Chinese businessman Dr Tony Xia has reached an agreement to buy relegated Premier League club Aston Villa for 60 million pounds. The deal will have to be approved by the Football League, but if it goes through Xia would own 100% of the club and would also become its chairman. The former owner, American billionaire Randy Lerner, had bought the club in 2006 for 62.2 million pounds and has been trying to sell it since 2014.
The club will announce a new manager shortly, the most likely to be appointed are Nigel Pearson and Roberto Di Matteo. Aston Villa finished bottom of the table in the Premier League with just 17 points, with manager Remi Garde sacked at the end of March.
Tony Xia is the owner of a large business group, which employs 35,000 people in 75 different countries. He completed his studies in the United States, at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and also spent five months at Oxford University. He says he is a Villa fan since quite a few years. The immediate target is to bring the club back to the Premier League, then qualify for an European competition. Xia also revealed that he wants to make Aston Villa "the most famous football club in China with a huge fanbase".
Aston Villa are 12/1 at SkyBet to win next season's Championship and get promoted to the Premier League.
sharpe 7 years ago
Finally glory team like Villa will have an owner who is willing to invest "big money" in the club. The former owner, American billionaire Randy Lerner didn't invest enough but also the club didn't have the right transfer policy I think. I guess all the Villa fans are exited to see a new owner comes so Birmingham the expectations...
Finally glory team like Villa will have an owner who is willing to invest "big money" in the club. The former owner, American billionaire Randy Lerner didn't invest enough but also the club didn't have the right transfer policy I think. I guess all the Villa fans are exited to see a new owner comes so Birmingham the expectations are huge I guess.
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mannixx 7 years ago
Very sad season for Aston Villa and the fans, club with such a tradition didnt deserve to finish like that with only 3 wins in league season. Team wasnt that bad with Micah Richards, Ally Cissoko ,Alan Hutton, Scott Sinclair, Agbonlahor...they should stay in league easily in my opinion .
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