the premier league chief executive, richard masters, says a date has been set for the hearing into manchester city's alleged breaches of financial rules. premier league champions city were charged with 115 breaches in february 2023 but are yet to face a hearing while everton and nottingham forest were charged for breaching league profit and sustainability rules on tuesday. here is the bbc sports editor dan roan. you understand why fans of those two clubs perhaps are asking whether they're being treated somewhat differently to manchester city for example. masters was asked about this today. he defended the process in effect but he also made clear that the situations are very different but he could understand the frustrations of fans. if any club whether the current champions or otherwise had been found in breach of the spending

rules for year 2023, they would be in exactly the same position as everton or nottingham forest, but the volume and character of the charges laid before man city i obviously cannot talk about at all are being heard in a completely different environment. there is a date set for that — for that proceedings. i think as well, mps today focused in on this concern about points deductions for two reasons. one — there's the danger it punishes fans of teams if they see their clubs docked points for actions that have nothing to do with them for the spending — the spending decisions of owners but obviously there's concern around the integrity of the league table f you're having teams docked points mid—season as we have seen with everton already and also the prospect of appeals that could be resolved only after the season ends, we know there's that potential, if, for example, everton appeal

again or forest in their case, then clearly there could be some chaos at the end of the season with teams not knowing where they stand. we take our rule book very seriously. it's a hand—shake between all 20 clubs. all clubs look each other in the eye and say they'll comply with the rules. they expect the board to take action if they don't. the way we have done it is points have been deducted pending the appeal. whatever the appeal panel decides will then be, i'm assuming, the final deduction and that will be the astericks then is removed. it doesn't matter when it happens as long as it happens in the season. dan mentioned everton there and their manager sean dyche believes it isn't fair that his players are punished for the club's financial problems. it follows the 10 points that everton have already been deducted, which they are appealing and the new cases must be heard by april 8th. our reporter alex howell has more. everton have been charged by the premier league for breaching its financial rules along with nottingham

forest, they have been referred to an independent commission for breaching profit and sustainability rules in the premier league. what's different with everton is that they're also currently appealing against a 10—point deduction that they have already been given. in a statement, the club said they're going to defend their position and here today was the first time we could hearfrom everton manager, sean dyche, as he spoke in his press conference ahead of the game against crystal palace in the fa cup. he said the club have been given an unpinched sanction for anything they haven't had an advantage for. i haven't got the minutia of. the rules and the regulations, as for the powers to be and the lawyers and all stuff like that. i think sometimes you pour that in the melting pot. - there's not an on—pitch advantage there. - we get an on—pitch sanction. that is a tough one without a shadow l of a doubt. we hope there's better newsl that comes out of the appeal.

then the next bit comes along and that kind - of that is encapsulated in all of that. - who knows what comes next. i think we're all wondering and scratching our heads, | certainly we're hopefuli that a change in what's going on occurs and we get some points back and is probably- looked at a bit differently. everton play crystal palace tomorrow night and they take every game as important. a couple of fitness issues they're hoping to put up a strong side and progress to the fourth round of the fa cup. it was a night of fa cup 3rd round replays in the uk on tuesday, and one shock result to bring you. championship side, bristol city, who play in the second tier of english football have beaten premier league team west ham 1—0 to book their place in the next round. the winner came in the third minute with tommy conway intercepting a short pass from konstantinos mavropanos and rounding lukasz fabianski before composing himself and slotting home. said benrama was sent off in the 51st minute but 1—0 it finished.

three matches on day four of the africa cup of nations and a huge shock as namibia ranked 115 in the world and without a victory in any of their previous nine afcon matches have beaten tunisia 1—0. worth saying that tunisia won the competition in 2004 and sit 87 places above namibia in fifa's standings. what a result for them. burkina faso meanwhile have beaten mauritania 1—0, but they left it very late. aston villa's bertrand traore scoring a 96th—minute penalty to break mauritanian hearts. mali have kicked off their afcon campaign with a bang beating south africa 2—0. saudi arabia came from behind to beat oman 2—1 in theirasian cup opener on tuesday. at the same ground where they famoulsy upset world champions argentina at that world cup. the green falcons needed some help from var to overcome the spirited minnows. oman took the lead as an upset

looked on the cards but saudi arabia equalised with just over 10 minutes to go. they then completed the comeback in the sixth minute of added time when ali al—bulayhi headed home from a corner and although the linesman�*s flag went up for offside, var intervened to award roberto mancini's side the goal and ultimately the win. supachai chaided scored both of thailand's goals in a 2—0 victory over kyrgyzstan. supachai struck in each half in group f in a match which his side dominated. this is the second successive appearance in this competition for both nations. roma have named club legend daniele de rossi as their new head coach until the end of the season following the sacking ofjose mourinho. de rossi's only previous managerial post came with italian club spal where he oversawjust three wins in 17 games before being sacked. mourinho took over in may 2021 and led roma to the europa conference league title a year later and the europa league final in 2023. he leaves roma languishing

