From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market31 Aug 2026
Al-Ra'ed pay $290.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad31 Aug 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ziyad Al-Sahafi has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Al-Fayha.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 1-1 draw with Al-Ettifaq leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market17 Aug 2026
Al-Nahda come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al-Fayha did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Fayha have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match15 Aug 2026
Al-Fayha get the job done against Ohod
A 4-2 win over Ohod, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market17 Aug 2026
Al-Nahda pay $37.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Chris Smalling
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Al-Fayha have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Al-Fayha have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Al-Fayha have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Alfa Semedo hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Fayha can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Chris Smalling commits to Al-Fayha for another 2 years.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Fayha have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ahmed Bamasud knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Fayha, and both men came out saying it was fine.