MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Ruben Amorim is out as coach of Manchester United after just 14 months in the job.
The Premier League club announced on Monday that Amorim's reign was over, with the decision coming less than 24 hours after he made provocative comments about his position within United's hierarchy.
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FILE - Manchester United's head coach Ruben Amorim watches from the sideline during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Sunderland at Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson, file)
FILE - Manchester United's head coach Ruben Amorim walks on the pitch at the end of the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and West Ham at Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson, file)
FILE - Manchester United's head coach Ruben Amorim reacts after Leicester's Bobby Decordova-Reid scored the opening goal during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Manchester United and Leicester City at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson, file)
FILE - Manchester United's head coach Ruben Amorim walks on the pitch after the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson, file)
“With Manchester United sitting sixth in the Premier League, the club’s leadership has reluctantly made the decision that it is the right time to make a change,” United said in a statement. “This will give the team the best opportunity of the highest possible Premier League finish.”
United said youth coach Darren Fletcher would take charge of its match against Burnley on Wednesday, but did not set a timeframe for a permanent replacement.
Amorim's departure comes after a fallout with United sporting director Jason Wilcox, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details have not been made public.
The person said Wilcox tried to provide feedback following the disappointing 1-1 home draw against last-placed Wolves last week, which Amorim did not react well to.
That preceded Amorim's outburst on Sunday, following another draw, against newly-promoted Leeds, when the Portuguese sought to clarify his position.
“I came here to be the manager of Manchester United, not to be the coach of Manchester United,” he said. “And that is clear.
“I’m not going to quit. I will do my job until another guy is coming here to replace me.”
The United job has proved one of the most difficult in world soccer since club legend Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, with Amorim the sixth permanent manager or coach to be discarded in that time.
He leaves the 20-time English champion having failed to deliver any silverware and after overseeing a slew of unwanted records, including its lowest finish in the Premier League era last season.
Last January he said his team might be the worst in the club’s history.
And he apologized to fans in May for what he described as a “disastrous” campaign when United finished 15th in the standings, recorded its highest number of losses in the modern era and lowest points total.
Amorim was considered one of the brightest coaches in Europe when United hired him from Sporting Lisbon to replace Erik ten Hag in November 2024 at a cost of $12 million. He had led the Portuguese giant to two league titles in four years and was seen as the ideal candidate to take United back to the summit of English soccer after more than decade since it was last crowned champion.
But results plummeted in his first season and defeat to Tottenham in the Europa League final ended hopes of qualifying for the lucrative Champions League.
Still he was given more than $300 million to reshape his squad with signings like Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo. But the struggles have continued this term, with United winning only two of its first six games in the league and suffering a humiliating loss to fourth-tier Grimsby in the League Cup.
Results have improved, but just three wins from the last 11 games have seen United fail to close the gap on the top three in the standings.
Amorim faced constant questions about his tactics - opting for a system with wingbacks that did not seem to suit his players. He was also questioned over his reluctance to play one of United's most talented home-grown talents in Kobbie Mainoo, who was largely overlooked despite previously being a key player for England.
There was growing impatience within United about how long it was taking for his tactics to evolve, the person said. And the Wolves game, which saw him revert to a much-criticized three-man defense against the worst team in the league, appears to be have been the tipping point that prompted Wilcox to give feedback.
The conversation with Wilcox took place on Friday. On Monday morning, Wilcox and chief executive Omar Berrada informed Amorim at the club’s training ground that he was being fired.
United dominated England’s top flight since the inception of the Premier League in 1992 — winning 13 titles. But it has not been crowned champion since Ferguson's retirement.
Top names have been hired since then, including Champions League-winning coaches Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho, but they have only brought limited success.
Amorim's predecessor, Ten Hag, won trophies in each of his two full seasons, reached three major finals and qualified for the Champions League. But that was still not enough to save his job after a troubled start to his third campaign.
Amorim was the first head coach appointed under the minority ownership of British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, who assumed control of United's soccer operations from majority owners, the Glazer family.
He is the latest high profile hire to come and go under Ratcliffe, following the swift exit of former sporting director Dan Ashworth after less than six months.
Ratcliffe has sought to control spending since investing $1.3 billion for up to 25% in 2024 and has made sweeping cuts. But the departures of Ten Hag and Ashworth alone cost $18 million, according to United's accounts. That was on top of the fee paid to release Amorim from his contract at Sporting Lisbon.
Amorim's United contract ran until 2027. It is unknown what severance he will be due.
