Jon Rahm says a merger between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) should not be rushed because it has the “opportunity to set golf up in a very positive way for decades to come”.

The Spaniard, 29, who has won two majors and was part of Europe’s victorious Ryder Cup team in 2023, joined the breakaway LIV tour in December.

Negotiations between the PGA Tour and the PIF, which funds LIV Golf, have been taking place for nearly 12 months in an attempt to end a split in the game.

Fifteen-time major champion Tiger Woods, who is personally involved in the process, accepts that while progress has been made there is a “long way to go” to reach an agreement.

However, Rahm says he is unperturbed at the length of negotiations given what is at stake for golf.

“Some decisions and negotiations can’t be taken lightly, so it should take quite a bit of time to get it done properly,” Rahm said.

“I wouldn’t want to see something rushed just to get a resolution. They should take their time to make this work properly.

“I don’t know if that takes one, two, three, five, six years. I don’t know what that might be like. But I don’t feel like I’m in any rush to make something happen today.

“You need the people that do this for a living that are far smarter than I am to get together to come together to be able to make it work.”

Woods, who is a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board transaction subcommitteem which is tasked with working out a deal, added: “We’re working on negotiations with PIF. It’s ongoing. It’s fluid. It changes day-to-day. Has there been progress? Yes. But it’s an ongoing negotiation so a lot of work ahead for all of us with this process.

“We’re making steps. It may not be giant steps, but we’re making steps. We’ve made some progress, yes, for sure, but there’s a long way to go still.”

The businessman who set up the deal, Jimmy Dunne, resigned from the PGA Policy Board on Monday saying “no meaningful progress” had been made, with multiple reports saying he was unhappy at the slow pace of talks, which have stretched well beyond last December’s original deadline.

Both Rahm and Woods were speaking as they prepare to compete in this week’s US PGA Championship, which starts on Thursday at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.

Woods, 48, a four-time winner of the Wanamaker Trophy, also triumphed at Valhalla in 2000, on his way to becoming the only player in the modern era to hold all four major titles.

Woods, who remains the biggest draw in the game is likely to play to packed galleries when he gets under way at 13:04 BST in Thursday’s first round, alongside 2011 winner Keegan Bradley and Australia’s Adam Scott.

And while he finished last of the 60 players to make the cut at April’s Masters, he remains convinced he has another title in him despite having barely played any competitive golf over the last 12 months.

“I still feel that I can win golf tournaments. I still feel I can hit the shots and still feel like I still have my hand around the greens and I can putt,” Woods said.

“I just need to do it for all four days, not like I did at Augusta for only two.”

The American, whose schedule has been limited since he suffered a catalogue of serious injuries in a car crash in 2021, shares the all-time PGA Tour record of 82 career wins with Sam Snead.

However, expectations of an 83rd and 16th major title are sure to be tempered by his lack of sharpness and the physical demands he will have to overcome on a course measuring 7,609 yards.

“I don’t have a lot of competitive reps so I’m having to rely on my practice sessions and getting stuff done either at home or here on site. I need to be ready mentally and physically come Thursday,” he added.

“Getting around is more of the difficulty that I face day-to-day and the recovery of pushing myself either in practice or in competition days.

“This is a big golf course, and if you get in the rough here, things could get a little bit sore, but if I drive it well and do the things I need to do and what I did 24 years ago, hopefully it works.”

Aston Villa have qualified for the Champions League for the first time after top-four rivals Tottenham Hotspur lost to Manchester City on Tuesday.

Tottenham had been the only team who could have overtaken Villa into fourth before Tuesday, but are now five points behind Unai Emery’s side with one game remaining.

Villa have not reached Uefa’s premier club competition since it rebranded from the European Cup to the Champions League in 1991-92.

They last played in the European Cup 41 years ago in 1982-83 having won the competition the season before.

Villa did finish second and fourth in the Premier League in 1992-93 and 1995-96 respectively, but in both those seasons only first was good enough to reach the Champions League.

