"We live near Villa Park football ground - rowdy fans smash our windows and dump litter in our gardens"
- last year
Residents living near a historic Premier League ground have revealed how rowdy football fans make life a misery - by smashing windows, vandalising cars and dumping rubbish in gardens.
Villa Park in Aston, Birmingham, has been home to Aston Villa for 126 years and attracts royal fans and Hollywood megastars to its 42,640 capacity stadium.
It is one of Britain's oldest grounds and will also host European football next season after Villa secured 7th place in the Premier League.
But residents living next to the famous stadium have now told how life can be a "nightmare" on match days as thousands descend on the residential city suburb.
They revealed their house and cars windows have been smashed, driveways regularly blocked by parked vehicles and how fans urinate in their front gardens.
Other locals are forced to clear up discarded litter themselves and say they plan going out by studying the fixture list to avoid the mayhem of match days.
Abu Zaman, 26, is a Villa fan but says living near the team he supports isn't all it's cracked up to be as his car has been damaged on multiple occasions.
Business owner Abu, who has lived on Trinity Road all of his life, said: “The parking and the traffic are really bad.
"We get people who scratch our cars and previously had people smash our windows.
“Our road is shut on the day. On a match day you have to wait for the game to start at which point your whole day is wasted.
“Then there's the parking, the litter and the vandalism. The roads are open but the supporters are walking on the road and blocking them.
“In the 26 years Villa have only approached us for once for planning permission for the ground extension, they don’t care about the local community.
“As long as their pockets are lined, they don't care. It’s all about tickets and season tickets for them.
“The roads are covered in alcohol bottles, burger wrappers, pretty much everything.”
Villa have had a near 10,000 seat new stand approved in the past few months, which locals fear is just going to make the problems worse.
Dad-of-one James Payne, 35, who lives on neigbouring Endicott Road, added: "This is a built up area, the infrastructure can't support even more fans.
"It's bad enough as it is - having to wade through a sea of beer bottles and takeaway wrappers just to get to your front door.
"We've had people urinating in our front garden, I'm sure people act like they wouldn't usually do when they go the football. They turn into yobs.
"Someone once ripped our fence post up and began attacking a rival fan with it. It's just bonkers.
"They get famous fans like Prince William and Tom Hanks seeing all the glamour of Premier League football - but just a stones throw away for us it's a nightmare."
Andrea Sawyers has lived on Trinity Road since 2012 and said she and her mum have to clean up huge piles of litter left behind by fans themselves.
Mum-of-two Andrea said: “I’m a bit of a Villa fan, I’m not a massive one"
Villa Park in Aston, Birmingham, has been home to Aston Villa for 126 years and attracts royal fans and Hollywood megastars to its 42,640 capacity stadium.
It is one of Britain's oldest grounds and will also host European football next season after Villa secured 7th place in the Premier League.
But residents living next to the famous stadium have now told how life can be a "nightmare" on match days as thousands descend on the residential city suburb.
They revealed their house and cars windows have been smashed, driveways regularly blocked by parked vehicles and how fans urinate in their front gardens.
Other locals are forced to clear up discarded litter themselves and say they plan going out by studying the fixture list to avoid the mayhem of match days.
Abu Zaman, 26, is a Villa fan but says living near the team he supports isn't all it's cracked up to be as his car has been damaged on multiple occasions.
Business owner Abu, who has lived on Trinity Road all of his life, said: “The parking and the traffic are really bad.
"We get people who scratch our cars and previously had people smash our windows.
“Our road is shut on the day. On a match day you have to wait for the game to start at which point your whole day is wasted.
“Then there's the parking, the litter and the vandalism. The roads are open but the supporters are walking on the road and blocking them.
“In the 26 years Villa have only approached us for once for planning permission for the ground extension, they don’t care about the local community.
“As long as their pockets are lined, they don't care. It’s all about tickets and season tickets for them.
“The roads are covered in alcohol bottles, burger wrappers, pretty much everything.”
Villa have had a near 10,000 seat new stand approved in the past few months, which locals fear is just going to make the problems worse.
Dad-of-one James Payne, 35, who lives on neigbouring Endicott Road, added: "This is a built up area, the infrastructure can't support even more fans.
"It's bad enough as it is - having to wade through a sea of beer bottles and takeaway wrappers just to get to your front door.
"We've had people urinating in our front garden, I'm sure people act like they wouldn't usually do when they go the football. They turn into yobs.
"Someone once ripped our fence post up and began attacking a rival fan with it. It's just bonkers.
"They get famous fans like Prince William and Tom Hanks seeing all the glamour of Premier League football - but just a stones throw away for us it's a nightmare."
Andrea Sawyers has lived on Trinity Road since 2012 and said she and her mum have to clean up huge piles of litter left behind by fans themselves.
Mum-of-two Andrea said: “I’m a bit of a Villa fan, I’m not a massive one"