played. liverpool have had a number of games in hand, but tonight they catch up. if liverpool win, they will be 19 points clear at the top. it is also a very important match for west ham, they are only above the relegation zone on goal difference alone. anything david moyes difference alone. anything david m oyes ca n difference alone. anything david moyes ca n ta ke difference alone. anything david moyes can take from this game could be the difference for them moyes can take from this game could be thi relegated 5 for them moyes can take from this game could be thi relegated or)r them moyes can take from this game could be thi relegated or staying up. the being relegated or staying up. the clu b being relegated or staying up. the club released a financial report earlier on this week, they say it is a necessity they stay in the top flight. a necessity they stay in the top flight. some because for hammers fans, they have and are stacked joined the club on loan, with the addition to make that may pay event from a slab via prag in the summer. formula 1 says it's "monitoring" the effects this of the coronavirus outbreak in china ahead of the country's grand prix in april. it's not the only sportnig event to have been affected by the spread of the deadly virus. alex gulrajani has the details. so, the coronavirus is having

an impact on the sporting schedule with a wide range of events in a number of sports moved, postponed or cancelled completely in some cases. so let's start with the latest event to go — and it's the first test event for the beijing winter olympics, in 2022. the men's alpine skiing world cup scheduled for february 15th in yanqing — that's about 1200km north of wuhan, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak. the international ski federation have said that, "although the risk level in yanqing is low, the health and welfare of all participants must take priority." and that's a common theme through all of the events. precaution being taken by the organisers of the hong kong marathon and cycling's tour of hainan, too. both of those events have been cancelled. some olympic qualifiers for this summer's games have also had to be relocated. one of the womens football tournaments has been moved to sydney. but the story hasn't ended there — the china team who have flown over have found themselves placed in quarantine at their training camp in brisbane. here's queenslands chief medical

officer, jeannette young. they have been ask to remain in their hotel rooms until the 5th of february. that is absolutely no risk to anyone else in that hotel or to the staff and that hotel. yesterday, those footballers would have been allowed to go freely go through but it's go on to training etc. they can't now, they need to stay in at their hotel rooms, they have been extremely cooperative, as have the chinese consulate. hopefully they'll be free to compete in sydney after that period of quarantine. one of the four women's basketball qualifiers has moved to serbia. the british team are involved in that one. and a mens boxing qualifier has also made it's way from wuhan to jordan. professional boxing has also been affected.

the super—lightweight world title fight betweenjose ramirez and victor potsol — scheduled for february 2nd has been postponed. while the international tennis federation has moved a fed cup group fixture to kaza kstan. the itf saying: let's have a quick round up of today's other sport news. england fast bowler, jofra archer, has been ruled out of the three—match t20 series against south africa next month because of an elbow injury. he also admitted he could be a doubt for the two tests in sri lanka in march. russian athletes could miss the olympics in tokyo after a new report from the athletics integrity unit recommended a blanket ban until doping charges against the russian olmypic federation are fully investigated. india have their first female professional footballer. the national team's top scorer,

bala devi, has signed for rangers from manipur police sports club on an 18—month deal. st helen's have become the latest super league side to condemn catalans over the signing of israel folau. he was sacked by rugby australia last year for posting homophobic comments on social media, and yesterday signed a one—year deal with the french side. saints say his comments go against the core values of the club and the sport of rugby league. let's speak now to emily rudge who plays for st helen's women's team. we have heard from so many people, adding to this condemnation, gareth thomas, keegan hurst. how did you feel about this decision?” thomas, keegan hurst. how did you feel about this decision? i was very surprised to hear he had been signed, and disappointed, to be honest. i agree with comments already mentioned, it does kind of go against what rugby league stand for, it is a brown sport, promoting

inclusivity and equality amongst everybody. i think that went against this. yeah, disappointed and surprised with the signing. tell me, asa surprised with the signing. tell me, as a gay play at yourself, have you a lwa ys as a gay play at yourself, have you always felt supported by the league? definitely, i have been very lucky. i have never experience any sort of homophobia towards myself or any of the other players that i know. i have been very lucky and really well supported by saints as a club and by by supported by saints as a club and by rugby league. it was quite a surprise that they would agree to the signing, obviously, that is something that has happened. it has kind of put the isl and the rugby league in a negative light, with other people looking the spot, i don't think it looks great. people hearing that, not being able to play for a rugby australia, the isl have

accepted him to come and play over here. it is obviously surprising. just before we leave you, thank you for your comments this evening. we just wanted to mention your wife who has switched from warranting to saint this evening. how are you finding that, are you enjoying playing alongside each other again? definitely, just on related training 110w. definitely, just on related training now. it's really go to train together, when the season starts in march, we will have the games together. really looking forward to that. thank you for joining us on sportsday. that is it from sportsday, more for you throughout the evening.