Villa’s players and staff were holding their annual awards night at Villa Park on Tuesday night and celebrated as the result at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was confirmed.

The club posted photos on social media, external of Emery and the players cheering and spraying champagne.

“It’s a very special day,” Emery said. “It’s our dream, we started the season to be here. We’ve had injuries but the team was always focused. It’s fantastic. To play Champions League is the best.”

“Nobody expected us to be there but we believed in ourselves and believed in our dream,” wrote defender Lucas Digne on Instagram, external. “It was hard but the achievement is amazing.”

Centre-half Diego Carlos added, external: “After more than four decades we are back in the Champions League. We are experiencing a historic season! Up the Villa!”

Fans including the Prince of Wales, who was at Villa’s recent match against Olympiakos, also celebrated the news.

“We are Champions League!” he wrote on X, external. “A historic season and an amazing achievement. Thanks to Unai, the whole squad and everyone at Aston Villa. Can’t wait for next season.”

Aston Villa appointed manager Emery in October 2022 with the Villains 14th in the Premier League, three points from the relegation zone.

The Birmingham-based club had finished their previous two seasons in 14th and 17th and had been playing in the Championship just three years earlier in 2019.

But Emery has turned Villa’s fortunes round. Only Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal have collected more Premier League points than Villa since the Spaniard took charge.

And he is set to manage his sixth different club in the Champions League after Valencia, Spartak Moscow, Sevilla, Paris St-Germain and Villarreal.

“If that coffee machine was not working properly, I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised to see it on the lawn.”

Brighton chief executive Paul Barber is talking about his charismatic, perfectionist and coveted manager Roberto de Zerbi.

Outward assessments of the Italian can differ from the experience of those who work most closely with him.

What is clear is that De Zerbi has high standards and sets high targets. He doesn’t respond well to failure.

“We have learned what he says externally is a little bit misunderstood. He speaks with his heart on his sleeve.”

You get the strong sense Brighton are bored with the debate around De Zerbi’s future and would prefer to focus on other things.

That is understandable. But in an extended BBC Sport interview with Barber, one of those most forward-thinking Premier League executives, De Zerbi has to feature prominently, given speculation about the Italian’s future and links with some of the top managerial vacancies around Europe.

Brighton enter the final week of what has been both a historic and challenging campaign with a realistic shot at finishing ninth, which would be their second-highest placing and second-highest top flight points tally. De Zerbi was also responsible for the best last season.

Yet for the second half of the campaign De Zerbi has behaved as though he has had enough of the ‘Brighton model’ and that he resents the restrictions imposed by it.

Barber does not offer clarity over the De Zerbi’s future. But he does confirm conversations have always been honest and open.

“Privately, Roberto is quiet, calm, reasonable and sensible,” says Barber. “He understands what our limitations are. Behind the scenes, the model is very well known to him.

“He has got two more years to go. My understanding is that he is happy. He likes the club. He likes this group of players a lot. He knows he has a good owner. He knows he has good facilities. He knows it is a club that has a particular model and we won’t break it for anyone. Those are consistent. He also knows he can see me or Tony (owner Tony Bloom) at any time. There are no surprises.

“What we can’t control is a club anywhere in the world coming in and making an approach for him. But we knew that with Graham Potter, and Chris Hughton, who did a great job for us. We are very cognisant of that happening to us but we have a plan for all those eventualities.”

In an era of over-spending, Brighton are viewed as the gold standard for how to run a club properly.

They do owe Bloom £373m and paid their owner £36m out of a club record £122.8m profit announced last month. But Barber points out a large part of that debt was because of construction of the Amex Stadium.

The stadium’s capacity can be increased beyond its current 31,876, but “by hundreds not thousands”, says Barber. A new fan zone is intended to keep people in the stadium vicinity longer, increasing spend and also taking some of the pressure off rail services that take supporters to and from the out-of-town venue.

But, for funding purposes, Brighton remain wedded to their model, which Barber has committed to with a new contract to 2030.

