Aston Villa football club to open academy in Delhi

Aston Villa football club on Monday announced the opening of an academy and training facility here to coach and train youngsters from the age of five as the English Premier League club does in England.

Aston Villa FC's Chairman Tony Xia and its group members held meetings with several members of the Indian government, including Sports Minister Vijay Goel and Human Resource Development Minister Prakesh Javedekar, to discuss providing the training for football coaches in schools to be based at a new Aston Villa academy and training facility to be opened in the capital.

The objective is for India to have a national football team challenging on the international stage within a generation and for India to host the World Cup.

"Aston Villa Football Club, one of the most successful football clubs in the history of English football, plans to expand globally and India is one of the countries where Aston Villa not only want to have an Indian Super League club but also open Football Academies all over India!", Tony Xia said after announcing the launch of its academy in India.

"Aston Villa has one of the best football academies in the world and has fans all over the world and some of our famous fans include David Cameron, Prince William, Tom Hanks and using our network we also want to help promote Under-17 FIFA World Cup being held in India next year and make it a big sports celebration in India!", Xia added.

Aston Villa co-founded the Football League and the EPL and has spent the second longest period (105 years) in England's top tier of football.

Tony Xia and his team also met Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, MoS Industry Babull Supriyo, MoS External Foreign Affairs V.K. Singh and New Delhi Municipal Council chairman Naresh Kumar, and other senior administrators to discuss bringing its expertise to assist in the 100 smart cities plans of India.

--IANS

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