Supporters' Trust call for 'urgent' meeting with Aston Villa board over financial crisis
Concerned supporters are demanding an urgent meeting with Villa’s board as they seek answers over the club’s financial crisis.
The Aston Villa Supporters' Trust have have again called for clarity on the current situation at Villa Park and asked the club to make a quick decision on the future of manager Steve Bruce.
In a statement, the third they have issued in the space of a fortnight, the Trust also confirmed they have been working on a fans’ buyout of beleaguered owner Tony Xia.
Board members have even offered to give up their time free of charge in order to help the club through the financial storm, sparked by Villa’s failure to reach the Premier League.
But in return they are demanding greater transparency from the club and Xia, who returned to China last month.
Chief executive Keith Wyness left Villa earlier this week following a bust-up with Xia and the Trust want clarification on who is now running the club on a day-to-day basis.
They also want assurances funds are now in place for Villa to pay their bills, after the club were threatened with a winding-up order earlier this month by HMRC for missing a tax payment.
Though Xia was eventually able to resolve his immediate issues with the tax office, it remains unclear whether the owner has enough funds to meet his next payment, due on June 22.
The statement read: “We demand monthly meetings with the AVFC board when things have settled down to ensure this mess is never allowed to happen again.
“With that in mind, we also request regular meetings where members of the AVST board meet with our compatriots at the club to understand how we are performing against financial and key business targets as well as being involved in auditing this.
“We appreciate that this sounds like a long list of demands but we really aren’t asking for more than who to talk to, seeing how we can help and a bit of oversight.
“These are the things our supporters are looking to us to organise and broker with the club.
“We don’t want the moon on a shiny stick. We just want to know who to talk to and be satisfied things are being resolved.”
