Category Sports News

Michail Antonio is set to sign a short-term deal with Qatar’s Al‑Sailiya before his return to club football following a near-fatal car crash.

The former West Ham striker had been training with Charlton Athletic and held exploratory talks with the Championship club over a pay-as-you-play deal.

But the 35-year-old is poised to sign for Qatari Stars League club Al‑Sailiya until the end of their season, which has six games left.

His move to the Middle East is advanced with confirmation expected in the coming days.

Antonio has not played a competitive game in England since his accident in December 2024 that left him with multiple leg fractures.

He featured for Jamaica at June’s Concacaf Gold Cup but was released by West Ham before the current season.

The Hammers’ record Premier League goalscorer held talks with Brentford and Leicester City over proposed transfers but those deals did not materialise.

Portsmouth manager John Mousinho also said he considered signing Antonio.

Cristiano Ronaldo has become co-owner of Spanish second division side Almeria by acquiring a 25% share in the club.

The 41-year-old Al-Nassr forward has bought his stake in Almeria, who are owned by a Saudi Arabian investment consortium led by Mohammed Al-Khereiji, through his recently formed CR7 Sports Investments company.

While the financial details have not been disclosed, Ronaldo said in a statement he was looking forward to working with the leadership team “to support the next phase of the club’s growth”.

The Portugal international added: “It has been a long-held ambition of mine to contribute to football, beyond the pitch.

President Al-Khereiji said: “[Ronaldo] is regarded as the greatest to ever play the game, he knows the Spanish leagues very well and he understands the potential of what we are building here both in terms of the team and the academy.”

Last year, Al-Khereiji’s SMC Group acquired Almeria from Turki Al-Sheikh, who is chairman of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA), a Saudi government department.

Ronaldo spent nine successful years in Spain playing for Real Madrid, winning La Liga twice and lifting the Champions League four times before joining Italian side Juventus in 2018.

He has played for Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League since 2022 and is the best-paid player in football history with an annual salary of £177m.

A little over a decade ago, Cristiano Ronaldo did not want to contemplate life after football.

Those close to him warned he was living on a treadmill, and that when he retired, he might collapse unless he had built something to sustain him. He listened, and business became a way to continue to be relevant but also to give his family, who had put their own ambitions on hold, projects aligned with their passions.

The first step was symbolic. In 2016, Ronaldo partnered with a hotel group to open a property in Madeira.

Gradually, he began not only investing his wages but enjoying the process, the meetings, the strategy.

He still harboured dreams of making a Hollywood film, but discovered a similar satisfaction in building companies – applying the same discipline he had devoted to his body.

On the pitch, that obsession turned him into the most prolific goalscorer in history after the age of 30. Off it, it was shaping a second career.

According to the 2025 Forbes ranking, Ronaldo generated almost £210m on and off the field. Of that, just over £50m came from his non-football business interests – a very diverse portfolio.

He has increasingly channelled his activity through his investment and lifestyle companies, with holdings in a water brand, healthy-living app and a recovery products company, as well as underwear, fragrances and footwear.

As well as ownership stakes, he has high-profile partnerships with leading brands, has opened gyms across Portugal and Spain, and launched a range of watches.

And the portfolio keeps expanding.

Ronaldo co-founded a hair-transplant clinic group now operating in Spain, Portugal, Oman and Italy. One of its clients was his mother Dolores Aveiro.

What began with that first hotel in Funchal evolved into a joint venture launched in December 2015 and initially valued at more than £65m. There are now properties in Lisbon, Madrid, New York and Marrakech.

In December 2024, at the Dubai Globe Soccer Awards, Ronaldo said if he ever owned a club, he knew how to fix structural flaws he saw in some of Europe’s giants.

And now he has taken a 25% stake in Almeria, who are owned by Al Khereiji – key to his move to Al-Nassr following his exit from Manchester United.

England will consider bringing in leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed for the T20 World Cup Super 8s match against New Zealand in Colombo.

England, who are already through to the semi-finals, will wait for another look at the pitch on Friday before naming their XI.

The match will be played on the same surface as New Zealand beat Sri Lanka on Wednesday, when 10 of the 15 wickets fell to spin, and England are keen to cover all options.

Bowling coach Tim Southee said he expects a “pretty scrappy” wicket.

“We’ve seen spin play such a big part here,” Southee said.

“It’s such a big ground. That doesn’t mean seamers can’t still have an impact – like [New Zealand seamer] Matt Henry last night.”

Ahmed, 21, has been a regular around England squads but has not played a T20 since the tour of Ireland last September, nor has he featured at a World Cup.

He played in the three one-day internationals against Sri Lanka last month, also held on this ground, and twice filled in as an opener.

The leg-spinner would likely replace a pace bowler if he is selected – possibly Jamie Overton.

New Zealand picked only two pace bowlers in their win over Sri Lanka, in which 30 of the 40 overs were bowled by spinners.

England would still have Jofra Archer and Sam Curran as pace bowlers, plus Adil Rashid, Liam Dawson and Will Jacks.

Southee backed out-of-form opener Jos Buttler, who is on a run of four single-figure scores in succession.

“Jos has played enough cricket to know he would have been through various tough times throughout his career and I’m sure he’ll bounce back at any stage,” Southee said.

The Black Caps could be pipped to a semi-final place by Pakistan if they lose but England confirmed their progression with victory over Pakistan on Tuesday.

The run to the last four comes after the dismal Ashes defeat, which brought the future of coach Brendon McCullum into question.

Southee said McCullum, who he played alongside 170 times for New Zealand, has not changed amid the scrutiny.

“One thing with Brendon is he is the most consistent guy I have ever come across,” Southee told BBC Sport.

“Nothing really changes from him. He believes in what he believes in. And we’ve seen in this tournament, we’ve won in different ways.

