To say that I’m gutted about missing Aston Villa’s victory parade in Birmingham is an understatement after winning the Europa league in Istanbul last night.
Not 24 hours after winning the trophy in Turkey the players were celebrating with fans on the streets of the second city this afternoon.
Villa announced not long after winning the title that they would celebrate by holding a victory parade this afternoon on the streets of Birmingham.
Due to Birmingham pride being this weekend and the club needing to prepare for their final game of the 2025/26 campaign against Man City in Manchester on Sunday, today was the only day that was feasible for the parade to take place.
There was not enough time for me to travel to Birmingham and be amongst thousands of other fans to celebrate the victory.
I believe that the club could have taken their time to announce plans for the celebrations and held them a few days after the season had finished before the players headed on holiday, instead of it taking place not 24 hours after the match had finished.
For those with disabilities and support needs, we can’t just hop on public transport or in cars at short notice to attend events like this one.
In many cases, we rely on the support of friends and family to help us safely travel to and be at events like this where there is potential for their to be  thousands of people around.
Things like this aren’t always considered by organisations when planning events like these, which I believe needs to change not just for sport events but in other sectors within society.
Travelling to Istanbul was never an option for me due to the logistics of travelling by plane as a wheelchair user, so being apart of something like the victory parade would be my only option when wanting to get involved with the celebrations.
Unless you have experience of supporting someone with disabilities or mobility issues to travel to football matches abroad or celebrations like these, you won’t understand how difficult it is to carry out something like this.
Organisations need to work with our community when planning things like victory parades and other events that involve thousands of people within a small area in the future.
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Up the European Villa!!!!!
Cam
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