New sporting director Richard Hughes was given a trip down memory lane at Liverpool’s autumn employee forum at Anfield.

Tuesday’s event, in the Main Stand’s Carlsberg Dugout sports bar, saw around 350 club staff from a wide range of departments come together for the afternoon.

To break the ice when Hughes took to the stage, the big screen showed footage of his winning goal against Gerard Houllier’s Liverpool for Portsmouth in an FA Cup fifth-round replay at Fratton Park in February 2004.  The audience saw the funny side as Hughes joked that Liverpool were unfortunate, given how few goals (17) he scored in his 16-year career.

New head coach Arne Slot, who sat alongside the former Scotland international, was asked to analyse Hughes’ left-footed finish into the bottom corner before the relaxed pair answered questions on a range of subjects from staff members. Recording of the event was prohibited.

After such a promising start to a new era at Anfield, the mood was predictably upbeat.

The afternoon started with chief executive Billy Hogan and chief commercial officer Ben Latty talking about the flourishing business side of the club, before Liverpool FC Women managing director Russ Fraser and that team’s manager Matt Beard took their turn.

Then it was over to Hughes and…

Liverpool knew all summer there was a deal to be done with Juventus for Federico Chiesa.

New sporting director Richard Hughes also believed that the closer it got to the transfer deadline, the stronger the Premier League club’s hand would be in negotiations.

With Chiesa not part of head coach Thiago Motta’s plans and Juventus increasingly keen to avoid losing him for nothing in 2025, Liverpool held all the aces as they belatedly made their move. A fee of £10million ($13.1m) was agreed, rising to £12.5m if the Italy international helps them win the Premier League and the Champions League.

The 26-year-old forward had also been the subject of lucrative interest from the Saudi Pro League but made it clear his heart was set on Anfield.

Chiesa told Liverpool’s in-house media he had called his dad Enrico, the former Italy striker who scored at Anfield against the Czech Republic during Euro ’96, for advice about the club’s pursuit. Enrico could not have been more emphatic. “Go!” he told his son. “It’s the best choice for your career.”

He was joined on the private flight from Turin to Liverpool on Wednesday by his wife, Lucia Bramani, and as the plane flew over Anfield on its approach to John Lennon Airport, he asked her to play the club’s anthem, You’ll Never…

Manchester City completed a PFA Player of the Year double on Tuesday night as midfielder Phil Foden and striker Bunny Shaw were named men’s and women’s winners for 2023-24.

Foden, 24, scored 19 goals and provided eight assists to help City clinch an unprecedented fourth successive Premier League title under Pep Guardiola.

Erling Haaland — who won last season’s crown — was one of six nominees, including City midfielder Rodri, Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard, Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins and Cole Palmer.

Shaw finished the campaign as the top scorer in the Women’s Super League (WSL) with 21 goals in 18 games for the club, despite having her season prematurely ended by a foot injury in late April.

The Jamaica international becomes the first female City player to scoop the award since Lucy Bronze won the accolade in 2016-17.

Shaw’s Man City team-mates Yui Hasegawa and Lauren Hemp were also nominated, alongside Chelsea’s Niamh Charles, Erin Cuthbert and Lauren James.

Having missed out on the evening’s main award, City academy graduate Cole Palmer was crowned the men’s Young Player of the Year after an outstanding debut campaign at…

The Premier League, EFL, FA, and Women’s Super League (WSL) have announced a new code of conduct for gambling-related agreements in football.

The code, which will be implemented at the start of the 2024-25 season, is designed to regulate gambling sponsorships across the professional game, emphasising four key principles: protection, social responsibility, reinvestment, and integrity.

A key aspect of the code is its emphasis on reinvestment. Revenue generated from gambling sponsorships must be redirected into football-related infrastructure and community programmes. This includes improvements to stadiums and training facilities, as well as investments in grassroots football and local community participation.

Under the new code, gambling sponsorships will also be required to target their marketing efforts more carefully to avoid reaching children and individuals at risk of gambling-related harm. Additionally, any gambling-related sponsorship must include educational initiatives and awareness campaigns designed to promote responsible gambling practices.

GO DEEPER

‘Some players bet on football – they know it’s breaking the rules but still do it’

The importance of maintaining the integrity of football competitions is also stressed in the code, adding that gambling sponsorships must…

New Jersey governor Phil Murphy says he “would die” to bring Premier League matches to the United States, explaining that he believes it is in the competition’s “enlightened self-interest” to do so.

Murphy, 66, has been involved in football for several decades, including serving on the board of U.S. Soccer and co-owning the NWSL team NJ/NY Gotham FC.

MetLife Stadium, the 82,500-capacity arena situated in New Jersey, will be the venue for the 2026 World Cup final and hosted a friendly between Manchester United and Arsenal last year, as well as three games — two group fixtures and a semi-final — at the Copa America this summer. Real Madrid and Barcelona will play a Clasico pre-season friendly there on August 3.

Asked whether he envisaged these matches becoming competitive fixtures, Murphy replied: “I would die for that. And by the way, the exhibitions — we will have Real and Barcelona on August 3, we’ll have to shrink our capacity a little bit for FIFA — every ticket was sold and the game didn’t count. I would love to — I would die — to see what happens in a game that counts. It would sell every ticket and then some.”

