A football-first tour where the venue itself is the experience
The Aston Villa Foundation Play and Tour Experience combines professional football coaching with a visit to one of England’s most iconic clubs.
Players take part in FA and UEFA-qualified coaching delivered by the Aston Villa Foundation, then explore the history, heritage and behind-the-scenes areas of
Villa Park.
It is more than a football trip. The experience develops confidence, teamwork, resilience, leadership and aspiration – inspiring young people through meaningful engagement with a Premier League club, all without the need for flights or passports.
Tour overview
This is a football-first, UK-based tour built around professional coaching from the Aston Villa Foundation at the Aston Villa Inner City Academy in Birmingham, the facility used by the Foundation’s programmes and by Villa’s Boys Pre-Academy and Girls Academy. Sessions are FA- and UEFA-qualified, fun, inclusive and player-centred.
Add a guided tour of Villa Park, a well-matched local fixture and a stay at our own Condover Hall with its full programme of team-building activities, and your players get an inspiring, easy-to-run domestic tour.
Every tour is tailor-made by our team, with the planning, safety standards and 24/7 support that schools and clubs have trusted for decades.
Tour details
- Ages: U8 to Adult
- Group size: 12 to 30 players (minimum 12)
- Season: Sep to Jun
- Destination: Birmingham, UK
Tour highlights
Train with FA and UEFA-qualified Aston Villa Foundation coaches
Guided behind-the-scenes tour of Villa Park
Coaching at Villa’s Inner City Academy
A well-matched local fixture
Stay at our own Condover Hall with team-building activities
No flights or passports, an easy-to-run domestic tour
The football experience
At the heart of this tour is a 90-minute coaching session delivered by Aston Villa Foundation’s FA and UEFA-qualified coaches at the Aston Villa Inner City Academy.
Sessions are fun, safe, inclusive and player-centred, and can be tailored to focus on themes like in-possession play, teamwork, communication and group development.
It is an environment used by Villa’s own Boys Pre-Academy and Girls Academy programmes.
More than just football
A MasterClass football tour is about more than what happens on the pitch. Time spent training in an elite environment, travelling as a team and experiencing a new culture helps students develop confidence, teamwork, resilience and leadership, supporting learning beyond the classroom and a lifelong engagement with sport.
Combining professional coaching with cultural discovery and time together as a squad, the tour creates lasting memories while building the character and skills that stay with players long after they return home.
Learn more about Masterclass
Well-matched fixtures
Coaching teaches it. A match proves it. Add a friendly, well-matched fixture against local opposition to your tour and give your players the chance to put what they’ve learnt straight into a competitive game.
As with every MasterClass tour, we work hard to match fixtures to the level of your touring team, so games are competitive, fair and genuinely useful for development, whatever standard you play at.
Find a tour
Stay on site at Condover Hall
Groups stay on site at our own Condover Hall, a Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house set in the Shropshire countryside. This purpose-built accommodation offers multi-bedded dorms of 4 to 12 beds, with separate en-suite or twin rooms for group leaders in the same building as their students.
On-site facilities include an indoor pool, a sports hall, three sports courts and a large restaurant catering to all dietary needs, with 24-hour on-site security. Full board is included, along with all team-building activities, at excellent value as our own property
Start your enquiryWhy choose this tour?
Some tours are about where you go. This one is about what your players become while they are there.
Sample Itinerary
1 Depart school
2 Local fixture
3 Overnight at Condover Hall
1 Aston Villa Foundation coaching session
2 Villa Park stadium tour
3 Overnight at Condover Hall
1 Team building at Condover Hall
2 Arrive back at school
Customise your tour
Make the tour your own with these optional add-ons and suggestions
Cadbury World
Learn all about the making of chocolate and the story of famous Cadbury treats on this fun, hands-on attraction in Birmingham.
Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum
Spend time at this hands-on science and technology museum in Birmingham, featuring an IMAX and a planetarium.
Star City
Unwind with a game of bowling, mini golf and more at this fun Birmingham entertainment complex.
Who is this tour for?
This tour is designed for school and club football groups from U8 through to adult teams, and works well for boys’, girls’ and mixed groups alike. The ideal group size is 12 to 30 players (minimum 12), with staff ratios of 1 to 10.
It’s a particularly strong fit for:
- School teams looking for an inspiring tour built around professional coaching, that also delivers real learning beyond the classroom.
- Clubs and academies wanting elite-environment coaching to lift standards and ambition.
- Girls’ teams who want to train in a professional football environment.
- Squads building team culture, whether for pre-season, a tour weekend or a reward trip with genuine development value.
What our customers say about us
“
We would highly recommend Masterclass as a sports tour organiser. Staff at all phases went above and beyond to make the trip a huge success. This allowed our students to create lifelong memories and enabled staff to build positive relationships that we will take into school.
The Derby High School
“
I couldn’t recommend MasterClass more. James was great at organising and communicating details regarding the trip beforehand and throughout. The other Masterclass tour staff and hotel staff were also very friendly and informative. Students had a great variety of activities to participate in with a good balance between sports and other activities.
St Albans Girls School
“
The organisation of the trip is excellent. All of the staff at MasterClass are extremely helpful and friendly. Nothing is ever too much trouble and any issues are dealt with immediately.
Cardinal Hume Catholic School
Ready to play and tour at a Premier League icon?
Speak to our MasterClass team on 020 3617 7983, or request a quote below
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