The philosophy is theoretically simple: scour the world for talent, which is recruited, honed and sold on for a vast profit. Think Moises Caicedo, signed as an 18-year-old from Ecuador for £4.5m, loaned to Belgian club Beerschot, then sold to Chelsea for £115m two years after his arrival.

However, Southampton and Leicester have been lauded in the past for their recruitment model. Both spent this season in the Championship when it went wrong.

Something as unpredictable as a crippling injury list – Brighton have lost Solly March, Joao Pedro, Kaoru Mitoma and Billy Gimour for long periods – can also send a season spiralling into freefall.

“Losing Caicedo and (Alex) Mac Allister, we knew it would be very difficult to replace them like for like overnight,” says Barber. “What we couldn’t foresee was the number of injuries to critical players at critical periods in the season.

“What Roberto has done to keep us in the top 10 and the last 16 of the two biggest knockout competitions has been remarkable. I don’t think he has got half as much praise as he deserves for that achievement alone.”

For a time this season, when Brighton won twice and lost seven in 12 games over a two-month period to the end of April, it seemed cracks were appearing in a structure that has not only lost key players, but also manager Potter and key recruitment personnel Paul Winstanley and Sam Jewell to Chelsea.

“We have lost good people – and Chelsea have taken a lot of them,” says Barber.

“But they are taking the hose not the water supply. The water supply is Tony and the incredible data we use.

“We work very hard on succession planning. It is one of the things I am obsessive about. I try every day to think about what would happen if we were to lose one of our top 20-25 people, on and off the field. Not players – staff. Who would be the obvious replacement and where are they? Are they ready to step up?

“Player recruitment is not a perfect science. We have a ‘twin track’ of investing a lot of money in our academy to find players on our own doorstep and finding talent from parts of the world others are not even looking in, let alone recruiting from. It is that part which gives us confidence.”

Brighton’s back story is known to most football lovers. But their history of playing in Gillingham and nearly falling out of the league is lost on what are viewed as ‘the Amex generation’, younger fans who started following the club around the time they moved into their new stadium and know only good times.

Bloom explains: “When I arrived at Brighton in 2012, I would drive along the sea front and see Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool shirts. Now when you drive along the same stretch, almost without exception, you see kids in Brighton shirts.”

For them, this season, despite a European campaign most fans never remotely thought possible, might be viewed as average. Historically, it is anything but.

“I can understand why some people would say it has been an OK but not great season,” says Barber. “But it is only 11 seasons out of 123 that the club has even been in the top flight, let alone the top 10. It is an incredible time for the club and an incredible period for the fans.”

Which brings us to a major bone of contention for some.

How can Brighton, with their historical background in the EFL, be resistant to the ‘New Deal’ for EFL clubs, the proposed financial handout which the Premier League has put on hold?

“We understand why the EFL is concerned,” says Barber. “We understand why the government are concerned. But we want to be sure what we do is fair for everyone.

“There are clubs in the leagues below us who have owners who are wealthier than ours. The concept of working really hard and investing in Brighton’s case, over 26 or 27 years, to go from the basement of the Football League to a top-six position in the Premier League to create a relative amount of success for ourselves… To suddenly have to hand over the proceeds of that success to somebody without knowing how they will use the additional money, potentially on players with the aim of replacing us, is a complex concept.

“We need to fully understand the consequences.

“That is not to say, in our case, we have forgotten where we have come from, because we certainly haven’t, and it doesn’t mean to say we don’t consider the pyramid to be sacrosanct, because we do.

“We want the whole game to feel sustainable for every community in the country. But we can’t do that if it is going to damage our progress and our continuity and our stability. That would be bizarre.”

Three years ago, British BMX freestyle rider Charlotte Worthington sat on her bike, with her arm around her coach and a smile on her face, as she awaited the score from her final run at the Tokyo Olympics.

She had just made history by becoming the first woman to pull off a 360 backflip in competition and was about to make even more – as her score of 97.50 led to her being crowned the first female BMX freestyle Olympic champion.

What followed that moment of ecstasy was a difficult period during which the 27-year-old struggled to balance her love of the sport with the desire to compete.

