try to be demanding and to dream.

"I want to enjoy more and, next year, now the new challenge starts for us. To build again a team, and being strong to go and always increase our level. This is our objective."

The confirmation of their top-four finish coincided with the club's End of Season Awards Dinner at Villa Park, where captain John McGinn also spoke on the achievement.

"On behalf of all the players, it's been an amazing season," the 29-year-old Scotland international said.

"We got promoted, we got into the Premier League and were seven points behind with four games to play, we managed to stay in the league.

"We kept building and thankfully we've achieved something we haven't done for 40 years. So, on behalf of all the players and staff, we're over the moon, we're delighted."

Villa will conclude their campaign with a trip on Sunday to in-form Crystal Palace, who are 12th in the league.



Paris to Deploy 4,000 Police Officers for France-Israel Soccer Match Following Violence in Amsterdam

Police officers stand guard on Dam Square in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 09 November 2024. (EPA)
Police officers stand guard on Dam Square in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 09 November 2024. (EPA)
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Paris to Deploy 4,000 Police Officers for France-Israel Soccer Match Following Violence in Amsterdam

Police officers stand guard on Dam Square in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 09 November 2024. (EPA)
Police officers stand guard on Dam Square in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 09 November 2024. (EPA)

Paris police said Sunday that 4,000 officers and 1,600 stadium staff will be deployed for a France-Israel soccer match to ensure security in and around the stadium and on public transportation a week after violence against Israeli fans in Amsterdam.

France and Israel are playing in a UEFA Nations League match on Thursday.

“There's a context, tensions that make that match a high-risk event for us,” Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez said on French news broadcaster BFM TV, adding authorities “won't tolerate” any violence.

Nuñez said that 2,500 police officers would be deployed around the Stade de France stadium, north of the French capital, in addition to 1,500 others in Paris and on public transportation.

“There will be an anti-terrorist security perimeter around the stadium,” Nuñez said. Security checks will be “reinforced,” he added, including with systematic pat-downs and bag searches.

Nuñez said that French organizers have been in contact with Israeli authorities and security forces in order to prepare for the match.

Israeli fans were assaulted last week after a soccer game in Amsterdam by hordes of young people apparently riled up by calls on social media to target Jewish people, according to Dutch authorities. Five people were treated at hospitals and dozens were arrested after the attacks, which were condemned as antisemitic by authorities in Amsterdam, Israel and across Europe.

Before the match, the Israeli fans tore a Palestinian flag off a building in Amsterdam and chanted anti-Arab slogans on their way to the stadium. There were also reports of Israeli fans starting fights.

On Sunday, Dutch police detained several people for taking part in a demonstration in central Amsterdam that had been outlawed following the violence targeting Israeli fans, a local broadcaster reported.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau confirmed Friday that the France-Israel match would go ahead as planned.

“I think that for a symbolic reason we must not yield, we must not give up,” he said, noting that sports fans from around the world came together for the Paris Olympics this year to celebrate the “universal values” of sports.