New Aston Villa chief executive Richard FitzGerald yesterday lent his support to the campaign to get an extended runway at Birmingham International Airport.

And he revealed that a major Asian airline was looking to partner with the club if the problem could be overcome.

Speaking at the Hippodrome Theatre to Breakfast Connection, an event run by Birmingham Forward and Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Mr FitzGerald declined to reveal which airline was in the frame, albeit in a separate context Emirates - fast developing services out of the city - was mentioned in passing.

Alternatively, pundits suggest Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific might be other candidates. Afterwards Mr FitzGerald said the sort of partners Villa was looking to link up with would be international companies.

"International companies require international facilities," he noted.

Was it Emirates - it is already a backer of Arsenal? "No comment," said Mr FitzGerald.

The knockback came as he revealed that Villa were looking at a major marketing shake-up.

Perhaps 100 marketing message bombarded visitors to Villa Park - "everywhere there is a different message".

That needed to come down to around eight majors.

Nike has already been unveiled as one and Mr FitzGerald stressed: "That is huge for us."

He confirmed that finances would be made available to manager Martin O'Neill to buy players in the summer in addition to the #12 million upgrade of training facilities at Bodymoor Heath and #5 million to reopen and restore the Holte hotel.

Mr FitzGerald cautioned that the worst thing possible would be to simply "spend, spend, spend".

The spending is though likely to take in a redevelopment of the North Stand and the Villa Village, perhaps three years or more away, which could take capacity up by 10,000 seats to around 52,000.

That was why the club needed to recruit partners "to join us on the way".

And he added: "We are going to build a club, not just chuck money around."

That also means addressing the supporter mix coming to matches - 97 per cent are white albeit the ground is in an area where 60 per cent are non-white in a city which will soon become the first with an ethnic majority.

This imbalance was of "some concern" to Villa and would be addressed through expanded school and community programmes.

Mr FitzGerald indicated that World Cup football could be on its way back to Villa Park after a gap of more than 50 years - if England entice the tournament to these shores.

Villa Park forms part of a bid by the Football Association to try to revive the glory days of 1966 - when England ulimately emerged victorious at Wembley against West Germany.

Mr FitzGerald revealed that Villa Park was one of the grounds in the 2018 bid, as well as a key venue for the 2012 Olympics.

He said: "We are in the 2018 World Cup plan as one of the grounds to host the World Cup."

Mr FitzGerald also reiterated that Villa aimed to be in the Champions League within five years under the new Randy Lerner regime.

"This is a five to 10-year project. We believe that we would like to be competing for the Champions League within the next five years.

"I know that there has not been a lot of trophies - we need to get back to winning ways. Randy Lerner is very passionate about the ground, he is very passionate about the club, he loves the history and tradition."

Mr FitzGerald said he was confident the glory days could return under O'Neill.

"I think that everybody will see that he is one of the top European managers."