The former Bank of England governor Mervyn King has joined the board of struggling Premier League football club Aston Villa.
Lord King, a lifelong Villa fan, joins a club seemingly destined for relegation, given they are six points adrift at the foot of the table and failed to sign any players in the January transfer window.
Aston Villa’s chairman, Steve Hollis, likened the task that King faces to battling the fallout from the financial crisis.
“Mervyn successfully steered the Bank of England through the most turbulent economic headwinds in living memory,” he said. “His appointment to the board is a huge boost as we plan our path back to more successful times.”
King said: “I watched my first match at Villa Park more than 55 years ago, and have experienced the highs and the lows since then. I shall do my best to help the rebuilding of Aston Villa football club as together we return it to its position as one of the top clubs in the world.”
During his time at the Bank, King is understood to have discussed monetary policy with Aston Villa’s German midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger in email exchanges.
And King, who became chairman of Worcestershire county cricket club in 2014, once organised a charity game at Threadneedle Street between Bank employees and former Villa players from the club’s 1982 European Cup-winning side.
Villa’s latest signing became Bank of England governor in 2003 and held the post for a decade.
He was appointed a life peer by the Queen in 2013, entering the House of Lords as Baron King of Lothbury.
As governor, King, 67, was among the most powerful Villa fans, alongside Prince William and the prime minister, David Cameron.
However, during the 2015 general election campaign, Cameron was mocked after mistakenly claiming that he supports West Ham, who play in similar colours to Villa.
King’s successor as governor, the Canadian Mark Carney, is a diehard Everton fan.
King is the second high-profile economist to join the board of a struggling Premier League club this season, after Norwich City appointed the former shadow chancellor Ed Balls as club chairman.
