I am pleased to announce an exciting new partnership between Montpellier Villa FC and Withdean Youth FC. This partnership will fundamentally act as a pathway for Withdean's boys and girls to enter Villa's successful senior section once they finish at U16 level, the Villa senior section provides football from U18s to over 50s walking football. This means if you join Withdean as a 5 year old kid, you can play all the way through till you're old - from cradle to grave (almost!)
It's been a really easy deal to strike as Withdean and Villa have aligned values within football, both clubs act the right way and we want to be portrayed in a positive light. As Villa chairman/player and parent/coach at Withdean with my daughter in the Withdean set up, it's given me a unique opportunity to realise what both clubs could achieve together and after speaking too Jason, Ben and Matt it was an easy discussion with the rest of the Villa senior set up to come to an agreement to move forward.
What does this all mean for Withdean Youth and Monty Villa?
Well for Withdean your children will have the opportunity after youth football to push themselves on and challenge for places in our step 6 mens and women's sides or play for fun in our less serious senior set up. We value the social side at Villa and some of my closest mates are my fellow vets, it's like a family. We are known for playing young talent in all of our senior sides and talented players will get opportunities in our set up before they would at similar level clubs, which should excite children and parents alike.
For Villa this helps bring in much needed young talent into our U18, U23 and seniors sides, as well as parents or coaches wanting to get involved in our club. Hopefully players stay with Villa and play Vets 35s then 45s then walking football.
Villa is an accredited Step 6 club that have nine senior teams and a couple more on the way. We compete at a very good level across all of our senior sections. We have excellent facilities at Lancing, University of Falmer and I'm excited to announce a new deal with Russell Martin Academy/Foundation and Southwick to share their new £2.5m step 6 facility at Southwick.
This really is a dream win win partnership which is rare in life, both clubs will look forward together with shared aims and goals, whilst keeping their own identities and running successfully as they have been previously.
Here's to a successful end to this season and a fabulous 24-25 with hopefully our first Villa side made up of Withdean Youth.
UTV and UTWY
Kev Rowe
Chairman
Montpelier Villa FC
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