Aston Villa's president of business operations, Francesco Calvo

Aston Villa’s Francesco Calvo has issued a warning over “probably the biggest challenge facing English football”.

Villa’s president of business operations was speaking at the Spobis Conference in Hamburg when he addressed an impending ban affecting all Premier League clubs.

Top-flight clubs will not be permitted to have front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship from the start of next season.

Villa currently have Betano as their main shirt sponsor, meaning they will need to find a new one ahead of the 2026/27 campaign to meet the Premier League’s self-imposed restriction on gambling sponsorship.

"I'd say that when we look for a sponsor, I always have this short and obvious story,” said Calvo.

“When you look for a partner, you always look at the money. That's obvious, the premium positioning of the brand, and the activation the brand can generate.

"At the moment, it's clearly a buyer's market, not a seller's, because you have 11 clubs - now 10 because one has resolved the issue - on the market looking for sponsors not tied to betting, which makes the arena very competitive.”

“This is probably...