Fresh Bristol City takeover update emerges - it involves Saudi sports promoter Turki Alalshikh | OneFootball

Further details have emerged on the details of Saudi sports promotor Turki Alalshikh's interest in buying Championship club Bristol City.

Further details have emerged regarding the Saudi boxing promoter Turki Alalshikh's bid to buy Championship club Bristol City.

Unbeaten in five games and poised to move into the automatic promotion places, Bristol City have had an excellent start to their 2025-26 season in the Championship, but the club could have to brace for big changes if the interest of the Saudi boxing promoter Turki Alalshikh's interest in buying the club comes to fruition.

Alalshikh's interest in buying the club has been common knowledge for some time, but now fresh details have emerged confirming that this interest has moved well beyond the idle interest stage, and into something more concrete, with reports that such a takeover might be at a more advanced stage than had previously been thought.

Turki Alalshikh has made a flying visit to Bristol City amid takeover talk

Last week, it was reported by journalist Alan Nixon that Alalshikh was close to making an official bid to try and buy Bristol City, after expressing his interest a number of months ago.

And now, in a fresh update by Nixon, it is claimed that Alalshikh has paid a visit to Ashton Gate by helicopter to meet the owners of the club and take a look at the club's facilities.

He also reports that "weeks of behind the scenes discussions" have been taking place with the current owners of the club, the Lansdown family.

Unsurprisingly, Nixon reports that there should be "no problem" with arranging the funds to finance the sale, though he also adds that "the sellers are also comfortable with their plans so far", which indicates a greater level of interest in selling Bristol City on the part of the Lansdowns than had previously been reported.

Turki Alalshikh may be tempted by the potential of Bristol City

Bristol City, who play Oxford United at Ashton Gate on Sunday afternoon knowing that a draw will take them into the Championship's top two, are at an obvious financial disadvantage compared to many of the other clubs vying for promotion in that they don't receive parachute payment money from the Premier League.

The Robins haven't played top flight football since 1980, but a return could be on the cards. They finished in a play-off place at the end of 2024-25 before getting beaten by Sheffield United in the play-offs, and have made a strong start to the season, this time around.

The reasons why Alalshikh has focused his attention on Bristol City in particular aren't entirely clear, though it was previously reported that he wanted a club in the south of England, scotching the suggestion that he could - as he was recommended to by Simon Jordan of TalkSport - have an interest in troubled Sheffield Wednesday.

It may be the potential of the club that has interested him. Bristol is the sixth-biggest city in England, and its failure to have produced a top-flight club in four and a half decades is something of a statistical anomaly.