Leading executives at NBC Sports, the American broadcaster that spent $2.7billion (£2.2bn) on a six-year Premier League deal, have been…

Paul Dalglish filled an eclectic mix of roles across 17 years working in North America.

A two-time MLS Cup winner with Houston Dynamo as a player, his coaching career took him from Tampa to Austin, Salt Lake City, Ottawa and Miami.

There were stints as head coach, technical director, general manager and club president. Now, having relocated to the UK with his family, the son of Liverpool legend Sir Kenny Dalglish has started a new chapter as a football agent.

A catch-up with old school friend Ben Mawson, the co-founder of global music management company TaP Music, led to the launch of TaP23.

“I was at a crossroads when Ben came to me,” says Dalglish, who had been considering his options after parting company with Miami FC in November 2021.

“When you work in America, there’s no relegation or promotion. The only way you stay somewhere is if you’re average. If you do well, you get a better club. If you don’t do well, you get fired. America is so big and the clubs are so spread out. It can be very disruptive in terms of uprooting the family. The only time I really got to spend with the kids when I wasn’t working and they weren’t in school was two weeks at Christmas.

“It was a conversation with my wife who said this opportunity is going to be much better for family…

Grace Fisk made an immediate impact at Liverpool this season.

Signed in the summer, the 26-year-old defender started every WSL match as they finished fourth. It was their highest finish in the WSL since they last won it in 2014. There were notable wins over Arsenal and Manchester United and, at one point on the run-in, it even looked like they might have decided the title after a shock 4-3 defeat of Chelsea on May 1 gave Manchester City an advantage.

“As a defender, I don’t love those games as much,” says Fisk, thinking back to last season. “It (the win over Chelsea) was a really good game but would I have rather won 1-0? Yeah.”

Fisk has become a mainstay of the WSL over the past four years, but there was a point where she thought football might not be for her.

“I took a bit of a sabbatical when I was doing my GCSEs,” says Fisk, who was born in Bromley, on the southeastern outskirts of London. “I just didn’t find myself enjoying it. I would get really nervous. I would vomit before games, so I took six months to a year while I was doing my exams. Anyway, I got back into it.”

Fisk broke into the women’s first team at nearby Millwall aged 16 after joining the London side six years earlier. Somebody playing senior football at second-tier level was unusual at that…

Dear readers,

The Premier League and Champions League are over for another season but the summer of 2024 is packed full of live action and transfer fun and games — and we’ll cover it all in detail on The Athletic.

From Europe’s major clubs travelling across the world (and to the United States in particular) to all the moves (and nearly moves) of the summer transfer window, plus two major international tournaments, Emma Hayes starting her reign as USWNT head coach and the Olympics, our team of reporters will bring you in-depth coverage of the things you care about.

We’ll be on the ground in Germany for Euro 2024; across the U.S. for Copa America, MLS, NWSL and Premier League pre-season; in Paris, France for the summer Olympic Games’ football action, and everywhere in between — ensuring you don’t miss a thing when it comes to the beautiful game.

The club content you know and love won’t stop either. Our trusted team of reporters will hit the phones to bring you the latest moves in the transfer window as we embark on an ambitious project to cover the summer ins and outs like never before.

And it doesn’t stop there.

You might already follow our NFL, NBA or NHL coverage, but did you know we also cover a range of other sports, including golf, Formula 1 and tennis? Mark out…

The season is rapidly approaching its conclusion and the pressure is cranking up.

At the top of the Premier League, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are locked in a gripping title race; at the other end of the table, Rob Edwards is desperate to prolong Luton Town’s top-flight fairytale at the expense of Nuno Espirito Santo and Nottingham Forest. And in the English Football League (EFL), play-off season is in full swing, complete with all its usual emotional ebbs and flows.

These are the days when reputations are forged or shattered and, while it is enthralling for fans, managers would be forgiven for regarding the whole thing with dread.

Jurgen Klopp’s announcement in January that he would be leaving Liverpool at the end of this season was proof of how draining the job can be. “I cannot do it again and again and again and again,” said Klopp, who turns 57 next month.

In February, Roy Hodgson left Crystal Palace shortly after collapsing at their training ground. Although the 76-year-old’s health was not a factor in the club’s decision to end his contract three months early just a few days later, it caused understandable concern among players and staff.

It is not just in the Premier League, either.

Emma Hayes, who is leaving Chelsea Women at the…

The Athletic has decided on the 35th anniversary of Hillsborough to re-publish an article that was originally released two years ago, which details the horror of the day, as well as the impact on some of the survivors.

When Martin Roberts returned to Halifax on the night of April 15, 1989, he wet the bed as he tried to sleep. The next morning, he did not say a word to either of his parents, his sister or his brother about what he had witnessed the day before in Sheffield, where 97 Liverpool supporters lost their lives in a steel pen he somehow escaped from.

Martin spent Sunday walking around the garden for hours, hopelessly trying to make sense of it all. By Tuesday morning, he was working again, at Barclays bank. His boss called him into a side room and asked how he was feeling. A stupid question. Martin wondered what his colleagues were thinking, fearing they believed what had been written in the papers about fans like him.

Martin’s deepest scars from Hillsborough were not physical but mental. His father, Liverpool-born, possessed old-school values. His generation understood broken arms and broken legs, but Martin’s pain was not visible. This contributed to him throwing himself into his career and back into what seemed like a normal life. He thought he was coping. Martin…