Liverpool

Mohamed Salah has agreed to terms on a new contract with Liverpool that will keep him at the club through the 2027 season.

Liverpool confirmed the deal on Friday, along with Salah telling James Carroll and Chris Shaw of the club's official website he's "very, very happy" to remain with the Reds.

Per ESPN's Beth Lindop, talks between Salah's representatives and Liverpool management had been "taking place for months" before an agreement was reached.

While the financial terms of the contract aren't known, Lindop did note a pay cut for the 32-year-old "was never on the agenda for either party."

Salah's previous contract, signed in July 2022, was a three-year pact that pays him $18.2 million annually.

The Egypt international said earlier this year that he was preparing for this to be his final season with Liverpool because the two sides were at an impasse on contract talks.

"So far? Yes. Into the last six months, there is no progress there, we're far away from any progress, so we just need to wait and see," Salah told Sky Sports in January (h/t Lindop).

James Cohen of the Daily Mail reported on Jan. 16 that the Saudi Pro League was heavily courting Salah with an offer worth approximately $85 million over two years.

Instead, Salah was able to work out a deal that will allow him to reach 10 full years with Liverpool at the end of the contract. He originally joined the Reds on a transfer in June 2017 from AS Roma.

Salah ranks third of all time in Liverpool history with 243 goals in 394 appearances. He has a combined 44 goals and assists in 31 matches during the 2024-25 Premier League season.

Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) announced Monday it has terminated David Coote's status with the organization following an investigation into a video in which he disparaged Liverpool and then-manager Jürgen Klopp.

"David Coote's actions were found to be in serious breach of the provisions of his employment contract, with his position deemed untenable," PGMOL said in a statement.

"Supporting David Coote continues to be important to us and we remain committed to his welfare."

In the offending video, which surfaced in November, Coote called Liverpool "s--t" and described Klopp as "f--king arrogant" and a "German c--t," per the Daily Mail's Lewis Steele and Kieran Gill.

ESPN's Dale Johnson noted that Coote's frustration appeared to stem in part from a 1-1 draw between Liverpool and Burnley in July 2020. He was the referee for the match, and Klopp voiced his displeasure with the officiating after the fixture concluded.

England's Football Association launched a separate inquiry into Coote after Stephen Moyes of the Sun reported he may have arranged to issue a yellow card in a Championship match in 2019.

Coote denied any wrongdoing.

"I strongly refute these false and defamatory allegations," he said, per ESPN's Tom Hamilton. Whatever issues I may have had in my personal life they have never affected my decision making on the field. I have always held the integrity of the game in the highest regard, refereeing matches impartially and to the best of my ability."

Coote has the opportunity to appeal the decision PGMOL handed down Monday.

The 42-year-old officiated his first Premier League match during the 2017-18 season and was assigned to the division full time in May 2018.

Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) have suspended English referee David Coote and are looking into a video that purportedly shows Coote making derogatory remarks toward former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp.

The person identified as Coote from the video said that Liverpool was "s--t" when asked about the club, and he described Klopp as a "c--t" and "f--king arrogant," per the Daily Mail's Lewis Steele.

It's unclear when the video was filmed, but it appears to be from when Klopp was still the Liverpool manager. Coote used the present tense when he said, "I do my best not to speak to him," and also praised midfielder James Milner, who left Liverpool when his contract expired after the 2022-23 season.

The comments sparked an instant reaction, particularly among Reds supporters, and a suspension was inevitable.

Even if Coote never displayed any explicit bias against Liverpool in past matches, his credibility has been undermined in a major way. It took no time before fans examined close officiating decisions that went against Liverpool.

At the very least, it's hard to see how Coote could work another Liverpool match moving forward if the video is verified, and PGMOL could decide more serious measures are required.

Keith Hackett, a former top-level referee who once led PGMOL, told BBC Sport's Chris Osborne in 2016 the organization attempts to vet any potential conflicts of interest.

"At the beginning of every season the referees' background information is audited," he said. "They complete a form that includes who they support, the history of if they've played the game and with the addresses where they are residing.