Worthington had arrived in Japan to compete in the event, newly introduced for the 2020 Games, as a “complete underdog” and left having achieved the holy grail of women’s freestyle BMX – catapulting her into the limelight.

“There’s so much more about BMX that I love and I lost sight of that in the year after the Games,” she told BBC Sport.

“I lost a big balance of enjoying it and pushing myself and taking risks to [thinking] ‘why am I doing this any more? Is it worth it? What’s actually enjoyable about it?'”

Worthington is not the first athlete to open up about the highs and lows of being an Olympic champion.

Three-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Adam Peaty has previously admitted to periods of depression and alcohol problems.

Worthington said she discussed her own issues with Peaty and other Team GB team-mates after the Tokyo Games.

“He was also going through a bit of a rough stage and we spoke and I asked him ‘how was your game after your first medal?’ and he said ‘down the toilet’,” she said.

“I’m very grateful for speaking to the other athletes because if I hadn’t been able to speak to them I wouldn’t have felt that it’s a lot more normal.

“That’s why I don’t mind talking about it now because I’m sure it will help other people.”

Worthington had been riding for just five years prior to the Olympics, having previously worked as a chef, and the sudden spotlight brought pressures and challenges.

“I was a scooter kid from Manchester that worked in a kitchen and suddenly I’m on the Olympic stage and I’ve won a gold medal,” she said.

“It was super-motivating at the time to think what more could be possible.

“But I’d start to treat every contest like the Olympics and then you realise just how much prep actually went into that and that’s actually not sustainable.”

In the aftermath of her historic achievement, Worthington received an MBE and people took an increased interest in her career.

Away from the plaudits and recognition, she was battling an internal dilemma.

“It became all about the competition and when I started it wasn’t just for the competition. I started because it was something fun you did after school with your mates,” she said.

“I had a lot of expectation that I put on myself. I suddenly had sponsors and I was just learning how to deal with all that.”

Worthington decided to take a break from competition, go back to basics and rediscover what she loved about the sport.

She withdrew from last year’s World Cup event in Montpellier, France – a competition attended by many hoping to qualify for the 2024 Paris Games.

“I thought ‘I’ll just hone in and focus on the things that actually light me up about the sport and really focus on them for a while’,” she said.

“I had no agenda, no training, just riding a BMX and that’s what helped me rebuild.”

The 2019 European champion had planned to feature at the 2023 European Games but instead pulled out to focus on Olympic qualifying events, including the World Championships in Glasgow in August, where she finished seventh in the 11-strong field.

Worthington is now preparing for the Olympic Qualifier Series where 48 riders – 24 women and 24 men – will compete for Olympic quota spots on 17-19 May in Shanghai and 20-23 June in Budapest.

There is a clear aim for Worthington – to be in Paris this summer. But, more importantly, she is loving the sport again.

“I feel in a much better place. Still learning, focusing mainly on the enjoyment and I still train alongside that, but I don’t want to push myself over the edge to where it’s not enjoyable any more,” she said.

“I don’t know whether I’ll keep up with my own standards because I set them pretty high.

“I’m still learning how to have that balance and compete, be competitive and push but not forget where I came from and why I really do it. The result is just a by-product.”

The BMX racing world championships also take place on 17 and 18 May with Olympic champion Bethany Shriever part of an 11-strong British team in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Action from those championships is available to watch on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app on 18 May from 19:00 to 22:30 BST.

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, BBC Action Line has links to organisations that can offer help and advice.

Oleksandr Usyk’s place as a future hall of fame inductee cannot be disputed.

The 37-year-old Ukrainian is a fighter who will be heralded as a boxing great in years to come.

On Saturday, Usyk will look to further secure his legacy by becoming the first ever four-belt heavyweight champion when he takes on Briton Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia.

“Oleksandr is a superstar,” former opponent Tony Bellew tells BBC Sport.

Usyk reigned supreme as an amateur, winning European, world and Olympic gold.

