OpinionChinese ownership at Wolves under scrutiny but for once it’s not from back home

Villa Park is one of the most historic grounds in English football. Once the regular setting for FA Cup semi-finals before they made their permanent home at Wembley, it has seen some of the game’s most memorable moments including Aston Villa’s rise to European champions in 1981.

Nowadays it is the Championship rather than the Champions League that preoccupies thoughts at the Chinese-owned club and their task of returning to the top flight will have been brought into sharp focus under the floodlights last night when they hosted league leaders and fellow Chinese-owned side Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Villa sat 10 points behind their near neighbours in third place going into the game. At stake, the opportunity for three points to fuel overhauling Cardiff City in the other automatic promotion spot and bragging rights for the fans when they go into work tomorrow – opportunities they grasped with both hands in a shock 4-1 win.

But those are trivial matters in comparison to the boardroom. There is a larger narrative at play with Wolves: a new model for football clubs and one that has upset the status quo in English football.

It is a model that is coming under increased scrutiny. That’s nothing new for Chinese-owned foreign football clubs, you might think, but for once it is not under pressure from back home.

Economically they have the least debt out of the big companies under the government microscope and their existing overseas businesses make money. Politically, they appear to be off the hook – for now at least – and free to continue along their path.

Most recently Fosun followed up their purchase of French fashion house Lanvin with a majority stake in Austrian luxury lingerie purveyor Wolford, adding to a portfolio that includes Club Med, Wolves and a 20 per cent stake in the sports agency Gestifute.