Aston Villa and Manchester United join World Sevens London event

Aston Villa and Manchester United will take part in this year’s Women’s World Sevens tournament in London, as organisers bring the seven-a-side format to England for the first time and target incremental end-of-season inventory for WSL clubs.The event will be hosted at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium from May 28 to May 30, ending one day before the Women’s FA Cup final at Wembley on May 31.Aston Villa will make their debut in the competition, while Manchester United are returning for a second appearance.Aston Villa Women managing director Maggie Murphy said: “It’s a great opportunity to be part of something a little different in the women’s game and we’re looking forward to it.”Brentford chief executive Jon Varney positioned the tournament as a fan-facing addition to the venue calendar, with a growth message for the women’s game.Jon Varney said: “We are really pleased to be welcoming the London edition of World Sevens Football to Brentford. It is a unique tournament that promises fans fast-paced exciting action.”Six further clubs will be confirmed in the coming weeks, with organisers saying the eight-team line-up will be made up of WSL sides.The London edition will run with a reduced prize pool of US$1.5m, down from the US$5m used across previous events in Portugal and the United States in 2025.The winner will earn US$500,000 and the runners-up will receive US$250,000, with teams finishing in the top four splitting their prize money evenly between the squad and staff competing and the club.World Sevens organisers have said the lower prize pot reflects an ongoing evaluation of where best to distribute funds globally as the property scales, despite a wider commitment to fund the project over multiple years.The tournament was co-founded by US entrepreneurs Jennifer Mackesy and Justin Fishkin, with Mackesy previously identified as part of an investor group committing US$100m to the project over five years.Commercially, the London staging gives World Sevens a clearer tie-in to the WSL calendar and a built-in audience around an established domestic finals weekend, while offering clubs a condensed format designed for broadcast-friendly scheduling and sponsor activation.On the pitch, matches are played seven-a-side with rolling substitutions, no offsides and 15-minute halves, with squads of up to 14 players and unlimited changes.The competition is split into two groups with round-robin play across the first two days, followed by semi-finals and a final on May 30.