In the paid ranks, Usyk won his first cruiserweight world title in just his 10th professional bout, before travelling to fellow champions’ backyards and cleaning up the division within five fights.

“If he beats Tyson, he can go down as one of the greatest fighters ever,” says Bellew.

BBC Sport looks Usyk’s transition from the world’s best cruiserweight to a unified heavyweight champion who dethroned Anthony Joshua in 2022, before winning the rematch just months after defending his country against the Russian invasion.

After defending his undisputed cruiserweight crown against Bellew in November 2018, Usyk – with nothing left to achieve in the division – jumped to heavyweight.

Quite remarkably, the 6ft 3in Usyk had previously fought as a middleweight in the amateurs.

For all his natural talent and boxing prowess though, there were question marks over whether he had the size to compete with boxing’s big boys. Only Evander Holyfield and Briton David Haye had won world titles in both divisions.

But with a strong focus on strength and conditioning, swimming and full-body workouts, Usyk steadily built into the weight.

He took 10 months out and added just over a stone – weighing 15st 3lb – for his heavyweight debut against Chazz Witherspoon.

Despite still giving up nearly two stone, Usyk eased to a stoppage win.

He gained two more pounds for a harder-than-expected points win over British gatekeeper Derek Chisora in October 2020.

“He wanted to stand there with ‘Del Boy’ and see how the power was and whether he could take the punch – which he did,” Bellew says.

Witherspoon and Chisora were far from elite-level contenders but Usyk felt ready for a huge step up in opponent against champion Joshua.

Usyk – who missed the birth of his child while training for Fury earlier this year – is dedicated to his craft.

Swimming forms a key part of his training. According to his manager, Egis Klimas, Usyk swam 10km nonstop as preparation and was able to hold his breath for four minutes and 40 seconds.

Juggling and catching coins are Usyk’s staple party tricks, but they too signify the importance he places on shaping his cat-like reflexes.

The training and focus paid dividends against Joshua – Usyk’s resilience and fitness levels were on full show when he outclassed the Briton for most of the 24 rounds they shared.

Usyk came in at 15st 11lb for both fights – which he seemingly feels is his optimal weight having tipped the scales around the same mark against Daniel Dubois in August.

Joshua was 20lb heavier and then 23lb in the rematch.

“I kept saying that Joshua was just too big, but the size was matched by just how good Usyk is,” Bellew says.

Still there are those who still question Usyk’s heavyweight credentials.

Bellew describes Usyk as a “novice heavyweight in some ways” having never been pushed to his “absolute limit”.

For Bellew, however, Usyk’s superiority and ability to find an extra gear is key.

“Usyk ticked all the boxes in the second AJ fight,” Bellew says. “Going into round nine or 10, he is behind or it’s level. Then going into the championship rounds, Usyk just finds another level.”

When negotiations for the Fury fight in April 2023 stalled, Usyk turned his attention to WBA mandatory challenger Dubois.

Dubois landed a body shot in the fifth round, sending Usyk to the canvas. The punch was declared a low blow.

“In my humble opinion, my guy delivered and landed the perfect blow on the beltline and he should be the one facing Tyson Fury,” Dubois’ trainer Don Charles tells BBC Sport.

Regardless of the legalities of the punch, Charles says it exposed an Usyk vulnerability.

“It was well documented prior to Daniel facing him that Usyk doesn’t like being hit to the body,” Charles says.

“He has an old injury here. There were moments in the second AJ fight where he turned around citing a low blow but it wasn’t.”

Usyk was dropped by body shots twice in the amateurs. On both occasions, Usyk rose to his feet and outpointed his opponent.

Former world champion Hannah Rankin believes Fury might be “too big” for Usyk.

“If he can target the body, it could be Usyk’s undoing,” she says.

Bellew, however, dismisses this supposed weakness as a “myth.”

“I’ve had my ribs broken on numerous occasions. It hurts and it’s not nice, but he’s not weaker than anyone else in the body,” Bellew says.

“Maybe he doesn’t carry as much protection around the midriff than someone like Tyson Fury, but he takes a body shot like everyone else.”