“Baz is just Baz. He just wants guys to do well, wants the team to do well and that hasn’t changed when he was a player and as a coach as well.”

Southee also spoke of his disappointment at not to be able to remain as bowling coach during the Ashes.

He was with the squad in the build-up and the first Test in Perth but then left to fulfil a playing contract in the ILT20.

“I had a two-year existing deal with the IlT20 which I had to fill, obviously the dates got moved from January to December which clashed with the Ashes,” Southee said.

The “clock is ticking” for the Premier League and English Football League to end their financial impasse, says the chair of the Independent Football Regulator.

The leagues have been in talks about how the Premier League helps support the football pyramid, including the controversial parachute payments as well as solidarity payments – a set amount paid to each EFL club twice a season.

The Premier League and EFL have been rowing over an agreement made in 2019, unable to reach common ground over a new settlement.

Talks in 2023 and 2025 were called off without an agreement.

David Kogan told the Financial Times Business of Football Summit that if no agreement can be reached the IFR might step in.

He said if that happened it would be “an utter failure by football”.

Kogan said there is a “stasis in finding a new settlement in football” – which is not good for the game.

“Going forward, it’s to everyone’s benefit for football to try to reach this understanding,” he said. “My message today is that the pyramid needs to survive as it exists today. And to do that, English football must come together and end this uncertainty, and it needs to do it now.

“Ultimately we [the IFR] can step in and find a solution.

“We do not want to do that. We want football to find a solution, and we want to find it quickly. But if the leagues can’t find a new deal, those powers will be enacted, and we will be looking at things such as the current mechanism for parachute payments.

“Under our mandate, we are there to make the game more sustainable. I hope this message opens up the process again. The clock is ticking. The opportunity is there. We are there to help football find those solutions.”

EFL chair Rick Parry said he was eager to reach an agreement. He warned that the current system creates a situation where Championship clubs are buying “the most expensive lottery ticket on the planet”.

“We think clubs should be able to rise and fall – that we should have sporting jeopardy, but without financial catastrophe,” Parry said.

“In 1992-93 [the first year of the Premier League] the gap between the turnover of the Premier League and the EFL was £11m. It’s now £3.4bn. The Premier League’s turnover has grown 80 times. The EFL’s has grown six.

“It needs a fundamental rethink, and we think it’s entirely doable.

“Operating losses average £17m. Debt is now £1.5bn, and wages have regularly been over 100% of turnover losses. It is the most expensive lottery ticket on the planet that clubs chase to get into the Premier League and the unequal struggle with the parachute club.

Kogan said that had the IFR existed three years ago, Sheffield Wednesday would not be in the position they are today.

The Owls, who were relegated from the Championship on Sunday, have been in administration since October, and a proposed takeover fell through on Wednesday.

“If you want an example of why we exist, one has only got to look at the situation in the last 24 hours of Sheffield Wednesday,” Kogan added.

“This is one of the largest, most prestigious names in English football, one of the founders of English football, one of the founders of the Premier League that has spent the last two or three years in absolute chaos, including yesterday.

“And it’s obvious why a regulator that can monitor, examine and if need be act was relevant to a situation such as Sheffield Wednesday.

Veteran promoter Frank Warren has confirmed he is considering legal action against Saudi Arabian-owned Sela and American company TKO.

Warren has enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Turki Alalshikh and Sela in recent years, but the arrival of the Dana White-fronted Zuffa Boxing, jointly owned by Sela and TKO, has caused tension behind the scenes.

Sela is a Saudi state-owned entertainment company and TKO Group Holdings is a media giant that owns the UFC and WWE.

Warren alleges Sela and TKO went behind his back to form Zuffa Boxing, which he claims breaches the contracts he had already signed with the two entities.

Warren’s Queensberry Promotions, according to the Telegraph, allege as much as $1bn (£739m) could have been lost in potential earnings.

In a statement, Sela said they were “disappointed” by the claims and “reject them in their entirety”.

This week it was revealed that Warren and Queensberry had sent “letters before action” to Sela and TKO raising the issues.

“It’s just a difference of opinion over the contracts that we signed, so that will just take its course,” Warren told BBC Sport.

“I can’t make any comment on it. It is what it is and it will take its course.”

The potential legal action comes after it emerged that Warren has had limited involvement in Tyson Fury’s comeback fight in April on Netflix.

The fight was primarily organised by Sela and Netflix, and TKO chief Mark Shapiro claims Zuffa Boxing will be tasked with the promotional duties around the fight instead of Queensberry .

White and Zuffa Boxing have made some serious waves since launching their first show in January.

Conor Benn joined Zuffa from Matchroom and Eddie Hearn in a one-fight deal worth $15m, but Shapiro says Sela and Alalshikh are covering Benn’s purse, not TKO.

White has ridiculed Hearn for saying he was heartbroken by Benn’s exit, claiming he feels he has come into boxing and is “beating up babies”.

Asked how any legal action could affect his working relationship with Sela and Alalshikh moving forward, Warren said nothing would change.

“We will do what we continue to do and that is put on great shows. [Wardley v Dubois] will be a sell-out show just like what we’re doing in Dublin, in Germany and in Manchester with Moses [Itauma],” he said.

Zuffa have shown their intent by signing Benn and have also signed IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia.

Opetaia fights Brandon Glanton on 8 March and Zuffa Boxing say their first Zuffa belt will be on the line, as well as Opetaia’s IBF and Ring Magazine titles.

Warren said Benn’s move is something that “happens in the sport” and no promoter can expect absolute loyalty.

“I’ve been on the other side of it,” Warren said. “I’m old fashioned and I believe in loyalty.

“I think loyalty is something that is respected and a two-way thing. Karma, whatever you want to call it, always comes back around.