Tony Xia: The Man Who Nearly Destroyed Aston Villa Football Club

Tony Xia: The Suspect Businessman Who Nearly Destroyed Aston Villa

Aston Villa were just days away from administration after missing a tax bill in 2018.

The club had missed out on promotion from the Championship, their chief executive was suspended, and their fraudulent owner was struggling to get funds from China to pay creditors.

The founding members of the Premier League were close to oblivion due to one dubious businessman who ended up being jailed after an investigation into his financial dealings.

In this article, read the story of how corrupt owner Tony Jiantong Xia nearly destroyed a 149-year-old club.

Questions Over Financial History

Xia bought Villa through his Recon Group in 2016 and passed a fit and proper person test.

The move came just one month after the Midlands outfit were relegated from the Premier League, so they were at their lowest ebb.

Xia replaced the absent and unpopular ex-owner, Randy Lerner, promising significant spending and a swift return to the Premier League, so it’s easy to see why fans were excited at the takeover.

There had been minimal investment from Lerner since he announced his desire to sell the club in 2014, so supporters were watching their side gradually decline for two years before being sold.

But while many were looking forward to excessive spending in the transfer market, others had questions about Xia and where his money was coming from.

Chris Samuelson helped negotiate Xia’s takeover of Villa and later revealed in a documentary with undercover reporters that he had doubts over many claims made by the 46-year-old.

Laurie Whitwell of the Daily Mail noted there was uncertainty over where Xia’s money was coming from in an article from 2016, too.

So despite the businessman claiming to be a billionaire and owning Recon Group whose companies employ 35,000 people in 75 countries, it didn’t seem obvious where Xia was getting the money.

And given how his tenure ended at Villa, those doubts weren’t unfounded.

From Hero to Villain in Two Years

Despite question marks about his background and legitimate worries over where funds were being sourced, the majority of Villa fans initially loved Xia as he stuck to his promise to invest.

The Midlands outfit spent over £50m on new signings in the summer of 2016 and sold 14 players.

Villa’s top scorer in their ill-fated relegation season had only seven goals in 30 Premier League games, but 2016-signing Jonathan Kodjia would score 19 goals in 36 Championship outings the following campaign.

Albert Adomah, another Xia signing, scored three goals with 11 assists in his debut season, so a number of summer arrivals made an instant impact.

Xia would sanction £21.2m on six players in January, so he wasn’t afraid to open the chequebook to boost Villa’s promotion hopes.

They finished 13th in 2016/17, however, so the investment didn’t pay off.

Spending was cut the following summer too, with Villa spending just £2.6m on new arrivals and focusing more on player sales, so there was a hint that all may not be well.

Neil Moxley of the Mirror wrote that Xia was desperate for Villa to be promoted in his second season as owner, as he’d mortgaged the club’s future without an exit plan.

Villa spent considerably less money, signing Sam Johnstone on loan, John Terry on a free transfer and Axel Tuanzebe on loan, but they did make the playoffs.

Xia was made aware of what the playoffs entailed but was left speechless at the notion that Villa might not get promoted.

Chief executive Keith Wyness admitted after a tense meeting that anything other than Villa reaching the Premier League wasn’t an option, but that’s what happened.

The Villans lost to Fulham in the playoff final, missing out on at least £90m in TV money according to Kieran Maguire for the Mirror, and Xia was banking on promotion to pay running costs and cover any debt.

Since the 2016 takeover, money would arrive from China into Villa's bank account each month, but this stopped in May.

Chief executive Keith Wyness had to make phone calls to raise enough money for the staff and players to get their wages, but he also had a responsibility to raise the alarm about the dwindling finances – that resulted in his suspension.

Villa had a £4.2m tax bill with HMRC that was unpaid and the club nearly went into administration.

They were losing nearly £5m a month and needed £70m to meet their operating costs, so Xia was left with no other option but to cut his losses and sell up.

The Aftermath

Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens (NSWE) bought the controlling stake from Xia in 2018, who stayed on as co-chairman.

Villa would finally earn promotion to the Premier League that season and Xia left for good weeks later after failing to pay a £30m bonus upon Villa’s return to the Premier League- but his story wasn’t finished.

Xia found himself named on an arrest warrant in China as his Recon Group were being sued for breach of contract and non-payment of debts.

According to James Nursey of the Mirror, Xia wasn’t truthful about being a billionaire and was instead a frontman for investors’ money.

He promised them lucrative returns when Villa made the Premier League but sold his controlling stake before promotion, so investors were chasing their money back.

Wyness even called Xia a ‘fraud’ on Twitter and he became a pariah among supporters for nearly destroying the club.

Xia has not posted on social media for years and the latest news from China was that he’d endured a six-month detainment by Chinese authorities, as he allegedly harmed the interests of a Shenzhen-listed manufacturing company.

Wyness only has bad things to say about Xia’s reign in the Midlands too, calling him “the worst owner he’s worked with.”

It can’t go unsaid how close Villa were to a winding up order. When a club goes into administration, they’re close to folding as debts spiral.

NSWE had to invest a lot of money to cover operating costs and Villa turned over £183.6m in the last financial year, so they’re back to more normal times.

The club have actual billionaire owners now and they’ve spent more than £100m on new players in each of the last four seasons and look to be solidifying their place as a mid-table Premier League team.

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