Aston Villa faces ‘severe financial fair play challenges’ as reality hits

The owner of Aston Villa, Dr Tony Xia, has warned the club will have to make cuts after failing to win promotion to the Premier League.

Aston Villa lost 1-0 in the Play-Off final against Fulham having finished fourth, seven points outside of the automatic promotion places.

Although it was nine places better than the previous season, the club had been desperate to get promoted because of the strict rules around financial fair play and the way this operates over a three-year cycle.

“We are all aware that we will face severe FFP challenges next season,” said Xia. “I am an Aston Villa fan. But I am also a businessman.”

Aston Villa lost £14.5m in the 2016-17 season, a figure mitigated by healthy profits in the transfer market, but the amount of money gambled on getting promoted means this is almost certain to be significantly higher.

The first big change, which was expected, is the confirmed departure of John Terry who was reportedly paid £3m a year.

Xia, who bought Aston Villa for £76m from Randy Lerner in 2016. acknowledged the club had been “heavily investing” for two years. He said the failure to get promoted “means that we need to change a lot of things”.

“No one wanted to see the club have to go through this, but I believe that only changes can help the club to progress towards the positive direction and this requires the joint efforts of everyone associated with this great football club,” he added.

Although Xia’s statement was complimentary of the efforts of manager Steve Bruce, it stopped short of confirming whether he would be staying with the club.

Xia said: “No matter what the changes will be, I sincerely hope that everyone can unite and overcome the challenges together. Our goal has not changed and as long as we believe, regardless of how tough the process will be, I am sure we will succeed in the end.”