{"id":206030,"date":"2025-06-22T21:13:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T21:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/206030\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T21:13:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T21:13:13","slug":"fans-react-as-reports-link-saudi-dealmaker-with-bristol-city-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/206030\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans react as reports link Saudi dealmaker with Bristol City takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turki Alalshikh thought to have eyes on the Championship club<\/p>\n

William Telford<\/strong> Business Editor<\/p>\n

21:31, 22 Jun 2025<\/p>\n

Turki Alalshikh(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

There are reports tonight (June 22) that a super-rich Saudi businessman is eyeing up Bristol City. Turki Alalshikh, often referred to as boxing\u2019s biggest dealmaker, is understood to be interested in buying an English football club and has the Robins on his radar.<\/p>\n

The Sun has reported that Alalshikh is looking into a takeover bid for the sleeping giants at Ashton Gate.<\/p>\n

Bristol City is owned by the wealthy Lansdown family, who have built the Championship club up, redeveloped the stadium and have not made any indication they want to sell.<\/p>\n

But Alalshikh is highly minted and talkSPORT\u2019s Simon Jordan, the former Crystal Palace owner, claimed he had advised Alalshikh to buy Sheffield Wednesday.<\/p>\n

But with Saudi Arabia\u2019s public investment fund owning Newcastle United, Alalshikh is now believed to be targeting a club in the south of England and has been linked with Millwall and Southampton.<\/p>\n

And now, he may have his sights on Bristol City. Alalshikh is chairman of Saudi Arabia\u2019s General Entertainment Authority, and is considered to have revolutionised boxing.<\/p>\n

The 43-year-old\u2019s no-nonsense approach, and financial resources, have seen him arrange some of the biggest fights in the sport\u2019s history, including heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk\u2019s double header with Britain\u2019s Tyson Fury.<\/p>\n

Alalshikh has also gone into business with UFC chief Dana White. Israel Adesanya fought Nassourdine Imavov in Riyadh in February this year.<\/p>\n

Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n

And the following month it was announced that Alalshikh and White would be launching a new boxing league under the TKO banner. Alalshikh is also interested in professional tennis.<\/p>\n

The Saudi chief set up last winter’s lucrative Six Kings event involving stars such as Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, while Riyadh struck a deal to host the WTA Finals between 2024 and 2026.<\/p>\n

Speculation over a potential buy-out has had Bristol City fans excited on social media – but with a mixed reaction.<\/p>\n

On the Bristol City FC Supporters Page, on X, some fans were sceptical but others welcomed a potential investor.<\/p>\n

One post said: \u201cGo on Turki, stick some fights down the Gate too.\u201d Mark Tripp simply said: \u201cPlease no.\u201d And another fan posted: \u201cBeen linked with half the Championship by the looks of it, no surprise our name popped up eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n

And on the One Team in Bristol web chat, a fan wrote: \u201cNo thanks. I’d rather not have that type of money in our football club.\u201d<\/p>\n

But another posted: \u201cIf this has any legs, then we could actually find ourselves in a very fortunate position. Turki Alalshikh is a very sensible businessman. He has arguably re-launched boxing, giving fans the fights that we want to see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turki Alalshikh thought to have eyes on the Championship club William Telford Business Editor 21:31, 22 Jun 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[1935,381,2686,748,393,4884,11354,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-206030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-bristol","10":"tag-bristol-city-fc","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-mixed-martial-arts","15":"tag-tennis","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114729084820342842","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}