Coventry City manager Frank Lampard has signed a new contract until 2029.

The 48-year-old led the Sky Blues to the Championship title last year to seal promotion to the Premier League.

His previous deal was due to expire at the end of next season, and Lampard attracted interest from other clubs, including Fulham, this summer.

The former Chelsea and England midfielder has now committed himself to Coventry as they prepare to return to the top flight for the first time in 25 years.

The Sky Blues begin the season against champions Arsenal on Friday, 21 August.

Lampard said: “After the incredible work of everybody to get promoted and win the Championship, it was important to enjoy the moment, and we certainly did as a city.

“Our job then as staff, and for the players of course, is to firstly recharge but also focus on what we want to do and what we need to for next season. There’s a lot of work to do on and off the pitch as a football club, so those things have been ongoing.

“I’m looking forward to getting back with the players, to see them all and get ready for the new season.”

Lampard replaced Mark Robins as Sky Blues manager in November 2024 when they were 17th in the Championship, just two points above the relegation zone.

Coventry won 16 out of the remaining 29 matches in the Championship that season, finishing in fifth place and earning a place in the play-offs. They lost 3-2 on aggregate to Sunderland in the play-off semi-finals.

Lampard then led them to the Championship title, winning 28 matches – the most Coventry have ever managed in a league season – and ending a 25-year wait for top-flight football.

The former England midfielder started his managerial career at Derby County, before spells at Chelsea (twice) and Everton.

Tyson Fury will fight Poland’s Marius Wach in Thailand on 24 July as a warm-up for a potential all-British encounter with Anthony Joshua.

Fury’s fight in Pattaya – where the 38-year-old trains – will be a day before Joshua makes his comeback on 25 July against Kristian Prenga in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – his first fight since being involved in a car crash that killed two of his friends in Nigeria in December 2025.

Both Fury and Joshua, 36, need to win their fights to set up a meeting between the two former world champions, which is scheduled to happen in 2026.

Wach, 46, has a record of 39 wins from 51 fights, 20 by knockout.

But the Pole has won just three of his past 10 bouts and suffered a second-round stoppage to Britain’s Moses Itauma in a WBO Intercontinental heavyweight title fight in July 2024.

He has been defeated by English boxers Dillian Whyte in 2019 and Frazer Clarke four years later.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn announced in April that the London 2012 Olympic gold medallist had signed to fight Fury.

That announcement came after Fury had made his return from a 15-month retirement with a points win over Russia’s Arslanbek Makhmudov at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

After that victory, Fury immediately called out Joshua, who was ringside, and the pair exchanged words with the Morecambe fighter attempting to goad his rival into the ring.

There has been growing speculation that their fight could be held in the United States because of the involvement of Saudi powerbroker Turki Alalshikh.

But last week Hearn told BBC Sport that Joshua and Fury are contractually committed to staging their fight in the UK.

Fury had previously hinted that his interim fight would take place in Dublin on 1 August.

Newcastle United have been fined a combined €6million (£5.2m, $6.8m) by UEFA and have entered into a stringent future compliance agreement after breaching the governing body’s Financial Sustainability Regulations (FSR).

For the three-year period ending June 2025, Newcastle overspent relative to UEFA’s football earnings threshold, while they also exceeded their 70 per cent squad-cost ratio (SCR) across the calendar year of 2025, with their expenditure reaching closer to the 75-per-cent mark.

UEFA has fined Newcastle €3m for the football-earnings overspend, plus a further €7m which is suspended pending future compliance, and another €3m for their SCR violation.

While Newcastle appear pleased with the settlement, insisting they “worked closely and constructively” with UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) to “swiftly resolve the matter” — which involved senior figures, led by David Hopkinson, the chief executive, and Simon Capper, the chief financial officer, spending months in dialogue and face-to-face meetings with UEFA officials in Switzerland — this also underlines their issues when it comes to growing within the present financial regulations.

Although Newcastle are adamant their squad will be strengthened this summer, Anthony Gordon was sold to Barcelona for €80m in part because of the club’s position relative to UEFA’s spending rules. Sandro Tonali is also expected to be sold, with Newcastle holding out for £100m for the midfielder, and that is largely to help offset the significant investment the club wants to make on new players to reinforce Eddie Howe’s squad.

Moving forwards, given they have promised “full ongoing compliance” and are working within a strict spending plan they have agreed with UEFA, there will continue to be restrictions on Newcastle’s capacity to spend.

There will be restrictions on Newcastle and Eddie Howe’s capacity to spend this summer. (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

UEFA’s regulations are far more prohibitive than the Premier League’s own new SCR rules, which have a limit of 85 per cent expenditure relative to revenue, and Newcastle want to be within both limits given their desire to be European regulars.

The European governing body employs two rules, each of which Newcastle were found to have breached.

The more commonly cited SCR limits clubs to spending 70 per cent of relevant turnover in a calendar year on wages and amortised transfer and agent fees. The Premier League will introduce its own SCR limit — set at a higher 85 per cent — in the coming 2026-27 season.

Domestic profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) disappear from view after the season just ended, but UEFA’s football-earnings rule employs the same principles around limiting overall losses.

In fact, it is stricter than the version employed by the Premier League since the mid-2010s. Domestically, clubs were limited to £105m in adjusted losses over three years. UEFA allows only €60m (£52m) in rolling three-year losses, and several English clubs have now fallen foul as a result. UEFA do allow clubs to increase their limit by €10m per season if they meet certain financial health criteria — but English clubs generally don’t.

Newcastle insist that their 85 per cent majority owners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), are determined to spend up to the maximum within the rules, although on this occasion obviously they have breached. The message being communicated, and which has been stressed to UEFA, is that they are adamant they will not fall foul again.

In a statement alongside the release of UEFA’s punishment, the club said: “Newcastle United has entered into a settlement agreement with UEFA following a breach of its Financial Sustainability Regulations in the three-year period ending June 2025.

“Following an overspend in relation to UEFA’s Football Earnings threshold, the club has worked closely and constructively with the Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) to swiftly resolve the matter.

“Accordingly, the club has accepted the three-year settlement, which includes a €3m financial penalty, with a further €7m suspended pending future compliance.

“In addition, UEFA has determined that the club will pay a further €3m due to breaching UEFA’s 70% Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) target in calendar year 2025.

“Newcastle United thanks UEFA for its careful consideration and is committed to full ongoing compliance.”

How is this affecting Newcastle’s transfer window?

The UEFA fines and their regulations are undoubtedly significantly affecting Newcastle’s approach to this transfer window, but the consistent insistence has been that it will not prevent the club signing players.

Gordon’s sale was a borderline necessity, it seems, to aid compliance for the previous campaign, but Newcastle are adamant that, financially speaking, they do not have to sell Tonali.

Yet they are also sober to the reality that if they receive a sizeable fee for Tonali, they can reinvest more widely across their side this summer, and so that is why they almost certainly will. Howe still wants a goalkeeper, at least one full-back, two midfielders (if Tonali and Joe Willock leave as expected) and at least one attacker to replace Gordon.

Newcastle genuinely seem satisfied with the outcome of UEFA’s process, given the size of financial penalties incurred upon other English clubs previously, but they also recognise their own economic reality moving forwards, too.

Players will arrive this summer, but their stars are being replaced by those who they hope will be the stars of the future.

Their breach of UEFA’s rules provides greater context to the club’s approach towards this summer, which has alarmed some supporters.