Watch Andoni Iraola Liverpool press conference LIVE

Iraola joins Liverpool

Andoni Iraola, 43, signed a two-year deal to replace Arne Slot, in June, a few days after Slot's sacking.

Former Bournemouth manager Iraola joins the club after delivering the Cherries' finest top-flight season to date, finishing in sixth place.

That was only one position and three points behind Liverpool and gave Bournemouth a place in next season's Europa League.

The Spaniard announced in April that he would leave Bournemouth this summer and he had been linked with Crystal Palace and AC Milan.

Now he moves to Merseyside, with Liverpool having qualified for next season's Champions League despite finishing the Premier League season with 60 points - their lowest tally since 2015-16 and a distant 25 points behind winners Arsenal.

Where did Liverpool finish in all competitions last season?

Liverpool finished fifth in the Premier League last season, with a total of 60 points. They have also qualified for the Champions League this season.

In the FA Cup, Liverpool reached the quarter-final stages but lost 4-0 away at Manchester City.

Liverpool exited the League Cup in the fourth round, after losing 3-0 to Crystal Palace at home.

The Reds progressed from the League Phase of the Champions League last season, finishing third in that stage.

They beat Turkish side Galatasaray in the round of 16 but exited in the quarter-final stage after losing 4-0 on aggregate to PSG.

Liverpool sack Slot in May

Head coach Arne Slot was sacked by Liverpool after two seasons in charge, after the end of the 2025-26 season.

The Dutchman, 47, guided the Reds to their 20th league title in his debut season but they have struggled during his second year, finishing fifth in the Premier League.

Despite still qualifying for next season's Champions League, Liverpool finished with 60 points - their lowest tally since the 2015-16 campaign and 25 points behind champions Arsenal.

Welcome back

Hello all, we are going to take a little detour from all things World Cup to focus on some Premier League news.

Starting off with Liverpool's new head coach Andoni Iraola, who will be speaking to the media for the first time as the Reds' new boss.

His news conference is due to begin at 11:00 BST, but for now, let's have a look at how we got here.

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Thanks for having your say on Fifa president Gianni Infantino's suggestion to expand the World Cup to 64 teams.

We are wrapping things up for the time being - but we will be back at 10:30am to hear from new Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola for the first time.

You'll be able to watch his debut news conference live on this page.

See you soon!

Expansion would pose challenges for hosts

Dale Johnson

Football issues correspondent

When Infantino was first elected in 2016, part of his manifesto was to increase the size of the World Cup from 32 teams to 40.

In less than a year, that rose to 48 and was approved by the Fifa council, effective from the 2026 finals.

Since then, speculation has never gone away that Fifa would like to go further and faster.

Going up to 48 teams for the 2022 finals was discussed, but it was accepted that Qatar would not be able to host a tournament of that size on its own.

And this is the issue – the bigger the World Cup becomes, the more challenging it is to host.

This year it is in three countries across a vast area. In 2030, matches will be played in six countries – Morocco, Portugal, Spain, plus Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay as centenary hosts.

Just how Saudi Arabia would be able to cope with a 64-team tournament, featuring 128 games, in 2034 is unknown.

Yet it is a great vote winner for Infantino on two counts.

Firstly, it gives more countries the chance to play at a World Cup. Indeed, a 64-team World Cup would see almost a third of the 211 Fifa-affiliated countries qualify.

A bigger World Cup also means more revenue to be distributed to the member associations.

get involved

Get Involved - Should the World Cup be bigger?

Click 'Get Involved' at the top of this page to have your say

We want to know what you think of Gianni Infantino's plans to make the world's biggest football tournament even bigger.

If you've loved watching the World Cup this summer, the idea of an expanded tournament and more games to enjoy might only be positive.

But would the games be of the same quality? What about the impact on the tournament's sustainability?

Maybe after all these late nights, you're not sure if you have the appetite to watch even more matches.

Let us know your thoughts on plans for a 64-team tournament by clicking 'Get Involved' at the top of this page.

Infantino opens door to 64-team World Cup

Alex Brotherton

BBC Sport journalist

Plans for a 64-team men's World Cup are set to be assessed after the 2026 tournament, with Fifa boss Gianni Infantino saying the event needs to be "for the whole world".

The proposal for an expanded tournament was put forward last year, and Infantino says the success of the expanded 48-team tournament means Fifa should look at how a 64-team World Cup could work.

"These are all issues that we will be examining after the World Cup," Infantino told Swiss broadcaster Blue Sport, when asked if the tournament could grow to 64 teams.

"When organising a World Cup, it's important to organise it for the whole world - not just Europe and South America, but effectively the entire world. Every nation should be allowed to dream of participating in the World Cup.

"You can see that the quality of the teams is extremely high, and it's getting higher and higher, all over the world. If you don't give smaller countries a chance to participate in the World Cup, they'll lack the incentive to keep improving."

Infantino said that the first 48-team World Cup has been "a huge success", citing the progression of nine out of 10 African teams to the knockout stages.

"At the last World Cup, there were only five teams from Africa," he said. "That just goes to show how important it is to include all teams - to give them this opportunity to participate."

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Before we unpack England's tournament so far and get your opinions on the team's progress, let's take a look at a piece of news that you might have missed from yesterday.

The Three Lions almost came unstuck against DR Congo in the round of 32, an extra obstacle which they wouldn't have had to overcome in previous tournaments involving 32 teams.

The expanison might not be finished there though...

Can England step it up a gear?

England v Argentina (Wed, 20:00 BST)

In an ideal world, the Three Lions would be 3-0 up at the break against Argentina and we could all enjoy a relaxing stroll to victory in the second half.

That's what comes to my mind when Harry Kane speaks of 'another level'.

Optimistic.

While that scenario may not come to pass, do you think it is reasonable to hope that England could pull out a performance which would give fans a little less stress than previous outings against Mexico and Norway?

Are we about to see a super-charged England side?

Have your say in our poll below.

Kane: "We have another level we can reach"

England v Argentina (Wed, 20:00 BST)

England

England captain Harry Kane says that his team has "another level we can reach".

Manager Thomas Tuchel was unhappy with the quality of his team's quarter-final performance against Norway, saying England "got lucky" after coming from behind to win 2-1 in extra time.

As his team prepare to face Argentina in a semi-final, Kane says he understands why Tuchel feels frustrated: "When he sees us train and sees the closeness of us and sees what we can do, especially with the players we have, the way we attack, our one-on-ones and the skills, he just wants to see that version of us.

"He knows as much as anyone that it's not as simple as that, we're playing against good opposition and good teams.

"He's trying to drag it out of us and we know ourselves we have another level we can reach.

"We haven't seen that yet, we've shown it in glimpses. Against Norway it was in glimpses. But we haven't had full control that we would like and I feel we can have.

"We'll be playing against one of the best teams in the world in the semi-final, so the most pleasing thing is we are in a semi-final and still feel we can improve.

"But I don't think it is something to get really over the top about. We are showing a lot of good things."

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