Tony Khan

Antony Khan (born October 10, 1982) is an American businessman, promoter, and sports executive.

He is known for his involvement in American football, professional wrestling, and association football.

He is best known as the founder and co-owner of All Elite Wrestling (AEW), in which he also holds the positions of president, chief executive, general manager, executive producer, and Head of creative of the promotion.

He is the son of businessman Shahid Khan, who is the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL) and club Fulham.

He holds executive roles at both organizations: with the Jaguars, he is chief football strategy officer and with Fulham, he is the vice-chairman and director of football operations.

Other business ventures that Khan is involved in include TruMedia Networks, Activist Artists Management and Ring of Honor (ROH).

Tony Khan was born on October 10, 1982, in Urbana–Champaign, Illinois, U.S., to Pakistani-American father, Shahid Khan, and an American mother, Ann Carlson.

His father became a billionaire in the automotive industry, through his ownership of Flex-N-Gate, which supplied car bumpers.

He also has a sister named Shanna.

Tony graduated from the University Laboratory High School in 2001 and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance.

Khan joined the Jacksonville Jaguars in July 2012, following his father's purchase of the team, and currently serves as Senior President of Football and Analytics.

On February 22, 2017, Khan was named as vice-chairman and director of football operations of Fulham.

He oversees the identification, evaluation, recruitment, general maintenance and signing of players for Fulham.

Khan assumed these responsibilities following a period of advising the football operations at the club, particularly in the areas of analytics and research.

Although Khan was not able to have an immediate effect (as it was after the January transfer window), Fulham only lost twice and went on a run that saw them finish the season in sixth place, where they were defeated in the play-off semi-final to Reading.

Khan's first full season as vice-chairman, saw the breakout of youth product Ryan Sessegnon as well as the mid-season loan signing of Aleksandar Mitrović amongst the goals, as Fulham earned promotion to the Premier League by defeating Aston Villa in the play-off final, of which he was present.

In the 2018–19 season, Fulham brought in a number of expensive signings, headlined by the permanent signing of Mitrović from Newcastle United and Jean Michaël Seri from Nice.

Fulham ended the season in 18th place, resulting in another relegation.

In the 2021–22 season, Marco Silva succeeded Parker as manager, leading to Fulham topping the Championship.

In late 2018, Khan, who is a lifelong fan of professional wrestling, filed for several trademarks for a new venture that was shortly thereafter confirmed to be a new professional wrestling promotion, All Elite Wrestling (AEW).

Khan and his father, Shahid Khan, are the promotion's lead investors.

By January 2019, Fulham were stuck in the relegation zone, despite having sacked Slaviša Jokanović and replacing him with Claudio Ranieri.

Around this time, Khan was criticised for telling a supporter of the club to "go to hell", although he claimed that this person had previously hounded him before.

After Ranieri's departure, BBC Radio 5 Live pundits Ian Wright and Chris Sutton questioned Khan's capability in the job, with Wright even suggesting that Shahid Khan should sack his son.

Fulham ended the season in 19th place, resulting in the second relegation under Shahid Khan's ownership.

In the 2019–20 season, caretaker manager Scott Parker was named manager on a permanent basis, with the summer transfers consisting mostly of loan signings.

Fulham would end the season – which was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic – in 4th place, once again earning promotion to the Premier League by defeating Brentford in the play-off final.

Unable to appear at the final, Khan made a FaceTime call to congratulate Fulham's players.

The company was officially announced on January 1, 2019, along with its first event, Double or Nothing, which took place on May 25, 2019, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Khan serves as President, CEO, General Manager, Executive Producer and Head of creative of the promotion of AEW.

On April 25, 2019, Khan revealed the five-year plan for AEW where he stated: "The 5-year plan for AEW is firstly, to have built up a brand, secondly to have built up a roster and thirdly, to have established AEW as a top brand in wrestling for an audience who desire fast-paced exciting action and want a product that is more of a sporting based product."

In April 2020, then-Jaguars defensive end Yannick Ngakoue referred to Khan as "spoiled", after a confrontation on Twitter.

Ngakoue was eventually traded to the Minnesota Vikings.

In the 2020–21 season, Fulham brought in a mix of loan and permanent signings, including Terence Kongolo and Harrison Reed who played for the club on loan the previous season.

In September 2020, Khan was called a "clown" by Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher for tweeting critical comments of Fulham players, and described the transfer history of Khan as "a right mess".

Khan's comments angered Parker, who described the situation as "the world we live in".

Mitrović scored 43 goals, easily breaking the record set by Ivan Toney (in 2020–21), as well as the record set by Guy Whittingham for the most scored in a 46-game season.

In an interview with The Athletic, Khan stated that he had convinced Mitrović to stay, despite interest from Dynamo Moscow and following a season in which he only scored three goals.

He was also optimistic that this would be the season that Fulham would no longer be perceived as a "yo-yo club".

On May 1, 2020, Khan talked about the creative process in AEW and how he grants creative freedom to the AEW talent wrestlers on the roster.