Aston Villa owner Tony Xia is close to relinquishing control of the football club.

An Egyptian group have been in advanced talks with Xia and are close to completing a deal, as exclusively revealed by BirminghamLive.

It is understood that the group will initially take majority control with a view to a complete takeover.

Villa fans have been asking BirminghamLive all day whether Egypt can be classed as the "Middle East."

One wrote: "So African then and not Middle Eastern. I’ll stop getting my hopes up now."

"Well is it Middle Eastern or is it Egyptian?" another asked.

So, is Egypt in the Middle East?

Yes.

Egypt is a Mediterranean country, part of North Africa, the Arab world, the Muslim world and most definitely part of the Middle East.

The Middle East is a transcontinental region.

So, yeah, Egypt is in Africa, but the Middle East encompasses both Egypt and Turkey, as well as western Asia.

The term has come into wider usage as a replacement of the term Near East (as opposed to the Far East) beginning in the early 20th century.

The Nile in Egypt is the main watershed of the region, which boasts a hot, arid climate.

Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azeris (excluding Azerbaijan) constitute the largest ethnic groups in the region by population.

In 1958, the US State Department explained that the terms "Near East" and "Middle East" were interchangeable.

They defined the region as including only Egypt, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar.

What next?

Here's what to expect over the coming weeks, with the help of football finance expert Rob Wilson.

What is due diligence?

When a prospective buyer undertakes an appraisal or investigation into a business to establish its assets and liabilities.

The consortium interested in Villa will evaluate the commercial potential and see if everything is running as expected. These are the steps taken before signing a contract.

What is an exclusivity agreement?

A preliminary agreement which parties can enter into at the beginning of negotiations.

The intention is to give buyers a “clear field” for a specific period to make their arrangements without the fear that other buyers may beat them to the purchase. In this particular case, it’s likely that the length of the agreement will last between four and six weeks.

What is a non-disclosure agreement?

This is a legal contract between two or more parties that signifies a confidential relationship exists between the parties involved. The consortium would have signed one of these to help protect their identity.

So how long does a takeover normally take once it has reached this stage?

“Sadly it’s a case of ‘how long is a piece of string?’ says Rob Wilson.

The whole process can be really quick or it can also take a long time.

When going through the due diligence stage it will become clear whether the interested party has the funds to purchase the club.

What you tend to find is, if there is a concern that this isn’t the right group to take them over, the current owner might put an early finish date on that exclusivity period.

It’s very rare that you would ever see a very long date put on that exclusivity period.

They wouldn’t look at it for say, six months, because if it was taking that long it would quickly become clear that nothing would come of it.

It can become a bit confusing, though, because an early exclusivity period could also mean that the buyers want to get the deal done really quickly.

What is the next stage after due diligence is completed?

They would normally enter an agreement in principle to buy the football club.

You would then look at the proof of funds.

The perspective owners would then pass all their information onto the Aston Villa consortium, then Dr Xia would actually go through it all to make sure it’s all above board.

The legal people would get involved too.

Then they’d sign up provisional contracts.

It would move fairly quickly once the due diligence had been done and there was a firm offer to buy the football club.

More Villa news

Former Aston Villa CEO Keith Wyness broke his Twitter silence last night by leaving a cryptic post on the social media site last night.

Wyness left Villa in acrimonious circumstances last month and is set to sue the club for constructive dismissal.

His tweet was a link to a Wikipedia page about a group of Chinese Communist leaders called The Gang Of Four.

It was the first time he had tweeted since the day before Villa's damaging Championship play off final defeat to Fulham at Wembley on May 26.

The former Aberdeen and Everton man was part of Tony Xia's Villa takeover in the summer of 2016 and was appointed as chief executive by the Chinese owner.

Divine inspiration

As talk of takeovers and player sales swirled around yesterday, one man was seeking divine inspiration for Aston Villa's current troubles.

Reverend Phillip Nott from Aston Parish Church used his Twitter account to put the club's current crisis into perspective.

He stated: "Please remember @AVFCOfficial fans that our club is made up mostly of ordinary working people who are awaiting news about developments which will affect jobs and mortgages not just where we might finish in the league.

"For all our hardworking staff tonight." #UTV

All you need to know about Aston Villa now

The prayer from the local clergyman is something that will resonate with the Aston Villa community as they await news during uncertain times at the club.

Fans responded to the tweet:

@britishbulldog: Amen to that Rev J Nott, for all those whose livelihoods hinge on this news lets hope and pray it's good news for them and us all UTV!

@mr_doops: Thanks, a sober reminder that’s perhaps often easy to overlook. These people won’t all have a mortgage either, there’ll be rent to pay and food to put on the table.