ASTON Villa’s 1982 European Cup winning team is set to be inducted into football’s prestigious Hall of Fame, the Birmingham Mail can reveal.
The Villa side that triumphed on that famous night in Rotterdam will be reunited at a black-tie dinner to celebrate the achievement in October.
And the induction into the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame will be made by former manager Ron Saunders who has agreed to make a rare appearance to honour the squad he built.
The event will be held at Villa Park’s Holte Suite on Thursday October 27.
The team, which includes Peter Withe, Gary Shaw, Nigel Spink, Denis Mortimer and Ken McNaught, will become just the fourth domestic squad to receive a team award.
They join a list that includes the oldest club in the world, Sheffield FC, the Manchester United European Cup winning team of 1968 and the Liverpool side of 1978, which won two European Cups in a row.
The selection panel is led by Sir Bobby Charlton and is made up of some of the biggest names in the game, including Sir Alex Ferguson, Gordon Taylor and Mark Lawrenson.
Neil Rioch, founder and chief executive of the Aston Villa Former Players Association, said: “This is a very prestigious honour for everybody involved with the team.
“All 19 players from the squad have agreed to come to the event and Peter Withe is flying back from Australia.”
Ken McNaught, who was centre half in the cup winning team and joined Villa in 1977, said it was a “huge honour” for all of the former players.
The 56-year-old added: “When you look at the teams and the players who are already in the hall of fame you feel really humbled to be a part of it.
“It is not just an honour for the players in the squad, it is also a huge honour for the club itself.
“The fact that every member will be attending shows the respect that we have for each other and I think we are all really looking forward to getting back together.”
More than 600 people will attend the event at the Holte Suite, including representatives from the football museum and family members of players.
Invites have also been sent out to the current Villa owner Randy Lerner and Villa fan Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England.
>> Previous honours for European legends>>>>