Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery has expressed confidence that his team is ready to vie for major trophies as they gear up to face Bologna in their third Champions League fixture of the season.
The Birmingham-based club has emerged victorious in both of their Champions League matches so far, marking their return to European football’s top-tier competition for the first time since the 1982-83 season.
"I don't want to waste my time here, that is my message. You can't waste your time here," Emery stated during a press conference on Monday.
"My objective here is to keep the same level we have now, Champions League and add more to be contenders for titles.
"This is the message, we love football, we love our work and we want to be successful."
Villa Park is set to host its second Champions League match — the tournament was renamed from the European Cup at the start of the 1992 season — following Jhon Durán's remarkable winning goal against Bayern Munich in their previous outing.
Emery emphasized that he doesn't want his team to be just participants and reiterated his ambition for the club to qualify for the competition consistently.
"We want to achieve the objectives and one of them is to play in the Champions League. It is not about playing there only because of some circumstances -- I want to us to stay there for a long time," the Spanish coach said.
"But it is difficult. Maybe sometimes you can have some problems or struggle in our way, but you have to be resilient. We want to be strong in the idea in our mind and create a strong mentality to always break barriers.
"We can believe, working like we are doing, we can keep it. This is my challenge, this is my objective now.”
The U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) has successfully defended itself against an antitrust lawsuit filed by the now-defunct North American Soccer League (NASL).
The NASL had accused US Soccer and Major League Soccer (MLS) of conspiring to block its ability to compete at the highest level of men's professional soccer by repeatedly denying its applications for Division II status.
The league argued that USSF’s sanctioning process unfairly favored MLS, preventing independent leagues from gaining recognition and financial stability.
However, the jury ruled in favor of US Soccer and MLS, stating that the NASL’s failure was due to its own mismanagement rather than an unfair system.
Reacting to the verdict, US Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone stated, “This decision reaffirms that our federation operates in the best interests of the sport and its growth in the U.S.”
The ruling comes as a relief to MLS and US Soccer, which faced significant legal challenges over their governance of professional leagues.
The lawsuit had raised concerns over whether the USSF holds too much power in determining league sanctioning, an issue that could have reshaped the landscape of American soccer had the NASL won the case.
Critics, however, believe that the case exposed deeper issues in how professional leagues are structured, with former NASL executive Rishi Sehgal arguing, “The current system remains closed and anti-competitive, limiting opportunities for independent clubs to thrive.”
While the legal battle has ended, discussions over the structure and accessibility of professional soccer in the U.S. will likely continue.
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