hippo Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 is this still going or indeed Did this ever happen ? - has it been filed with theme park under BS ! (Article from July 2016) https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2016/07/25/aston-villa-plans-in-india Aston Villa is opening its first football academy outside England in India. This follows discussions held with the Minister of Sport Vijay Goel and the Minister of Education Prakesh Javedekar. Villa is to be appointed as advisor on football as the sport forms part of the national curriculum for Indian state 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PussEKatt Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 That would be a decent move because Indian football is improving with the Hero Indian league.Not only that but if Villa got established over there it would be a gold mine for shirt etc sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted August 9, 2021 Author Share Posted August 9, 2021 6 minutes ago, PussEKatt said: That would be a decent move because Indian football is improving with the Hero Indian league.Not only that but if Villa got established over there it would be a gold mine for shirt etc sales. It was 5 years ago. Just wondering if it was just Xia grabbing headlines - or did the academy ever happen. I'm suspecting the former. ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PussEKatt Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 Well,I stick with my last post.If we could move into India ( academy,tour,free Villatv or something we would have the whole country virtually/possably Villa supporters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted August 9, 2021 Author Share Posted August 9, 2021 1 minute ago, PussEKatt said: Well,I stick with my last post.If we could move into India ( academy,tour,free Villatv or something we would have the whole country virtually/possably Villa supporters. Yes agreed. We have to boost our worldwide appeal if we ever going compete with the top 4 or even top 6. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 Arjan Raikhy might be someone who can help us grown in that part of the world? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PussEKatt Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 Yes,this is what Manure do.I remember them touring down this part of the world way back. I actually saw the european cup winning team live.Thats the team with Best,Charlton,Stiles etc etc.As I say Manure have been doing this for uears thats why they have such a huge fanbase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted August 9, 2021 Author Share Posted August 9, 2021 They would love us out in India with our history. In the absence of anything solid I'm saying this never happened or our involvement was a token gesture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abdulaziz1 Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 I think this is a very good step. The thing with India is that most people speak English and they’re familiar with England (unlike China). Football is improving there aswell. It’s the second country in terms of population. I think from a marketing perspective we’ll see a lot of difference. If we can get a very good player out of there, it will be a huge thing for our club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nepal_villan Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 (edited) I'm am quite connected to the Indian football circles and don't think the project ever got off the ground. In fairness, Villa are not the only foreign club to march into India talking a big game, but very few have been able to cement strong roots there. There are only two ways to grow a club's presence in a foreign country - win trophies or sign a player from that country. All the marketing and development activities will make little difference. As an example Leicester with its Thai owners and a lot of activation across Thailand have failed to really create a following in that country. Edited August 9, 2021 by nepal_villan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlack Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 1 hour ago, nepal_villan said: I'm am quite connected to the Indian football circles and don't think the project ever got off the ground. In fairness, Villa are not the only foreign club to march into India talking a big game, but very few have been able to cement strong roots there. There are only two ways to grow a club's presence in a foreign country - win trophies or sign a player from that country. All the marketing and development activities will make little difference. As an example Leicester with its Thai owners and a lot of activation across Thailand have failed to really create a following in that country. 2 hours ago, sne said: Arjan Raikhy might be someone who can help us grown in that part of the world? Think he's of Punjabi descent but born in England...would he be eligible to play for India or Pakistan depending on his parents roots? Not sure he'd choose to even if he could and suspect this may limit his following. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 It was announced by Dr Tony so no of course it didn't happen. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 2 hours ago, sne said: Arjan Raikhy might be someone who can help us grown in that part of the world? We had Neil Taylor previously 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonIsAPlaceOnEarth Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 On paper this was one of Dr Tony’s better ideas, in reality I suspect we basically sent a couple of low level coaches out to a park in India and asked some kids if they wanted a knock about in some knock off training clobber. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 Chris Samuelson also did an intervew where he said we were looking to either buy or setup a new Indian Super League club as part of this project, in the end I don't think it was ever anything more than us sending some coaches to an already existing football academy and it probably came to an end as soon as we hit financial difficulties in eighteen. I think I'm right in saying that either Purslow or Harrsion made reference to having academies around the world saying that before we think about that we have to sort our own academy, and make sure we're getting the best local talent. Incidentally Al Jezeera have done a sort of exposé on Samuelson which I think is going to air tonight... 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted August 9, 2021 Author Share Posted August 9, 2021 32 minutes ago, useless said: Chris Samuelson also did an intervew where he said we were looking to either buy or setup a new Indian Super League club as part of this project, in the end I don't think it was ever anything more than us sending some coaches to an already existing football academy and it probably came to an end as soon as we hit financial difficulties in eighteen. I think I'm right in saying that either Purslow or Harrsion made reference to having academies around the world saying that before we think about that we have to sort our own academy, and make sure we're getting the best local talent. Incidentally Al Jezeera have done a sort of exposé on Samuelson which I think is going to air tonight... Dark days indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 Samuelson was dodgy with a capital D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 1 hour ago, useless said: Chris Samuelson also did an intervew where he said we were looking to either buy or setup a new Indian Super League club as part of this project, in the end I don't think it was ever anything more than us sending some coaches to an already existing football academy and it probably came to an end as soon as we hit financial difficulties in eighteen. I think I'm right in saying that either Purslow or Harrsion made reference to having academies around the world saying that before we think about that we have to sort our own academy, and make sure we're getting the best local talent. Incidentally Al Jezeera have done a sort of exposé on Samuelson which I think is going to air tonight... Just jumped to the Villa part about 38 mins in. Shocking. According to this Samuelson was paid nearly 4 million dollars at Villa for doing virtually f-all. Admits Xia was a front and never had the money. Good grief. Might be worth putting this in the Xia thread as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted August 9, 2021 Author Share Posted August 9, 2021 1 minute ago, The Fun Factory said: Just jumped to the Villa part about 38 mins in. Shocking. According to this Samuelson was paid nearly 4 million dollars at Villa for doing virtually f-all. Admits Xia was a front and never had the money. Good grief. Might be worth putting this in the Xia thread as well. Think he was instrumental in bankrupting Reading as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 2 hours ago, useless said: Chris Samuelson also did an intervew where he said we were looking to either buy or setup a new Indian Super League club as part of this project, in the end I don't think it was ever anything more than us sending some coaches to an already existing football academy and it probably came to an end as soon as we hit financial difficulties in eighteen. I think I'm right in saying that either Purslow or Harrsion made reference to having academies around the world saying that before we think about that we have to sort our own academy, and make sure we're getting the best local talent. Incidentally Al Jezeera have done a sort of exposé on Samuelson which I think is going to air tonight... An interesting watch. It makes the blood boil what these guys get up to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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