"That gives you a picture that comes into use when you're appointing. It's about ensuring, for example, you wouldn't appoint a Sheffield-based ref for a Sheffield team."

Coote became a regular Premier League referee in 2018-19. He was coincidentally the referee for Liverpool's 2-0 win over Aston Villa in Matchday 11.

The 2024-25 season will apparently be Mohamed Salah's swan song with Liverpool.

"As you know, it's my last year at the club," he told Sky Sports on Sunday following the Reds 3-0 victory over Manchester United (h/t Callum Davis and James Pearce of The Athletic). "I just want to enjoy it—I don't want to think about it. I feel like I'm free to play football and we will see what can happen next year."

Salah is entering the final year of his contract and said Sunday that no talks over an extension have taken place.

"Nobody at the club has spoken to me yet about contracts, so I will play my last season and see at the end of the season," he noted. "I don't know if I will (come back) but, yes, my last game here [at Old Trafford] with Liverpool. It's not up to me. Nobody (has) talked to me from the club but we will see."

New Liverpool manager Arne Slot didn't directly address the situation when asked about those comments.

"In this moment he's one of ours and I am really happy with him being one of ours," he said. "He plays really well. I don't talk about players' contracts but I can talk for hours about how Mo played today if you're interested in that? He was impressive, like he was in the first two days, but if you talk about an individual, you don't do justice to all the other ones because you saw a real good team performance—playing out from the back, high press, midfield that kept on running."

Salah, 32, had a goal against United—and probably could have had one or two more—to go along with two assists. He now has three goals and three assists in three matches to open the Premier League campaign, a blistering start that has only been bested in league play by Erling Haaland's absurd seven goals from three matches.

If Salah were to depart after the season, it would end a legendary run at Anfield that has included titles in the Premier League (2019-20), Champions League (2018-19), the FA Cup (2021-22), the League Cup (2021-22, 2023-24), the Community Shield (2022-23) and the Super Cup (2019-20).

He has managed 18 or more Premier League goals in every season for Liverpool while notching 10 or more assists in league play five times, emerging as one of the most clinical finishers and feared attackers in European club football.

But Liverpool may be moving onto a new era after former manager Jürgen Klopp stepped down in the offseason, with both Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold also in the final year of their contracts. The Reds could have quite the new look for the 2025-26 campaign.

Liverpool chairman Tom Werner is pushing for English Premier League matches to be held in New York City and other major cities across the world.

In an interview with the Financial Times (h/t Will Unwin of The Guardian), Werner laid out his vision for taking EPL action outside of England:

"I'm determined one day to have a Premier League game be played in New York City. I even have the sort of crazy idea that there would be a day where we play one game in Tokyo, one game a few hours later in Los Angeles, one game a few hours later in Rio, one game a few hours later in Riyadh and make it sort of a day where football, where the Premier League, is celebrated."

As of now, all EPL games are required to be played in England, but changes to those rules can be made after FIFA reached a settlement with Relevent Sports, which opened the door for "consideration of changes to existing FIFA policies with respect to playing official season games outside of a league's home territory."

Although Werner has grandiose ideas of taking the EPL abroad, Liverpool, Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Penguins owner John Henry is not aligned with that thinking, saying it is "not something that I advocate or am particularly interested in."

While official EPL matches cannot be played in the United States or other countries, many EPL clubs have done exhibition tours of the U.S.

Per Unwin, an exhibition between Manchester United and Arsenal at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, even drew 82,262 fans.

Several EPL clubs are hugely popular across the world with Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea being among them, and there is little doubt they could draw large crowds outside of England if given the opportunity.

Should FIFA ultimately allow for it to happen, it could mark the start of soccer following in the footsteps of what the NFL has done.

The NFL has been playing regular-season games in London for several years, and it has since expanded to other countries as well, including Germany, Brazil and Mexico.

The NFL has long been the most popular sports league in the United States, but allowing games to be played outside the U.S. and increased the global influence of the league and the sport as a whole.