in ninth place in serie a. england women's football manager sarina wiegman has said she has "unfinished business" after signing a new contract until 2027. wiegman guided the lionesses to a first major trophy at euro 2022 before backing that up by helping england reach their first ever world cup final, which they lost to spain last year. wiegman won the uefa women's coach of the year award in august and on monday, was named women's coach of the year at the fifa best awards for the fourth time. it's a sensational story that has rocked the rugby world. welsh star louis rees—zammit left his club gloucester with immediate effect and quit rugby union altogether to pursue a career in the nfl. the 22—year—old, who has been capped 32 times by his country has joined the nfl international player pathway, he will now travel to florida this week to start on the ipp 10—week programme which gives athletes from around the world the chance to earn a spot on an nfl roster. staying with rugby union

and the british and irish lions have announced a first women's tour — which will be a trip to new zealand in 2027. the tour will be held in september and will include three test matches against the six—time world champion black ferns. our rugby correspondent sara orchard reports. well, as you can see, so much interest around today's announcement that this tour will be going ahead in 2027. it comes off the back of a feasibility study that the lions have been running to see if there was enough commercial interest and buy in from unions. that has all come back positive. although we won't see the actual published report. the questions today actually come more around whether new zealand is actually the best place to go. yes, the black ferns, they're world champions and had a successful world cup, but they don't perhaps have that real strong interest in games for women's rugby away from that world cup. we're talking about big events they have hosted recently like wxv. also a domestic league called super rugby. the reason we're going to new zealand partly is because it's best of best, right. we want of the best players playing for the british

and irish lions against the best opposition and the black ferns gives us that. i think the sky is only the limit and, yes, it will give the players who are currently playing now and the youngsters up and coming in the pathway even more motivation to train harder, but for me ijust think it's a really exciting prospect for all four nations involved. the fixtures for this tour, they're yet to be announced. we do know it will finish with a three test series against new zealand at the end. there could be differences to perhaps what you see on a men's tour. the big question of the day, though — is are the lions "lions" or lionesses, we have been told lionesses, that's a trademark someone else has taken on quite successfully. these will be known as the british and irish lions. the australian open is, of course — ongoing in melbourne and for all the results from there and more analysis, do head

to our website at bbc.com/sports. from me and the rest of the team at the bbc sport centre, goodbye. hello there. tuesday brought some fresh snowfall to parts of northern ireland and northern england, although here the snow did tend to turn back to rain through the day, but nevertheless it left a thick covering here in grasmere in cumbria. further northwards, though, in scotland it was here that the snow stayed as snow, particularly across the northern half of the country. a snowy pitlochry here. we have had some very large accumulations of snow, then building in. really the result of a few days worth of snowfall. lerwick — 18 centimetres of thick snow there on the ground and there is morejust around the corner because of these shower clouds you can see here. very heavy snow showers heading into northern scotland. this cloud further southwards — well, that's storm irene. it's named by the french forecasters at meteo—france. it will be bringing some disruptive snowfall here,

some freezing rain mixed in as well. and in parts of belgium, germany, we could see 20 or 30 centimetres of snow. now, the precipitation from that just about stays offshore. you'll get very close and there will be a veil of cloud working into southern—most counties of england over the next few hours. at the same time, there will be some showers around working southwards across england and wales, mostly rain, maybe one or two flurries. but that will leave a legacy of icy conditions pretty much nationwide as we start the day on wednesday. now, wednesday, there will be further snow showers in northern ireland, so a few more centimeters here, but the heaviest snow will once again be affecting northern scotland. another 5 to 10 centimetres expected on top of what's already fallen. so, yes, there will be some further disruption here. more heavy snow to come as well for northern scotland through thursday. a few more centimetres possible for northern ireland. thursday, a lot of dry and sunny weather elsewhere. but again, there could be some wintry showers working down the north sea coast affecting parts of eastern england, and late in the day, as the winds start to turn to a north—westerly direction, you might see some

wintry showers turn up across north wales, cheshire, merseyside and the north—west midlands. by friday, although for the majority of the uk it continues to be cold and sunny, the showers that will be affecting scotland could be really prolonged, but the air is turning very slightly less cold and so the snow should tend to become confined to the hills. that process of the weather turning milder, then continues into the weekend, with south—westerly winds blowing much milder weather conditions across the country. however, there will be some very strong winds, maybe even disruptive winds around on sunday into the early part of next week. and spells of heavy rain, as well, that could see areas of flooding return.

live from washington. this is bbc news. the us says its forces seized iranian weapons meant for houthi fighters as it continues strikes in yemen. plus global crises top the agenda in davos, switzerland, as leaders gather for the world economic forum. and, us republican presidential candidates set their sights on the next primary contest in new hampshire — after donald trump's historic victory in iowa. hello, i'm helena humphrey. the biden administration is expected to designate yemen's houthi fighters

as global terrorists. that is according to us media reports. it comes as the iran—backed houthi movement has continued to disrupt global trade in the red sea. on tuesday, houthis claimed responsibility for a missile strike on a greek ship that was sailing from vietnam to israel. as with other recent houthi attacks it caused only minor damage. the attack on the greek ship followed an american missile strike on houthi infrastructure in yemen. the us says it destroyed anti—ship missiles that the houthis were prepared to launch. i spoke with bbc state department correspondent tom bateman about the us response to the attacks. what we're seeing is very much tit—for—tat. we are another us strike on yemeni soil. this was taking out four missiles that us officials said were primed and ready to fire at shipping. that had followed yesterday a houthi attack on a us—owned

container ship that struck the ship.