Tony Xia is head of Recon Group, a privately-owned group, that has an interest in various businesses across China and Hong Kong.
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The Recon Group, owned by the 39-year-old businessman, purchased the relegated Premier League club on Wednesday from American Randy Lerner and lofty ambitions are on the agenda.
It added: “Dr Xia’s immediate objective is to return Aston Villa to the Premier League and then to have the club finish in the top six, bringing European football back to Villa Park”.
Lerner, who first signalled his intention to sell the club in 2014, penned a long and freaky open letter to supporters on the club’s website once the sale was confirmed, in which he likened their relegation campaign to “Bannockburn”.
Lerner said Xia is committed to investing in the squad and developing the Villa Park stadium, which can hold more than 42,000.
The Chinese magnate buying English newly relegated football club Aston Villa said his company could pay more than £100 million for the club, but would not be “burning money” to turn the team around.
Villa’s new owner told the Beijing Times: “One of the things we have thought about is using the Lotus Health name to rebrand Villa Park”.
Villa had crashed out of the Premier League after winning only thrice this season, but they will be hopeful of better times ahead under their new owners.
“The first priority is to get promoted”.
Meanwhile, following Xia’s takeover Villa are expected to step up their attempts to persuade Roberto Di Matteo to become the club’s new manager.
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Villa fans hope Mr Xia will give them a little more to shout about. I hope we can bring everything back on to the right track as soon as possible. “We need to figure out how to reorganise the team”.