Soccer's place as the most popular sport in Europe has long been secured, however, a foray into a market as significant as the United States could take the EPL and soccer to the next level internationally.

Liverpool "fully expect" star forward Mohamed Salah to remain at the club through the 2024 summer transfer window, according to The Athletic's David Ornstein.

Ornstein added the 31-year-old "has given no indication of wanting to exit."

Salah's contract runs through the 2024-25 season, so absent an extension this would be the last opportunity for Liverpool to recoup a sizable fee for one of their greatest ever goalscorers.

Salah was a highly coveted target for Al Ittihad amid the spending frenzy by Saudi Pro League clubs last summer. The club was reportedly prepared to pay as much as £150 million, only for Liverpool to hold firm.

The circumstances will be a little different this time around to the point where, despite Ornstein's report, a transfer is much more plausible.

Salah's contract is one factor. Liverpool have been content to let a lot of players leave on free transfers, but in those cases they weren't forgoing the likely fee they'd collect by selling the decorated Egyptian now. Even if he were to go for £50 million — to pick a very conservative figure — that's a lot of money that can go toward his replacement.

The Reds are also bringing in a new manager, Arne Slot, which presents the ideal time to make a change as big as selling on a foundational star such as Salah. While Slot will be expected to hit the ground running, there won't be same kind of all-or-nothing urgency like there was ahead of what proved to be Jürgen Klopp's farewell campaign.

Then there are the recent developments: Salah's dip in form and his touchline exchange with Klopp in the club's 2-2 draw with West Ham.

Salah's goal return (17) is on pace to be his lowest in the Premier League and he has two goals and zero assists in his last eight PL appearances. He might've been upset to start from the bench against West Ham, but the move was warranted based on his performances of late.

And downplaying his interaction with Klopp became impossible when in the mixed zone he cryptically said after the match, "There is going to be fire today if I speak."

For Liverpool, there's a level of risk in running it back with Salah because his sluggish second half could point toward a more broad decline — look at how quickly Sadio Mané fell off after signing with Bayern Munich in 2022. And managing a fading star can present a challenge, especially for a first-year coach.

Chief executive of football Michael Edwards and incoming sporting director Richard Hughes appear content to maintain the status quo. We'll see if that position stays the same once the transfer window is open.

Liverpool FC has reached a verbal agreement to make Feyenoord manager Arne Slot the team's next head coach, per Fabrizio Romano and Paul Joyce.

Slot is set to replace Jürgen Klopp, who has led Liverpool since 2015, at the end of the season.

Slot joined Feyenoord in 2021 and has since led the Dutch club to a Eredivisie title and Dutch Cup victory.

Slot confirmed to ESPN Thursday that he wanted the Liverpool job, per ESPN's Mark Ogden.

"It seems clear to me that I would like to go to Liverpool," Slot said, per Ogden. "Now I'm waiting to see whether the clubs reach an agreement. I'm very confident in that."

Feyenoord originally turned down an initial compensation fee for Slot worth $9.6 million, according to The Athletic's David Ornstein and Adam Crafton.

The terms of the final agreement were not immediately clear, but are expected to be around $12.4 million, per Liverpool.com's Liam Prenderville.

Slot was under contract with Feyenoord through 2026, but his deal does not include a release clause that would cost Liverpool additional money, Prenderville noted.

Liverpool previously pursued Xavi Alonso, who turned down an offer from Liverpool in order to stay with the Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen, per The Athletic's Ornstein and James Pearce.

Klöpp announced his impending departure from Liverpool in January by stating that he was "running out of energy," per ESPN's Tom Hamilton.

The Liverpool manager, who led the club to the Premier League title in 2020, said he would take at least a year off of coaching and would "never manage a different club in England than Liverpool," per Hamilton.

Klöpp's departure will likely spark a wave of turnover for both the Liverpool and Feyenoord coaching staffs.

Slot plans to bring Feyenoord assistant Sipke Hulshof to Liverpool, and is considering bringing head of performance Ruben Peeters and analyst Etienne Reijnen with him as well, according to the Mirror's Kieran King.