Villa fans keen to be consulted

The leading Aston Villa supporters’ group has urged any bidder for the club to consult fans before any takeover.

The midlands club have confirmed there has been a “preliminary approach” from Solihull-based businessman Michael Neville on behalf of a consortium.

The interest is speculative at the moment but the Aston Villa Supporters’ Trust insist whatever happens, supporter involvement should be retained and compared the club to Manchester United before the takeover by Malcolm Glazer.

A statement from AVST said: “As the largest democratic supporters’ organisation, the trust are prepared to meet any bidders to discuss their plans and objectives, and to ascertain whether they provide the guarantees that it is in the supporters’ interest for the trust to support any approach.

“We believe that any bid should not lead to the removal of supporter involvement via ownership, although we accept that a takeover may lead to the plc going private.

“The trust is committed to supporter involvement and we urge any bidder to take this into account.

“With or without the bid, Aston Villa plc remains in a similar position to Manchester United pre-Glazer.

“In order to protect their interests, we urge supporters to galvanise now by joining the trust to ensure strong representation in dialogue with bidders and board and to ensure that supporter shareholding is safeguarded.”

While previous takeover bids have failed, the £64m (€94.5m) move by property company Comer Homes Group seems the likeliest to succeed so far.

The Irish-based company, with assets of £1bn (€1.46bn), are set to have a meeting with Villa chairman Doug Ellis and the board this week.

Ellis, and the other major shareholder Jack Petchey, are understood to have agreed to sell their combined stake of 58% and the bid of £5.60 a share will be put to the shareholders over the next few weeks.

But an Aston Villa plc statement to the London Stock Exchange suggested there is some way to go before any deal could be completed.

The statement read: “The directors of Aston Villa plc have noted the weekend press comment and confirm that they have received a preliminary approach from Mr Michael Neville on behalf of a consortium group which could lead to an offer for the company.

“However, the board have not met with any other members of the consortium group nor received any confirmation of the availability of sufficient funding to support any potential offer and so they can only treat the approach as speculative at this stage.

“Your board will continue to look at maximising shareholder value and also ensuring that the club is sufficiently funded for the future.”