Even though they were relegated to the Championship after a sorry Premier League campaign, the name Aston Villa still carried enough cachet for Chinese businessman Tony Xia to step in and buy the club for £75m, a deal that is nearly completed report the Express and Star.
The Express and Star report that the Chinese businessman is due to meet wit hte Football League on Monday, in what they say will be a meeting where the go-ahead is given for him to take over the club on a more formal basis. Xia, who will take over ownership of Villa from American Randy Lerner has provided proof of both the initial funding and satisfied the Football League that he has the funding in place to run the club for the next two seasons.
However, it is the news of what Tony Xia intends to do that will be of interest to Villa fans as he is not only focusing on promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking. No, he’s focusing his attention way beyond that.
In moves that bear a similar resemblance to the model that Manchester City have adopted, Xia aims to extend the club’s reach beyond these shores and into other, lucrative sporting markets abroad.
The Mirror report that Xia’s ideas involve a franchising of the Aston Villa name where the club become more of a brand that is applied to teams playing their football of further shores. So, just as Manchester City have their franchises in New York with the MLS side New York City and in Australia with A-League side Melbourne City FC, Aston Villa will soon have similar in places identified by Xia as ripe for expansion.
According to the Mirror, Xia has “identified India, America, Australia and his homeland [China] as the areas in which Villa will be represented.” Doing this will enable Villa to expose their brand awareness to a wider footballing audience, giving greater exposure to the team itself. The areas that Tony Xia has identified are expanding footballing nations where there is no doubt the hope that a well-known English footballing name will bed in quickly.
[interaction id=”575d5e1e245d112613490eeb”]
