Euros Qualification Overhaul

Good morning football fans. It’s Thursday, April. 23 - Chelsea have sacked head coach Liam Rosenior, changes to Euro Championship qualification are expected, and everything else you need to know. Forwarded this email? Sign up here.

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Premier League: Burnley 0-1 Manchester City. Man City are now leading the Premier League by goals scored, as they are level on points (70) and goal difference (37) with second-placed Arsenal. Meanwhile, the loss means Burnley are the second team, after Wolves, to be mathematically relegated this season. Bournemouth 2-2 Leeds. Leeds’ 97th-minute goal means they are now on 40 points and nine points clear of 18th-placed Tottenham. Premier League teams finishing on 36 or more points in each of the last nine seasons were guaranteed safety from relegation. See the Premier League table here.

Results…

Chelsea have sacked head coach Liam Rosenior after the Englishman spent just three months in charge. Rosenior, who was given a five-and-a-half-year deal in January, leaves the club after five league matches without scoring for the first time since 1912. His assistant, Calum McFarlane, will take over as interim manager until the end of the season. Dive deeper into the numbers behind Chelsea’s collapse in form here.

Rosenior won his first four Premier League matches, but recent form has seen Chelsea drop to seventh. They sit seven points off the fifth-placed Liverpool, who have a game in hand, and only three points above 12th-placed Fulham. Following his last match in charge, in which Chelsea lost 3-0 to Brighton, Rosenior said that his players “need to have a look in the mirror for what they put in.” Some unverified reports suggest Chelsea will have to pay £24m in compensation, though no credible outlet has reported this yet.

In related news, Chelsea Women will play all of their Women’s Super League (WSL) home games from next season at Stamford Bridge. The move follows Arsenal’s decision last summer for the Women’s team to play all of their WSL fixtures at the Emirates. Chelsea played their final game at the 4,580-capacity Kingsmeadow stadium, winning 2-1 against Tottenham in the FA Cup in April. Kingsmeadow, which has been the home of Chelsea Women for a decade, was the first ground owned by a women’s team.

Mexico has vowed to ensure the safety of visitors ahead of the 2026 World Cup following a shooting at the Teotihuacan pyramids that killed a Canadian tourist and injured 13 others. The incident ignited questions from reporters on what protocols Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had in place to increase security ahead of the tournament in June and July.

About an hour from Mexico City, the scene of the incident was set to be a key tourist attraction during the World Cup. A day before the shooting, local authorities proposed reviving a nighttime light show that would be projected onto the pyramids, which had been suspended since the Covid-19 pandemic. Sheinbaum, who has gone to great lengths to ensure a perception of safety for visitors, said the incident was “isolated” and hadn’t occurred before in such a public space.

Despite Mexico’s issues with cartels, mass shootings in public spaces are rare, and under Sheinbaum’s government, homicides have fallen sharply to the lowest levels in a decade, according to government figures. In the lead-up to the tournament, Mexican Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch said the security forces had been ordered to “immediately strengthen security” at key tourist destinations across the country.

UEFA is considering a major overhaul of the men’s European Championship qualifying, likely to take effect after Euro 2028. The move comes as the current qualifying formats are increasingly unappealing to fans and broadcasters, especially as the tournament's expansion has reduced the competitiveness of the qualification process.

Currently, teams qualify for the Euros through traditional group stages, where countries are drawn together and play each other home and away. The Uefa Nations League, a separate competition whose results determine team rankings, offers extra playoff routes for teams that do not qualify directly.

However, the leading proposed change would instead base qualification around those Nations League rankings, grouping teams into divisions so that sides of similar strength face each other. Group winners from the top League would qualify automatically, and an extended playoff system would then determine who else progresses. This would likely create more competitive and high-profile matches, although critics of the proposal say it risks leaving lower-ranked countries feeling sidelined.

A final decision is expected from Uefa’s executive committee before next month’s Europa League final in Istanbul. Changes are also unlikely to be implemented before the start of Euro 2028 qualifying next March.

> Man City defender John Stones is expected to leave the club when his contract expires in the summer (More) | Aston Villa are under Premier League scrutiny for selling “The Warehouse”, the club’s multi-purpose events venue, to the club’s owners for £55m to help comply with financial rules (More)

> Bayern Munich forward Serge Gnabry will miss the World Cup with Germany after a serious tear to his adductor muscles in his right thigh (More)

> Rangers captain James Tavernier has announced he will leave the club at the end of the season after 11 years (More)

> Serhiy Rebrov has stepped down as coach of ​Ukraine’s national team after failing to qualify for the 2026 World Cup (More)

> The NWSL has awarded an expansion franchise to Columbus, Ohio, which will bring the league to 18 clubs when the team joins in 2028 (More); the NWSL has now sold $585m in expansion fees in the past three years (More) | Seattle Reign’s Jess Fishlock will retire at the end of the current NWSL season, having been with the club since the league’s inaugral season in 2013 (More)

> Estavao’s hopes of making it to the World Cup are in doubt after the Chelsea winger suffered a hamstring injury (More)

> The Northern Super League, Canada’s first professional women’s league, kicks off its second season on Friday (April 24); see the full schedule of fixtures (More); dive deeper into the success of the NSL’s inaugural season (More)

> Multiple MLS regular season matches will conclude shortly after publication; see live results (More) and Conference Standings (More)

> Jesse Lingard has become the first British player to score in Brazil’s domestic cup following his goal in Corinthians’ 1-0 win over Barra-SC in the Copa do Brasil (More)

> Al Nassr are reportedly considering promoting Cristiano Ronaldo’s son, Jr, to the first team (More)

> A referee was escorted off the pitch by police after a controversial VAR decision in the Asian Champions League semi-finals (More)

Yesterday’s Poll: Do you think video review technology should be introduced in lower divisions?

🟨 🟨 🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ 🎥 Yes... (39%)

🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🙅‍♂️ Nope (57%)

🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ✍️ Other (4%)

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Question: Can you name Manchester United’s last three non-European Players of the Year?

Scroll below for the answer.

Daily Wordle: Guess the football-related word, from player names to classic phrases, in six tries or fewer. Play it here.

Answer

Gabriel Heinze (2005 Argentina), Javier Hernandez (2011 Mexico) and Antonio Valencia (2012 Ecuador).