Slot emerges as Liverpool candidate to replace Klopp
Liverpool are interested in appointing Feyenoord’s Arne Slot as their new manager this summer.
Slot has emerged as a strong candidate to succeed Jürgen Klopp in the recruitment process being led by Michael Edwards, the new chief executive officer of football for Fenway Sports Group, and incoming sporting director Richard Hughes.
Liverpool have been sounding out potential new managers through intermediaries rather than direct interviews but Slot is among the frontrunners for the position. The 45-year-old has enjoyed consistent success with Feyenoord since replacing Dick Advocaat in 2021, and at AZ before that.
He led the Rotterdam club to the inaugural Europa Conference League final in his first season, when they finished third in Eredivisie, won the league title in his second season and lifted this season’s KNVB Cup on Sunday with a 1-0 victory over NEC Nijmegen.
Slot’s achievements on a relatively modest budget and aggressive playing style has attracted widespread interest, including from Tottenham last season, and Liverpool could face competition from Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Milan for his services this summer, when he will have two years remaining on the contract he extended with Feyenoord last May.
Xabi Alonso had been the frontrunner for the Liverpool vacancy but committed himself to Bayer Leverkusen shortly before leading the club to the first Bundesliga title in their history. Sporting’s Rúben Amorim and Brighton’s Roberto De Zerbi are also under consideration by Liverpool.
MPs have called for the Independent Regulator for Football to have the scope to reintroduce replays to the FA Cup, amend the parachute payment system and to enforce an effective financial settlement between the Premier League and the EFL, as they voted in favour of progressing the Football Governance Bill.
The second reading of the bill was approved without a vote after a debate in the House of Commons yesterday. MPs from all sides of the house spoke in favour of the bill, including Conservative MPs who said they had previously been opposed to regulation. A number of politicians, however, called on the government to go further in granting the regulator power to achieve financial stability for the football pyramid.
Announcing the bill to the house, the secretary of state for culture media and sport, Lucy Frazer, said it was focused specifically on improving financial regulation. “If we want English football to remain a global success story, we have to ensure our pyramid is financially sustainable,” she said. “The Football Governance Bill will do exactly that.”
A number of MPs questioned the scope of the regulator’s remit, arguing parachute payments, for example, would sit outside the regulator’s concerns as the bill is drafted. Others pointed to the secondary responsibility of the regulator to preserve aspects of footballing heritage, and argued that these considerations should give the regulator the right to intervene on the issue of Cup replays, which caused a furore when the FA and Premier League agreed a deal to scrap them.
A number of MPs also addressed the issue of the “backstop” power which would allow the regulator to intervene in the event that the EFL and Premier League remain unable to strike a deal on financial redistribution. Members noted that the legislation stated the backstop could only be activated by a competition organiser.
The bill will now go to the committee stage where MPs can propose amendments to the text. The MP and former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said he would propose an amendment that would reintroduce replays to the FA Cup.