let's start with the news that premier league official david coote has been sacked by the refereeing body. this was following a thorough investigation into his conduct. coote was suspended on the 11th of november pending a full investigation after a video allegedly showing him making derogatory comments about liverpool and the club's former managerjurgen klopp. a further investigation was opened two days later after photographs appeared showing him appearing to snort a white powder. our sport editor has more. a month ago he was one of the top referees in charge one of one of the biggest games of the season so far. he was in charge of liverpool against aston villa at anfield, 48 hours after that match, video emerged on social media that appeared to show the referee making a foul and abusive comments, disparaging remarks

towards liverpool and their former manager, jurgen klopp. the bbc didn't independently verify the video. it was not clear when it was actually recorded. it appeared to be referring to a match that had taken place between liverpool and burnley in 2020. after that emerged, the pgmol launched an investigation and suspended coote. the enquiry was then widened. the sun newspaper published more video which they alleged showed coote appearing to sniff a white powder through a bank note. during the euros this summer, where he was officiating. again, the bbc didn't verify that video, but the pgmol had to look into that, of course. today after that inquiry, they released a statement saying that following this investigation, his conduct had been deemed to be a serious breach of his employment contract, and they were effectively sacking him.

they added they did care very much for his welfare, they were committed to that, and he had the right to an appeal as well. now, west ham'sjulen lopetegui won the battle of the under pressure managers as his side beat wolves 2—1, leaving gary o'neill's side floundering in the relegation zone. they showed their care for mikel antonio after his car accident. they came wearing his number nine shirts. west ham took the lead. wolves equalised, but the man of the match struck to win the game for his side. he held an antonio number 9 shirt over his head, but it all turned sour at full time as tempers ran high between the two teams.

he will not be drawn on his future to the club. lopetegui paid tribute to antonio. the most important thing we achieved three points. the second is we have the possibility to dedicate the victory to the fans but especially to mike and his family. he has been out 12 days, the last two days. 0k. i think that the guys, they have worked very, very hard against one good team. maybe, not an easy match to play. to more upheaval at manchester united. on sunday morning, the club confirmed the shock departure of its sporting director, dan ashworth, after five months in charge. it follows their 3—2 loss at home to nottingham forest. it raises more questions about the management of the club. manchester united, a club where all is not well on the pitch. and its two defeats in a row for reuben amorin, as the size of the task he's

got as the boss of united becomes ever more clear. and off the pitch, not exactly harmonious. and now, a sporting director they spent £3 million and five months waiting for, gone five months later, with a farewell comprising just 41 words, 16 of them stating he was off. dan ashworth will be leaving his role by mutual agreement, the statement read. how did a man heralded for his work at brighton not work at a manchester united desperately needing direction? there's been a clash of personalities, call it a disagreement over what a sporting director should be. between the two of them. you have dan ashworth, very well respected in the industry, done good things in football, to be losing a job like this after five months is not great.

it's very unusual for this kind of thing to happen, but it speaks to the way that sirjim ratcliffe is running manchester united. hang on a minute. is this the samejim ratcliffe that said this in february? dan is a ten out of ten sporting director. he's one of the best around. is this the same dan ashworth that had a load of bbc pundits talking like this? his reputation is high within the game. he can transform manchester united. he's got such a big job . in the summer to remold, and change the way that whole club looks and feels _ going forward. is five months long enough to do that? has he paid the price for keeping erik ten hag on in the summer? for the underwhelming recruitment? did the fitjust not work? whatever the reasons, what does this say about those running the club?

they're either decisive and they've seen a weakness and flaw, and they got rid of it, or they have made a bad decision in hiring this person, or even a third option, that potentially they're very difficult to work with. we don't know what the answer is. it would be 1, 2, or all three of those. but it doesn't look good. it hasn't been a success and it's been pretty much a disaster very, very quickly. that's not a good look for manchester united. it's a period where plenty is changing off the field. the big unknown, whether another high—profile departure would change anything that happens on it. the last of a league derby at goodison park will take place later in the season. it had to be postponed because of the storm. for one young fan, it was costly. he used up all of his savings, £1,500, to fly over from australia.

