Aston Villa: Dr Tony Xia completes takeover of Championship club
Last updated on .From the section Football

Chinese businessman Dr Tony Xia has completed his £76m takeover of Championship club Aston Villa.
The 39-year-old has passed the Premier League and Football League's fit and proper person test and will become chairman of the West Midlands side.
He succeeds American Randy Lerner, who bought Villa for £62.6m in 2006.
Villa were relegated from the Premier League for the first time last season, finishing bottom, and have since named Roberto di Matteo as manager.
Dr Xia spent six years at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including five months at Oxford University, before returning to China.
He made his fortune as the owner of Recon Group, a holding company that has the controlling interest in five publicly listed companies on the Hong Kong and Chinese stock exchanges, employing 35,000 people in 75 countries.
His takeover comprises a £52m purchase price and a £24m overdraft. In addition, he will contribute £60m in operating costs.
Dr Xia met the Football League's Shaun Harvey in London on Monday for formal confirmation he had passed the owners' and directors' test, after the Premier League had been satisfied in its investigations.
The new Villa vice-chairman is Chris Samuelson, an international financier who has been involved in a failed takeover at fellow Championship club Reading.
He also attempted to inject finances into Premier League Everton more than a decade ago.
The new chief executive is Keith Wyness, who filled the same role at Scottish Premiership club Aberdeen, then Everton.
Samuelson was instrumental in getting Dr Xia interested in the Villa project and introduced the new owner to Wyness.
Dr Xia is expected to inject about £30m into the transfer fund available to former Chelsea, West Brom and Schalke boss Di Matteo as he rebuilds a first-team squad that won only three league games last season.
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Does he have a decent moral compass and a genuine care for the club and it's future? Time will tell
Good luck to Villa. Hope this new ownership is a good thing and not like some of the others we have seen
Good luck to the club in the long term and hope the new owner can repair the mess the previous owner left.
Whatever happens, he can't be worse than the previous incumbent...can he???
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Leeds said that about Bates!
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did they also say it about Massimo Cellino? A man with 2 prior criminal convictions before his most recent case, and who passed the Premier League & Football League fit & proper person test based on that.
That might not sound very glamorous but I feel fans and perhaps also players benefitted much more from local pride in their team and an increased sense of community.
What is left from that era? Not much. Foreign owners, managers, staff, players, supporters.
You say lerner made a profit.
Are you a moron?
He paid £63M for the club and before last year had lost about £240M, including waiving interest on loans he made to the club.
Taking into account the £76m sale price(down from an expected £150-200m before relegation) he has lost about 35% of everything he owns backing Villa.
I bet the Doc won't throw that sort of money at the club.
Dr is an earned title. You hardly see anyone call sir Alex just Alex. Dunno why you're hurt about it though. An MIT doctorate shouldn't be dismissed so cheaply
If your club's performed badly, don't worry, another foreign billionaire will transform it...
They may stamp on the soul of the club, ban fans groups, crush youth teams and local schemes, but it's ok, you'll get a top player or two 'earning' as much as everyone in the front couple of rows of seats
Good luck Villa
You'll need it
What's this "We" thing ?!
Britain was never "Great".
It wasn't us sold Uk downriver, nor pocketed the silver.
It was our owners - same now as then.
Maybe he will invest the same again in the youth academy, and have an entire team of homegrown youngsters by 2020 dominating the league, or just buy foreign duds seeing out their career on obscene amounts of cash, provided by the ripped off fans
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OK but nobody breaks their arm to hand over the cash.
If anything fans rip themselves off!
No sympathy.
on
29 minutes ago
Tinpot club, tinpot owner. They will probably get relegated again now.
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Tin pot comment. Try to be more original...puleeaasse!
Great news for Villa. Some new blood and an ambitious new owner.
We will journey on!