Premier League vote through new APT rules and Amorim’s first press conference: football news – live | Premier League

Ruben Amorim, the new Manchester United gaffer, is due to speak at 1.30pm (His Majesty’s United Kingdom time).

Thanks Taha, hello everyone.

That’ll be all from me. Luke McLaughlin is the man in for the next little while.

Pep Guardiola has been asked why he signed a new two year-deal at Manchester City, not just for one.

“For the weather,” he jokes, before launching properly.

It’s a good question. Mainly I don’t want next season in September, October, November: ‘It’s the last year of Pep.’ That was the main reason. I don’t want to be in that position because at the end, the contract is there. I would like to stay two more years but I know [if] the results are not good, I will not be two years … We have incredible, legendary players here in the team, but we have to perform.

If you don’t perform our owner, chairman, our fans will tell: ‘What’s going on’ and you have to change. Everyone is under pressure, me the first. I have the contract but maybe in a month I’m not here when the situation is not going well.

I think, maybe a little bit arrogant I said yesterday, we deserve to continue. What we have done in the last years I think we deserve to extend the contract. I’m not naive enough to stay for the stay.

I deserve to extend the contract but at the same time we have to do it again. We have to be up there and if not of course the club have to find a solution.

The Premier League has announced dates for the 2025-26 season, beginning on 16 August 2025 and ending on 24 May 2026. A statement from the Premier League said: “The schedule continues to allow more rest time for players over the festive match round period, with no two rounds taking place within 60 hours of each other. This is in keeping with commitments made to clubs to address the congested Christmas and New Year schedule.”

The FA has announced thats England’s Women’s Nations League tie with Spain in February will be played at Wembley. The 8pm kickoff will be a rematch of the 2023 World Cup final – should be a proper event.

An exclusive from Matt Hughes: Rodrigo Bentancur has not been fined by Tottenham despite receiving a seven-game ban and £100,000 penalty by the FA for using a racial slur against Son Heung-min.

Scotland to face Greece in Nations League playoffs

There’s some good news for Newcastle, with Callum Wilson getting closer to a first appearance this season. They’re up against West Ham on Monday evening.

“He’s doing well, we anticipate he’s going to train with the group today,” said Eddie Howe, as quoted by PA. “Whether he’s quite there for West Ham let’s see. There is a chance he could be involved but we need to get through the next few days in training first. The most important thing is that Callum does come back and when he does come back he’s in a good place to contribute and make a difference.”

Wilson has had plenty of injuries but he adds some important depth up front and has a very solid goalscoring record: he’s a dozen shy of 100 Premier League goals.

This is a great interview with Nottingham Forest’s Ryan Yates by Ben Fisher. Particularly enthralled by this bit:

When it’s you and the hotel room, what can you conjure up? I’d buy half a chicken from Tesco, a packet of rice, some spinach – I couldn’t boil broccoli because I just had a kettle – so I would pour a bit of water into the bag of spinach, squeeze it out, so it became wilted spinach. God, those were the days. I remember just thinking: ‘It’s all going to be worth it.’

Slot’s contenders against Klopp’s champions? Andy Hunter weighs it up.

Worth remembering just how ridiculous that Klopp side were: they won 26 of the first 27 league games of the season, the outlier a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford.

Suzanne Wrack and Tom Garry had their eyes on the WCL action last night, with victories for Manchester City and Arsenal.

Some news from last night: Manchester City have announced a new two-year deal with Pep Guardiola. Here’s what he had to say:

I want to be honest, I thought this [season] should be the last one. But the problems we had in the last month, I felt now was not the right time to leave.

I didn’t want to let the club down. I felt I could not leave now, simple as that. Don’t ask me the reason why. Maybe the four defeats was the reason why I felt I cannot leave.

Arne Slot has been offering some injury updates ahead of Liverpool’s meet with Southampton.

Virgil [van Dijk] is all good, he’s training with us today. Trent [Alexander-Arnold] isn’t training with us yet but he’s getting there so we expect him to be back with us soon. Harvey [Elliott] is training with us again so that’s the positive thing. He’s been out for many weeks but he’s on a training ground again with the team so that’s a positive thing for him.

[Diogo] Jota is still apart from the group, same as Federico [Chiesa] who’s coming back into the session, maybe in one exercise today, so they’re all expected to be back within now and a few weeks. The last part of recovery is always the most difficult one so let’s wait and see. But Virgil is completely OK.

Alisson is back in training but won’t feature on Sunday, Slot added.

Here’s the full story from Paul MacInnes on the Premier League APT vote:

And on to the actual football … here’s what to look out for this weekend:

On a more serious note, the vote stands as a blow to Manchester City. Here’s Paul MacInnes’ reporting from Thursday:

City have declared their opposition to the rule changes – having previously taken the league to arbitration over its APT rules. They have lobbied clubs strongly for support, including two league-wide letters from their chief legal officer, Simon Cliff, which challenged the validity of the plans. The league has spent weeks negotiating with clubs over their concerns, citing independent legal analysis from the KC Daniel Jowell to support its case.

Premier League clubs vote through APT amendments

Preamble