he was 15 years old. as early christmas presents go, for a fanatical evertonian, you can't beat this. 15—year—old mckenzie meeting his heroes at everton�*s training ground today. i bet you can't believe it, can you? i genuinely can't. ijust came here to watch a football match. mckenzie from sydney in australia is from a family of evertonians, many still live in liverpool. but because he's more than 10,000 miles away, he's never been to a merseyside derby. instead of spending the £1,500 he saved up for driving lessons, he decided to be at goodison park on saturday, but of course the game was called off. the club and captain schamus coleman stepped in. we would love to see you down here on the training

ground on monday. if that is ok with you. hopefully you can see a few of the lads. all of that happened, and more. with seamus handing over a shirt for the team to sign, england goalkeeperjordan pickford giving him some signed gloves, and james organising tickets for the blues�*s match at arsenal on saturday. i was gutted for him, gutted for myself the game didn't go on. but good of the club to come and meet today. i hope i'm not speaking out of turn, you're going to sort outa game? if he can make it, it will be great to get him down here. 0n the weekend. hopefully we can get it arranged. what do you think of that? it would be amazing to go. then it was outside to watch training and meet the boss. how determined are you to be at the rearranged merseyside derby? i am doing everything i can, i will go back there, i will figure it out and find a way. it only happens once. last one.

i will let you go. more important things. all part of a truly unforgettable day for the lifelong blue. made thejourney all the more worth while. baseball starjuan soto is expected to sign the biggest contract in the history of sport, a deal worth $800 million, with the new york mets. it's expected to last for more than 15 years, and will surpass the previous record held by shohei 0htani. multiple sources in the united states have disclosed details of the deal, although the mets have yet to confirm it because he has to undergo a medical. i suspect he may pass. well, that's it from us. but get all the latest sports news from the bbc sport app, orfrom our website. from me and the rest

of the team, thanks very much for watching. bye— bye. hello there. the fine weather that we saw on monday for most of us will continue through this week. we've got high pressure in charge of the weather, keeping things settled and, well, mostly cloudy. there will be some sunny spells from time to time. but the area of high pressure isn't going to move very far, really, throughout the week. on tuesday, it's still situated really across scotland and northern ireland. still perhaps a bit breezy down to the south—east of england, where those white lines, the isobars, are a little bit closer together, but certainly a cold start on tuesday morning, a widespread frost for scotland and northern ireland. not as cold across england and wales with more cloud. and we'll keep a lot of that cloud, really, throughout the day on tuesday for england and wales. but it's fog in some central, southern areas of scotland

and northern ireland which could linger on for much of the morning, only slowly clearing away. and where the fog doesn't clear, it's going to be pretty cold. there'll be some cloud affecting the far north of scotland during tuesday afternoon, perhaps a few spots of rain for the northern isles, but really for most of scotland, lots of blue skies and lots of sunshine. but temperatures will struggle, especially where you keep that fog. so, for example, in glasgow, 0 degrees celsius as a maximum temperature. sunshine for northern ireland, perhaps parts of north—west england, west wales getting some breaks in that cloud as well. elsewhere, fairly cloudy. perhaps still some outbreaks of rain, some drizzle affecting the far south—east of england with a bit of a breeze here. and then as we go through the night on tuesday and into wednesday, that high pressure really doesn't move very far at all. so again, for scotland and northern ireland, it will be a cold night into wednesday, with a widespread frost. staying cloudier for england and wales, and that will keep the temperatures up above freezing. so here's wednesday's weather. once again, there could be some

patches of mist and fog in some central areas of scotland. hopeful, perhaps, on wednesday of seeing a bit more in the way of sunshine across wales, the midlands and eastern parts of england. but on the whole, temperatures here about 4—6 celsius — that's about average, really. another cold day for some central areas and northern parts of scotland. then for the rest of the week, really, not a great deal of change. the area of high pressure will start to drift away a little bit for the end of the week, and we start to see a few weather fronts moving into northern areas. that'll bring some outbreaks of rain, but on the whole, the outlook is looking rather settled. mostly dry, some sunshine at times as well, with temperatures about average. bye— bye.

live from london. this is bbc news. syria's main islamist rebel leader says those involved in torturing political

prisoners from the deposed assad regime will be held accountable. thousands of syrians gather outside a jail used to detain political prisoners as they continue their search for relatives. a man is charged with murder over last week's fatal shooting of a healthcare chief executive in new york city. and concern in south korea over who is in control of the country, as president yoon is barred from travel. hello, i'm sally bundock. we start in syria where work is under way to build a transitional government. after the seismic events of the last two weeks that saw the fall of the assad regime, power is consolidating

into the hands of abu mohammed al—jolani, the islamist rebel