Marked for Simphiwe Masilela
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Haythem Ayouni out for 44 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Jeel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad30 Nov 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Jeel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mondli Miya is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 180% of everything Al-Jeel earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Hussein Al-Tuti has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Jeel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Mohammed Al-Mohanna is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Yasser Al-Sheikh chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Nov 2026
Al-Jeel sink to position 16
4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match21 Nov 2026
0‑3 to Al-Orobah, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Jeel may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Al-Jeel
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mondli Miya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mondli Miya, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Maxwell Quaye was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Al-Jeel dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Yasser Al-Sheikh left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match3 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Al-Jeel
A 1‑4 beating by Al-Diriyah was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Haythem Ayouni breaks a bone — 104 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Al-Jeel
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Saud Zaydan delivers — 7.67
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Saud Zaydan scored, was marked 7.67, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Match3 Oct 2026
Al-Jeel leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
237% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Jeel
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Jeel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Haythem Ayouni breaks a bone — 125 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 125 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match9 Sep 2026
The cup run ends for Al-Jeel
0‑5 against Al-Ahli, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
A cup embarrassment at Al-Ahli follows Al-Jeel home
0-5. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Al-Jeel's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Jeel has to find a result from somewhere.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Doors closed at Al-Jeel
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Sizwe Mhlangu knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Yasser Al-Sheikh to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Sizwe Mhlangu is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.