Aston Villa have promoted club chief Keith Wyness to their board of directors, according to the Birmingham Mail.
The newspaper report that the Villa Park chief executive is one of two senior figures that have been appointed to the board of directors, as the club seeks a re-shuffle to their executive team ahead of the new season.
Rongtian He, meanwhile, who joined the club alongside owner Dr Tony Xia last summer, is also understood to have been handed a seat at the top table at the Midlands’ club.
He had previously held the role of Executive Assistant to the Chairman and Overseas Business Officer at Villa Park. The 28-year-old is also an avid Aston Villa supporter.
The senior duo are set to join Xia and Tracy Gu, who is a trusted associate of the Villa owner, on the club’s directorial board well ahead of the new season.
But Wyness’s reported appointment comes just one week after he was fined £10,000 and suspended for three weeks’ from all footballing activity for a breach of conduct on social media.
The FA had revealed on their official website that the former Everton CEO, 59, had admitted to a charge relating to a breach of FA Rule E3, following an inappropriate tweet made on his personal Twitter account.
He had retweeted a post which included a video of a controversial penalty decision during Aston Villa’s final game of the 2016-17 season.
However, the footage was also accompanied by a caption which referred to referee Darren Bond as “disabled”, which was deemed in breach of the FA rule.
Wyness has since apologised for the incident.