Skip to main content

Villa owner exits UK but affirms his support for club

Nassef Sawiris, who is Egypt’s richest man and co-owner of Aston Villa, has told the Financial Times that he recently moved his residency from London to Italy and Abu Dhabi.  In an interview at his long-standing office overlooking Mayfair’s Berkeley Square that he has since vacated, he said the decision to move abroad after 15 years of living in the UK was due to a government crackdown on non-domiciled residents announced by the previous Tory administration.

Sawiris, whose net worth was estimated at $9bn by Forbes, is the youngest son of the late Onsi Sawiris, who founded a construction company in the 1950s and built it over decades into a large multinational corporation now called Orascom Construction. As the business grew, the family diversified, entering the cement industry and expanding operations from Egypt into other emerging markets.

The UK “gave me a home when the Muslim Brotherhood came to Egypt and I will always be in debt”, he said. “I’m keeping my house, I’m growing my investment in Aston Villa, looking at expanding the stadium. And it hasn’t changed my love for this country.”

Exiting UK taxpayers face limits on how much time they can return to spend in the country each year, in many cases 90 days annually, with just 30 days permitted for work. Sawiris will use some of those days to visit and attend matches of at Aston Villa, which exited the Champions League last week despite a spirited attempted comeback in the second leg of the quarter-final against Qatar-owned Paris Saint-Germain.   The club is supported by the Prince of Wales.

He and US billionaire Wes Edens, co-founder of Fortress Investment Group, acquired a 55 per cent stake in the club for £30mn in 2018, rescuing it from financial crisis and returning it to the Premier League, where the team currently sits in seventh place.

Sawiris and his partners have invested heavily into the football club to improve performance. However, the club is not yet profitable and previously sold young players to comply with Premier League financial regulations that limit how much teams are allowed to lose.

Sawiris has complained that the rules are anti-competitive and prevent challenger clubs from closing the gap with the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool.   He told the Pink 'Un, “The Premier League is under the impression that what makes it great is Manchester United and Liverpool and Chelsea and Arsenal, so they have to cater for these guys. But what makes the Premier League great is that Manchester United get their butts kicked by Brighton.”

Aston Villa will see the capacity of its stadium boosted to more than 50,000 seats from current levels of 42,000, as part of a plan by Sawiris to invest around £100mn more into the team. However, development is pending local officials moving ahead with expanding rail links.

 

 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...
1 comment
Read more

Spurs to sell minority stake

Tottenham Hotspur is in talks to sell a minority stake in a deal that could value it at up to £3.75 billion and pave the way for Joe Lewis and his family to sever ties with the Premier League football club. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is seeking an investment that values the club at between £3.5 billion and £3.75 billion, including debt. While the terms of any deal have not been finalised, City sources expect Spurs to sell about 10 per cent. The club is being advised by bankers from Rothschild on the sale. Tottenham wants to raise fresh capital for new player signings and to help fund the development of an academy for its women’s team, as well as a 30-storey hotel next to its north London stadium. The financier Amanda Staveley, who brokered the deal for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United, is understood to be among the parties to have expressed an interest in Tottenham. Staveley’s fund, PCP Capital Partners, has raised about £500 million to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fulham requires big funding from owner

After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...
Post a Comment
Read more