northern rail is to be nationalised. the transport secretary has announced the troubled rail company will come under government control from the 1st march after years of major disruption. grant shapps has ordered bosses of the public company to come—up with a 100—day plan to improve the service for passengers. live now to our correspondent. who's at leeds station for us. the station is one of the busiest in the country, thousands of commuters have been looking at the very home this evening, many of them travelling on northern rail, one of the uk's biggest operators. a sense of relief from them that finally something has happened, the owners of the franchise, arriva, are being moved on. from the 1st of march, the government will take over, that doesn't mean they will see immediate change, but they feel something is happening that gives them hope for the future. i was on one of their

trains a few days ago. we saw the levels of overcrowding, the frustration of the passengers, but interestingly, also from the star. this is my report. a snapshot of early rail travel across the north, half an hour late and just two carriages between halifax and hall. passengers worn down, after 18 months of delays, strikes and overcrowding. cancelled all their time, all the time. we have been waiting once on board, there are no seats available, even at the train conductor is 50 to. we apologise for those overcrowding. i have reported it to them, aware of the situation, they will probably do nothing about it, but at least i have tried to do my bit. i sympathise with you all. shouldn't have trained this visit.

it had not the odd occasion, it is a continuous thing, it's a bad service thatis continuous thing, it's a bad service that is to be in three. today, the government to draw a line in the sand, cancelling the franchise. this isa sand, cancelling the franchise. this is a clear signal that we will not be dealt with commuters not getting trains arriving on time. so what went wrong at in northern? the company won the bid with a pledge to transform rail and at luton. it was hit by strikes. i it changes to timetables, track upgrades are not furnished, new trains designed to reduce overcrowding were delivered late, meaning old—fashioned pacers we re late, meaning old—fashioned pacers were not withdrawn, as promised, by december 2019. all that means is that morgan has failed to attract as many passengers as predicted, and revenue is down, so the government ta kes revenue is down, so the government takes over. everything was nationalised, you seem to run better

thanit nationalised, you seem to run better than it does now. i don't think i can be worse comments an hoping nationalisation is at least a start. it means if they are taking over, they are aware of the problem, so that they should fix it. today, loving blind external factory that they should fix it. today, loving blind externalfactory fodder problems. the chairman of the company admitted it could be two yea rs before company admitted it could be two years before passengers see improvements. it will be tough, it will take a year or two to really restore it. i do think from where it is at the moment, which is that you see things move on quite quickly. that's another couple of years until trains turn up on time? building infrastructure does take a lot of time. one solution is reducing the number of trains that run so that they're not fighting for space in crowded track. i think it is almost certain we will see trends removed from the timetable, the infrastructure cannot handle the numberof trains infrastructure cannot handle the number of trains operating. network rail has been a very clear that the only way forward to out the

timetable. the government takes over on it muchly first, but there is every chance we'll see scenes like this for many months to come. the new publicly owned operator will face many of the same challenges as the old private one, and that is upgrading at night infrastructure. if they don't do that, that is not their responsibility, that is a network rail's their responsibility, that is a network rail‘sjob. my their responsibility, that is a network rail's job. my colleague, any glacier, ask the real minister if the government had any plans to update the infrastructure in an enough to allow more than a real‘s trains to operate to the published timetable. i'd like to see we will see a change pretty soon, i'm not promising any miracles at all, this will take a decent period of change to get people's fight back in the railways, so they can trust the system. i'm confident the operator has plans on track to make services run on time in a good time very

shortly. infrastructure is the heart of the problem here, when will that be addressed? we are standing on a platform that has just been created. asa platform that has just been created. as a comment, we are spending £16 billion in the next five years on a rail infrastructure, £100 billion on infrastructure in general. you're talking about years in advance, what about the here and now? they here and now, there should be a gradual change. the operator has been talking to the unions to make sure that we can get sundays are running ona that we can get sundays are running on a properfitting. this that we can get sundays are running on a proper fitting. this will be a gradual improvement, there is no silver bullet to solve the franchise. there aren't enough to realise going into manchester, creating a backlog, your predecessor cancelled plans to expand it, will you? it is probably the most congested part of railways in europe. we know we need to invest heavily in our area to find a solution. lynott has been left behind when it comes to spending per

head on transport, will be more money per head in the north? we like to bejudged by delivery. our prime minister has left us in no uncertain terms, we need to get things moving so let people in the north county definite improvements in this parliament, and they will day. the contract full change hands on the 1st of march, that is when marvin railed becomes a publicly run company, the staff will also tra nsfer company, the staff will also transfer it over so there will be no jobs lost. another franchise to what is trans—pennine express. it's a performance was even worse than northern's, only 70% of its trains running on time today, it has been called in for talks about future. let's catch up with the weather with nick millard.

milder weather, a wet day in western scotland, a bit more snow in the highlands, it is rain now. at times, blustery, temperatures on the up. still some rain around through the north of scotland, any rain in northern england eating away. could see some drizzle in south wales. no frost for thursday morning but a lot of cloud around, further rain at times in scotland might no be fringing the north of england. light rain running across southern england, a few hints or brightness here and there, it may be later for scotla nd here and there, it may be later for scotland and northern ireland. very blustery wherever you are, not in scotland, some gust moving in excess of 50 mph. temperatures well above where we started the week, as high as 1a celsius in some parts of

england. all england. you're watching beyond 100 days... evacuations are under way. as the death toll in china rises, western governments are repatriating their nationals. the world health organization says it will decide on thursday whether this is a global health emergency. major airlines are cancelling flights to mainland china. people returning from wuhan will be put into quarantine for two weeks. senators have 16 hours to question both legal teams in the president's impeachment trail, ahead of a vote on whether to allow witnesses. also on the programme..... flags, scarves, and a rendition of auld lang syne, the uk bids