V Sports' global network of clubs is growing and Aston Villa are at the very centre of the group's exciting plans. There are currently four clubs across Europe, Asia and Africa who are affiliated with Villa after Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens began to spread their net far and wide to improve the
Premier League club's chances of competing domestically and at the top table of European football. However, the important distinction which must be made from models used by other clubs in
England and on the continent is that Villa's partners are not simply 'feeder clubs'. Each will benefit from Villa's expertise and vice versa. From coaching methodology and scouting to applying the best practices in youth academy development, V Sports' exciting plans have been thoroughly drawn up and the benefits will be seen in the coming years. READ | Nicolo Zaniolo sends Monchi message as he rules out 'unthinkable' transfer READ | Ally McCoist rubbishes 'wrong' Ollie Watkins claims after
Brazil performance After taking control of the club in the summer of 2018, huge changes have occurred at Villa on and off the pitch. While Villa look to sustain their bid for
Champions League Football this season after also returning to Europe earlier in the campaign, wholesale changes behind the scenes have been made too. V Sports restructured the club's operations behind the scenes, which left former CEO Christian Purslow with a different role, one he didn't want to take up and he subsequently departed. Chris Heck was appointed as the club's president of business operations, before Monchi arrived to take control of the club's football operations. Key appointments were made across the club, including Matthew Kidson, who replaced Johan Lange as director of global development. Kidson's role is key in V Sports' goal to become a global force in the sport as he oversees international youth matters. "This is a new and exciting chapter for the club as it looks to successfully unearth, nurture and develop young talent both in the
UK and overseas," Villa said in a club statement following Kidson's arrival. He was director of sport for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham after he studied Combined Social Science, History, Business and Politics at Durham University before going on to work as a financial analyst for Sky. Kidson was also involved in the
London 2012 Olympics, working as central football services manager, with responsibility for the planning, organisation and delivery of football matches at the event. Experienced working abroad, he was manager of team services at the OSN Cup football tournament in
Saudi Arabia and did a similar role for South Korea's three-match tour of the
United States in 2014, before working at the Baku 2015 European Games, the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Turkmenistan and the 2018 Asian Games in
Indonesia. General view outside of the stadium Dom Afonso Henriques (Image: Photo by Octavio Passos/Getty Images) Before Kidson's arrival last year, Villa had already made great strides in securing their first global partners. V Sports entered into a sale and purchase agreement to acquire shares in Portuguese club Vitoria Sport Clube to signal an important step forward in the expansion of the group's portfolio. Discussions to partner with Vitoria started back in 2021 before the deal was eventually rubber-stamped by Antonio Miguel Cardoso, Vitoria's president, who said: “Since first meeting we found out that Mr Nassef Sawiris is a man of serious commitments and available to be the right partner which VSC needs in this important moment of our history." After both Villa and Vitoria qualified for the Europa Conference League this season, V Sports announced that it had reduced its stake in Vitoria to 29 per cent by transferring shares equaling 17 per cent of the club’s total equity back to Primeira Liga club. Villa also no longer has any representation on the board of directors of Vitoria in order to comply with all UEFA regulations and ensure the independence of both clubs. There was scepticism among Vitoria supporters about linking with Villa given that there is a long history in Portuguese football of such partnerships failing to work. The club's directors held a meeting with more than 1,400 members when they discussed the deal and then voted on it nearly 12 months ago. “The club hasn’t been as successful as it should be and people would like it to be because Vitoria is one of the few things in Guimaraes that is more discussed than even local politics,” Tiago Mendes Dias, journalist at Jornal de Guimaraes, explained to BirminghamLive. Tiago’s colleague, Bruno Jose Ferreira, added: “It is a different club in Portugal. In other cities there are more fans of Benfica, Porto and Sporting than the local team, but here that is different, so there is always a lot of discussion.” Portuguese football clubs have raised over €800 million in transfer sales over the past three seasons, with Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Enzo Fernandez, Matheus Nunes, Vitinha, Nuno Mendes and Fabio Vieira costing more than €35 million. It's why
Chelsea and Newcastle United are also eyeing partnerships in this part of the world. “Portugal exports a lot of players across the world,” Bruno continued. “For example, if there is a very good player at another club, Vitoria can’t have this player, but it’s better if a player goes to Aston Villa than Porto, Benfica, Sporting, with the knowledge that Vitoria have.” Tiago added: “I am sure that they will talk about a lot of possibilities to bring in players, maybe English players who wouldn’t work so well with the Premier League, but maybe in Portuguese football. There are always differences in the leagues in the way they play football. “Vitoria’s president, Antonio Miguel Cardoso said before the meeting that V Sports wanted to recruit within Senegal and Egypt. They have a lot of knowledge in South America too, and maybe Vitoria can benefit from that by getting players in from there.” Nassef Sawiris V Sports currently have one partner club in Africa, Egyptian side ZED FC - who were awarded the Best Youth Academy in Africa at the Globe Soccer Awards 2021 - while they also have a football academy in Senegal. A few months after the partnership with Vitoria was announced, came the confirmation that the Cairo-based club has an official link with Villa. It provides an historic and ground-breaking collaboration which will see both clubs, alongside the other teams in V Sports' network, work together to help develop young talent. Villa will aim to create new and positive opportunities for young footballers in
