Simon Jordan says Turki Alalshikh is still a long way away from investing in English football, after a week in which the Saudi figure’s links with Derby County stirred fresh speculation. Jordan made the remarks on talkSPORT as attention built around reported talks between Alalshikh and Derby owner David Clowes.
“I think it’s a long way away,” Jordan said. “I think he has an interest in football. And he’s interested in making sure that people are aware of his interest in things.” He added that football is “the biggest sport in the world” and said the scale of the game is far beyond boxing, pointing to the fact that “five or six billion people around the world love football.”
The remarks came after Alalshikh reportedly held talks with Clowes over investment in Derby County, though the size of any deal and the structure of the discussions remain unknown. The Football League and the Independent Football Regulator are both aware of the reported interest, but Derby have declined to comment on the talks. Alalshikh is described as a boxing mogul and Saudi Arabian billionaire, and the possible move has prompted debate because of his growing profile in football-linked circles.
Speculation around Derby intensified during the same week when Alalshikh followed numerous Derby accounts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. He also posted a picture of a lion addressing a flock of sheep with the caption, “I promise to be a vegetarian,” alongside the word Derby and an emoji of a man shrugging his shoulders. Those posts did not confirm anything, but they gave the story a public edge that kept fans guessing while the private talks stayed behind closed doors.
Ben Shalom also backed the idea that Alalshikh has long been interested in the sport. “He’s always had an interest in football, to be fair,” Shalom said. “He has or did have Almeria, he’s a big United fan, and to be honest, what he will do is bring a lot of capital and a lot of passion behind any club, so I think it’d be great if he got into football.”
Shalom added: “I think he’d do a wonderful job. I just hope it’s for the right club.” For now, that remains the unanswered part of the story: whether Derby are the club that turns Alalshikh’s interest into something concrete, or whether the speculation ends where it began — on social media and talk of a deal that is still some way off.
