Billionaires Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens move to acquire French club FC Annecy

Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens are closing in on a deal that would bring French Ligue 2 club FC Annecy into their V-Sports multi-club network, adding France to a portfolio that already spans England, Portugal, Spain and Japan and establishing a development corridor for Aston Villa players and staff on French soil.

The Athletic first reported this weekend that talks are continuing with FC Annecy and that V-Sports intend to finalise a controlling stake acquisition in the coming months. An informal partnership between the two clubs was already in place, having been established in November 2025. That relationship has included player loans, coaching staff visits and shared working methods. Aston Villa academy graduates Triston Rowe and Travis Patterson have both moved to the French club as part of the existing arrangement.

FC Annecy, based in the Alpine city of the same name in southeastern France, has never played in Ligue 1. The club has been in Ligue 2 since winning promotion in 2022, finishing 17th in its first season before improving to 14th and then reaching the top 10. V-Sports has also been involved in discussions around improving Annecy's internal facilities and its home ground, the Parc des Sports stadium, which currently holds just over 15,700 spectators.

Bringing the club fully into the V-Sports structure would give Sawiris and Edens a formal pathway to route Villa's young players into French football, a route with significant commercial and developmental logic. France's Ligue 2 offers competitive professional football at a level that allows academy graduates to develop without the immediate pressure of Premier League expectations. The loan arrangement currently in place with Annecy functions as a preview of what a full ownership relationship would enable at greater scale.

V-Sports' current confirmed portfolio covers Aston Villa, where Sawiris and Edens hold 100 percent; Vitoria SC in Portugal, where they hold a minority stake; Real Union in Spain, where they hold a 25 percent interest; and a partnership arrangement with Vissel Kobe in Japan. Informal partnership agreements also exist with ASEC Mimosas in Ivory Coast, ZED FC in Egypt and Columbus Crew in MLS. American investment firm Atairos holds a 32 percent minority stake in V-Sports itself, having joined the structure in 2024 to provide capital for infrastructure investment and network growth.

Matthew Kidson, V-Sports' director of global football development, has been the central figure connecting the clubs within the group's wider network and has been instrumental in the relationship with Annecy since the partnership was first established.

The timing of the move coincides with Aston Villa reaching the Europa League final, their first European final since 1982, under manager Unai Emery. The club will face Manchester United in the final in Bilbao, Spain on May 22. The acquisition of Annecy, if completed, would mark the most significant expansion of the V-Sports network since Vitoria SC and would give the group the first fully owned club in France's professional football pyramid.

Sawiris, the executive chairman of OCI and one of Egypt's wealthiest individuals, has a net worth estimated at approximately $8.6 billion. He and Edens have owned Aston Villa since July 2018, overseeing promotion from the Championship to the Premier League and the club's first European qualification since the early 2000s.