Condimentalist Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 New Chief Commercial Officer From www.avfc.co.uk: Aston Villa is pleased to announce Charlie Wijeratna as the club's first ever chief commercial officer. In this new role Charlie will have responsibility for all areas of revenue generation and will also oversee the club's marketing and media operations. Speaking on the appointment, chief executive Tom Fox said: "We are really excited to have someone with Charlie's commercial background joining the club. "He has valuable experience in football from his time at Tottenham and has a proven track record in revenue generation at both London 2012 and now the Baku 2015 European Games. "He knows how to build highly effective teams and develop winning partnerships with top global brands. "Under his leadership we expect our commercial operation to generate the revenue that a club the size of Aston Villa is capable of." Charlie Wijeratna commented: "I am delighted to be returning to football at such a storied club as Aston Villa and I'm really excited about the challenge and the opportunity in front of us. "I am particularly looking forward to working with a senior management team that understands the opportunity that the Premier League's global television reach offers clubs today. "Aston Villa is one of England's great football clubs and I am keen to make my contribution to developing the club's commercial revenues while respecting its heritage and values." Charlie started his career at Sky Sports making sports TV programmes before spending eight years in the city as a corporate lawyer and then an investment banker. He initiated London's bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with the bid's first chairman Barbara Cassani, putting in place the commercial and legal deals behind London's winning proposal. After the Games were awarded in 2005, Charlie was the driving force behind the sponsorship programme that raised over £700m. He was also responsible for the sale of the Paralympic broadcasting rights, London's licensing and retail programme and the sale of hospitality rights. In total he led deals that raised over £830m for London 2012. At Tottenham Hotspur, Charlie was responsible for the overhaul of the club's brand and visual identity and at Baku 2015 he assembled a first class team that has so far built a new brand, completed and announced 14 sponsorship deals and announced broadcasting rights deals covering 47 countries. Now for an assistant manager, hey! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddywhack Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Sounds like a good appointment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Apparently he was sacked from Tottenham for failing to bring in any relevant sponsorship. Interesting to see that at Spurs it's been reported that he was on £350K a year. Makes it seem even more baffling that we won't pay for an Assistant Manager, if Wijeratna is on anything like that here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabby Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 "I am particularly looking forward to working with a senior management team that understands the opportunity that the Premier League's global television reach offers clubs today. Club more confident that the fans it will stay up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Condimentalist Posted February 10, 2015 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 10, 2015 To be frank it amazes me that we're now 23 years into the Premier League era and we've never appointed someone to this role before. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Tom Fox has opened an email from Charlie Wijeratna and has fallen for a Nigerian Email scam. We a joke club and Lamberk and Faux and Leaner need to go away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villan4Life Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) Talk about getting their priorities right!!! We need a new manager not a bloody CCO! Seems all the Villa board care about is having the cleanest Lavatories or best Chicken & Mushroom pies on a matchday!! I remember the last Supporters meeting that was posted online it was all about these things on match-day as well as things like cup-holders for the seats to hold hot drinks rather than what was on the field of play. Edited February 10, 2015 by Villan4Life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adw95 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Apparently he was sacked from Tottenham for failing to bring in any relevant sponsorship. Interesting to see that at Spurs it's been reported that he was on £350K a year. Makes it seem even more baffling that we won't pay for an Assistant Manager, if Wijeratna is on anything like that here. How do you know he won't pay for an assistant manager? Who told you this information? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Apparently he was sacked from Tottenham for failing to bring in any relevant sponsorship. Interesting to see that at Spurs it's been reported that he was on £350K a year. Makes it seem even more baffling that we won't pay for an Assistant Manager, if Wijeratna is on anything like that here. How do you know he won't pay for an assistant manager? Who told you this information? No one told me this information but he hasn't paid for one since Keane departed has he? What other explanation could there possibly be for not employing an Assistant? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adw95 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Apparently he was sacked from Tottenham for failing to bring in any relevant sponsorship. Interesting to see that at Spurs it's been reported that he was on £350K a year. Makes it seem even more baffling that we won't pay for an Assistant Manager, if Wijeratna is on anything like that here. How do you know he won't pay for an assistant manager? Who told you this information? No one told me this information but he hasn't paid for one since Keane departed has he? What other explanation could there possibly be for not employing an Assistant? Perhaps Lambert (who you would assume to have final say on his own assistant) hasn't identified the right candidate. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VT Supporter Stevo985 Posted February 10, 2015 VT Supporter Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) £350k a year amounts to around a quarter of a "low" paid premier league player's wages. I don't think Wijeratna's appointment will have had much, if any, effect on our wage budget. And the theory behind an appointment like his is that he'd bring in more money than he's paid, effectively meaning he pays for himself. Edited February 10, 2015 by Stevo985 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudevillaisnice Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I admire what the club are trying to do, improve revenue to atleast compete. It's all a bit pointless if on the pitch there is very little to no progress, it will only get worse with attendances when the football is this dire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omariqy Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 £350k is £100k more than what Faulkner was getting paid. Did he really get sacked for failing to bring in sponsorship revenue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) Apparently he was sacked from Tottenham for failing to bring in any relevant sponsorship. Interesting to see that at Spurs it's been reported that he was on £350K a year. Makes it seem even more baffling that we won't pay for an Assistant Manager, if Wijeratna is on anything like that here. How do you know he won't pay for an assistant manager? Who told you this information? No one told me this information but he hasn't paid for one since Keane departed has he? What other explanation could there possibly be for not employing an Assistant? Perhaps Lambert (who you would assume to have final say on his own assistant) hasn't identified the right candidate. Perhaps but I think if Randy was really intent on giving the role to someone he would have forced Lambert's hand. There must be tons of coaches willing to do the job, If Lambert didn't have someone specifically in mind, I'm sure he wouldn't mind giving someone a go who has been recommended by someone else. Just seems to me Randy is trying to do things as cheaply as possible until he sells the club. Edited February 10, 2015 by useless Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 £350k is £100k more than what Faulkner was getting paid. Did he really get sacked for failing to bring in sponsorship revenue? I don't know, I just googled his name and saw this article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isa Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 £350k is £100k more than what Faulkner was getting paid. Did he really get sacked for failing to bring in sponsorship revenue? The article claiming that was authored by Charles Sale, so likely correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omariqy Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Fantastic. Then again £700m for the Olympics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Apparently he played a part in the Baku Games as the Commercial Director, maybe that's where the takeover rumours about Azerbaijan came from. Someone getting their wires crossed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddywhack Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 *Reads other posts* Sounds like a bad appointment. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Good luck to him achieving his goals if Villa are relegated to the Championship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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