Aston Villa co-owners Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris have funded the club’s rise from the Championship to Champions League hopefuls
He and Fortress Investment Group co-founder Wes Edens saved Villa from a financial crisis in 2018 when they acquired a 55 per cent stake in the club for £30 million. A year after buying the club from Dr. Tony Xia, Villa returned to the Premier League following a three-year exile from the top-flight.
Sawiris and Edens’ ventures in football are managed under V Sports, and have ploughed hundreds of millions of pounds into Villa in recent years. Meanwhile, Spanish third-tier side Real Union became the latest club to fall under V Sports’ global network of clubs, following Vissel Kobe, ZED FC and Vitoria Sport Clube from Japan, Egypt and Portugal respectively.
The group announced in December that US investor Atairos had become a minority partner in V Sports. It’s reported that Atairos have a 20 per cent stake which values Villa at more than £500 million.
On the pitch, Villa have been in sensational form this season and are set to compete for a Champions League place come May, while Unai Emery’s side are also targeting silverware in the form of the Europa Conference League.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Sawiris said that he is not funding Villa’s ascent from the Championship to Champions League hopefuls for monetary gain.
“Anybody who does football and says this is a pure investment, in 95 per cent of the case he’s a liar,” he said.
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