Egypt and will assist in the technical and physical development of academy players, coaching methods and scouting networks. Sawiris, the richest person in Egypt, said: “This partnership should benefit all parties and create a clear roadmap for talented young Egyptian players to integrate into the global sports system.” Villa then confirmed the signing of exciting Egyptian talent, Omar Khedr, from Zed FC later in August. The 17-year-old winger put pen to paper on a pre-contract agreement with Villa and will officially join on July 1, 2024 when he turns 18, signing a long-term deal. The Egypt under-17 international spent time at Bodymoor Heath in August and was shown around by Ahmed Elmohamady. “ZED is a newly-promoted club to the first league in Egypt and they have a great academy there, which is all brand new,” Elmohamady told BirminghamLive . “Everything is fantastic there. I went there last year and I saw it, it’s so good, like a European style training base. I never saw anything like that in Egypt when I was training there before, but it’s good for the country as well. “They have got a lot of good, young talented players who have been at Villa for some training which is good for them to get European experience at the age of 15 or 16. I came to England when I was 22, so for them to come here and see how the guys train here, their lifestyle and culture, it’s good for them to get those experiences. “They have a lot of talent and they played in a tournament earlier this year, and I went there and saw the games, Villa were there too and hopefully we can get one or two to Villa.” Sawiris' influence was clearly key to helping plot pathways for young African footballers to Villa. Co-owner Edens was thought to be behind the push for land an MLS franchise, but plans have been shelved for now. Before V Sports added their first partner, Vitoria, to their network, in January 2022 Major League Soccer entered into exclusive talks with Villa Sawiris and Edens about securing the rights to bring an expansion team to Las Vegas. V Sports would have had to splash out hundreds of millions of dollars to secure
Las Vegas Villains' spot in the MLS, with the total cost of setting up the franchise potentially rising to $1 billion. Places in MLS must essentially be bought for a fee, with no automatic promotion or relegation to speak of, and the price of entry is eye-wateringly high and rising all the time: from $150 million in 2019 to a reported $325 million for Charlotte FC to start in the league last year. For that money, you could buy a well-established Premier League team outright.
ESPN later reported that there were plans to house the team at a new 25,000-seater venue in Las Vegas, which would reportedly include the capability for games to be played indoors - MLS commissioner Don Garber said that is a requirement for having a club in Vegas. However, back in May last year, Garber announced that the city of San Diego was handed an expansion franchise instead of Las Vegas. Now, via the FAB minutes shared by the Villa Trust , the creation of Las Vegas Villains is unlikely to happen. Vissel Kobe fans (Image: Photo by Zhizhao Wu/Getty Images) The sport is booming in Asia and Villa will have the opportunity to tap into one of the fastest growing football markets in the world. Vissel Kobe won the J.League last year, the first title in their history. They have signed a number of stars in the recent past, including David Villa, Lucas Podolski, Thomas Vermaelen, Bojan and Andres Iniesta, while Juan Mata is in the current side. As part of the new partnership with Vissel Kobe, both teams will work to create a bilateral development framework for players and staff which will enhance youth development, alongside cooperative sharing of ideas, techniques and best practice. Ultimately, it will open pathways for talented Japanese players to play in Europe and for Villa. That’s an exciting prospect considering the wealth of talent which is coming through Japan. Football has been growing in the country for some time and V Sports have spotted an exciting opportunity. Vissel Kobe's President Yuki Senfu, sporting director Hideki Nagai, and academy manager Akihiro Miyamoto all visited Villa at the end of last year, while under-18 players Kaito Yamada and Kento Hamasaki participated in training at Bodymoor Heath. "We are very pleased to announce our strategic partnership with Aston Villa," Vissel Kobe chairman Hiroshi Mikitani said. "This strategic partnership includes not only business but also sports partnerships, including sending players from Vissel Kobe to training with Aston Villa and starting to share data and knowledge on football strategy. "This will be a great initiative, especially for young players as it will create opportunities for them to gain experience in England and at clubs within the V Sports group. I'm very excited about this partnership and I think it's going to be a very unique partnership. We hope this will be one of the best examples of a strategic partnership between an Asian club and one of Europe's top Premier League clubs." The new partnership will see a Villa academy team travel to
Japan in 2024 to take part in an international tournament, while Vissel Kobe's academy team will be invited to a tournament in Egypt with partner club ZED FC. Inigo Idiakez has been appointed Real Union Club's head coach (Image: Photo by Neville Williams/Aston Villa FC via Getty Images) Real Union became the latest team to partner with Villa, who were a club unknown to supporters before the turn of the year. Villa head coach Emery bought a controlling stake in the third-tier club two-and-a-half years ago. His grandfather, Antonio, was a stalwart of Union and played 110 games for the Spanish club from 1928-1935. Emery's father, Juan, also played 15 games for Union from 1957-59, and brother Igor is the club chairman. Since their relegation from the second tier in the 2009/10 season, Union has remained in the third division of Spanish football. They are a La Liga founding club that has fallen on hard times in recent years and are based in Irundarra, just three miles from where Emery grew up. Villa confirmed that the agreement will also develop technical and coaching methodology, while seeing collaboration across a number of areas including performance and data. Inigo Idiakez is the Union manager and was appointed in December just six months after being headhunted by Villa to lead the under-23s. He signed a contract until 2025 with Union and is understood to be playing a key role in the cooperation between both clubs. Josh Feeney and Tommi O'Reilly joined the Spanish club on loan in January for the remainder of the season. Villa will continue to send youngsters to Union to work with Idiakez, but only two left in January because his squad was full up following the signings of O'Reilly and Feeney. This agreement is viewed as the one which will have a positive impact on Villa right away as youth players learn a new culture and step out of their comfort zone. What excites you about V Sports' global network of clubs? Tell us your thoughts HERE Join our new Aston Villa
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