This week has been about as good as it has got for Sir Jim Ratcliffe since he and his Ineos petrochemicals firm decided sport was a frontier they needed to be a part of.
At 20 years old, Kimi Antonelli became the youngest ever Formula 1 world champion and he did so for Mercedes, a team one-third owned by the British billionaire.
Throw in a comeback win against Roma for a Manchester United side fans often wish didn’t include Ratcliffe within its ownership structure and these have been some heady days.
What next? One of his cyclists winning the Tour de France? We had a little look at just where Kimi’s win ranks for Racliffe, and what the patterns are across his sporting investments.
Welcome to The Turnover, a weekly newsletter on the business of sport from City AM. It’s Matt here with more top stories and scoops from our pages than race wins for Mercedes under Sir Jim.
Others who could do with a couple more wins are the people behind rugby’s Nations Championships ahead of their inaugural finals weekend in London this month. Their title sponsor, Qatar Airways, has pulled out leaving a pretty big financial gap to plug.
And the likes of Wales will need every pound they can get, given there are thousands of empty seats for their three home games. Ollie Phillips dives into that, while tomorrow I take a look at who could replace Altrad as France’s front-of-shirt sponsor after their decade-long deal was terminated.
Noticed an increased Ukrainian football presence in the capital this week? It may be because Shakhtar Donetsk are playing their Champions League games at Stamford Bridge. Their CEO spoke to Frank about the club and its mission amid a backdrop of air raid sirens. No, really.
Elsewhere Tottenham Hotspur are doing their bit for the Neets crisis, opening a university campus and building houses close to their White Hart Lane home. Tottenham’s footballing alumni includes Harry Kane, who this week bagged himself a £27m-per-year new deal at Bayern Munich.
Sam Cunningham’s Between the Lines column explores how Tottenham owner Daniel Levy is seeing his stake in the club decrease ever further. Go for the football and stay for a great story about an Imp-ish light show.
And a lot of you enjoyed reading about how HMRC may start scouring Instagram to tax footballers. Lesson? Private accounts for the win.
ICYMI football edition: Infantino could face a subpoena following the so-called “Blue-nami” in the US midterms; the Fifa boss could see his re-election bid challenged in Cas; Hoffenheim tell me about their revolutionary use of AI; Rafael Nadal joins the Real Madrid board and Aussie players sue their governing body.
Our columnist Ed Warner recently became chair of Sussex Cricket. Did he think the off-season may be quieter than the actual cricketing parts of the year? Maybe. Is it? Read his column to find out.
ICYMI: Sponsors threaten ice hockey ties over Russia participation; T100 Triathlon cancels its Saudi race but insists plans remain for Qatar; a wannabe sports bank gets £5m in funding; the USA Olympics team eyes a commercial sell-off; and the Commonwealth Games financials for Glasgow are in.
There’s never a quiet week in the business of sport but The Turnover is here to make sure you are up to date as you seek a rare win within your sporting empire too. Have a great weekend.
Antonelli victory a rare win for Manchester United owner Ratcliffe and Ineos
Somewhere, probably in Monaco, one Sir Jim Ratcliffe will be breathing a sigh of relief.
Because the billionaire, who is chief executive of petrochemicals giant Ineos, has finally broken a run of winlessness in sport. The 74-year-old on Sunday saw Formula 1 driver Kimi Antonelli become the youngest ever world champion, driving for a team which is one third owned by the Briton estimated to be worth £15bn.
Nations Championship loses title sponsor on eve of inaugural London climax
The Nations Championship has lost its title sponsor on the eve of the inaugural international rugby competition’s climax in a £15m blow to the sport.
Qatar Airways has cancelled its sponsorship agreement with the world’s top rugby nations, as well as a deal to host the 2028 finals – this year staged at London’s Allianz Stadium – in the Middle Eastern nation.
The finals weekend in four years’ time was pencilled in for the United States before returning to Doha in 2032. Each of the iterations involving Qatar as host nation would have garnered the top 10 teams in international rugby a collective £80m.
Shakhtar Donetsk on playing in London, Russian rockets and ‘Invest in Ukraine’
Serhii Palkin, the long-serving CEO of Shakhtar Donetsk, has just joined our call when the grim reality of trying to run Ukraine’s top football club while under Russian bombardment intrudes.
“At this moment we have an air raid siren but I will not go to the shelter. I will stay here in the office because it’s not possible to work if you go every time to the shelter,” he says wearily. “It’s been our life for five years, Frank. Five years.”
From our partners
Daniel Levy feels squeeze as Lewis family tightens grip on Tottenham
Daniel Levy is being slowly squeezed out of Tottenham Hotspur’s ownership structure but he could yet emerge as a major player in the NBA.
The former Spurs executive chairman was ousted from the club he had run for 25 years in September 2025 by majority owners the Lewis family.
HMRC coming for footballers and will scour Instagram for tax intel
Buried away in the documents released alongside the Budget was a new report published by HMRC that reveals sports professionals and those involved in professional football such as players and agents are to become even more of a focus area for the Treasury.
Coupled with the Chancellor’s announcement of new investment in HMRC compliance activity which will see a further 670 compliance officers recruited by 2029-30, on top of the 5,500 previously announced, it paints a very clear picture.
More compliance staff will mean HMRC is able to widen the net and spend more time poring over taxpayers affairs, looking at more players and possibly reaching down to more divisions below the Premier League.
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