The AP approached Amorim's representatives for comment.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - Manchester United's head coach Ruben Amorim watches from the sideline during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Sunderland at Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson, file)
FILE - Manchester United's head coach Ruben Amorim walks on the pitch at the end of the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and West Ham at Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson, file)
FILE - Manchester United's head coach Ruben Amorim reacts after Leicester's Bobby Decordova-Reid scored the opening goal during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Manchester United and Leicester City at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson, file)
FILE - Manchester United's head coach Ruben Amorim walks on the pitch after the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson, file)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom won final approval from a key agency on Thursday, despite a federal judge recently ordering a halt to construction unless Congress allows what would be the biggest structural change to the American landmark in more than 70 years.
The 12-member National Capital Planning Commission, the agency tasked with approving construction on federal property in the Washington region, went ahead with the vote because U.S. District Judge Richard Leon’s ruling — which came two days earlier — affects construction activities but not the planning process, said the commission's Trump-appointed chair, Will Scharf.
A vote of 8-1, with two commissioners voting present and one absent, allowed the plan to move forward.
Despite the agency’s approval, however, the judge’s ruling and a legal fight over the ballroom could stall progress on a legacy project that Trump is racing to see completed before the end of his term in early 2029. It’s among a series of changes the Republican president is planning for the nation’s capital to leave his lasting imprint while he’s still in office.
Before the vote, Scharf, a top White House aide, noted that Leon's order has been stayed for two weeks as the administration seeks an appeal. He said, as he understood the decision, it “really does not impact our action here today.”
Reading from notes, Scharf also delivered an impassioned defense of the project that reviewed the full history of the White House — including changes and additions that were criticized at the time they were made but have become beloved with the passage of time. He spoke about the addition of the north and south porticos and the balcony added by President Harry Truman.
Scharf suggested that Trump’s proposed ballroom will similarly come to be viewed as a wise addition — despite drawing contemporary opposition from some members of the public and government officials.
“I believe that, in time, this ballroom will be considered every bit of a national treasure as the other key components of the White House,” Scharf said.
Scharf also said the proposed ballroom has been viewed negatively because of opposition to Trump, instead of the merits, saying, “I feel that we’ve been unfairly slighted in the press and otherwise for the way we’ve gone about reviewing this particular project.”
The vote by the commission, which includes three members Trump gets to appoint, had initially been scheduled for March but was postponed to Thursday because so many people signed up to comment at the commission’s meeting last month. The comments were overwhelmingly opposed to the ballroom.
The lone “no” vote was cast by Phil Mendelson, a Democrat who chairs the Council of the District of Columbia. Linda Argo and Arrington Dixon, the two commissioners appointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, voted present.
Mendelson criticized the design of the ballroom addition and how fast it was approved.
“It’s just too large,” he said.
Criticism also came from Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. One of its attorneys, Jon Golinger, said the commission had discounted opposition from city officials and thousands of people who commented against the project, and ignored the judge's ruling. Several commissioners, including Scharf, had said they took the public feedback seriously.
“This approval is illegitimate and this vote is a joke," Golinger said.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle, commended the “decision to approve President Trump’s historic vision to build a much need ballroom at the White House.”
“We look forward to seeing the completion of this project on time and under budget," Ingle said in a statement.
Before voting, the commission considered some design changes to the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom addition that the president announced aboard Air Force One on Sunday, as he flew back to Washington from a weekend at his Florida home.
He removed a large staircase on the south side of the building and added an uncovered porch to the west side. Architects and other critics of the project had panned the staircase as too large and basically useless since there was no way to enter the ballroom at the top.
A White House official said the president had considered comments from the National Capital Planning Commission and another oversight entity, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which approved the project earlier this year, as well as members of the public.
The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the ballroom design and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that additional “refinements” had been made to the building’s exterior.
The ballroom, now estimated to cost $400 million, has expanded in scope and price tag since Trump first announced the project last summer, citing a need for space other than a tent on the lawn to host important guests. Trump demolished the East Wing in October with little warning, and site preparation and underground work have been underway since then.
Two other Trump-appointed commissioners, Stuart Levenbach and James Blair, voted for the project.
Levenbach, who serves as vice chairman and is the federal government’s chief statistician, said the White House is currently “not suited” to accommodate large numbers of guests and that the addition will improve the “utility” of the compound.
He said tunnels and other structures underground at the White House made it impossible to place many features of the ballroom there, too, as some have suggested might be possible. Levenbach said the addition is a “multipurpose facility,” noting that, in addition to a ballroom, it will also have offices for the first lady, kitchen space and a theater.
“This is not an expansion for its own sake,” Levenbach said.
Blair, a deputy to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, said visitors and guests of the president deserve a “better experience."
Scharf and Blair also said Trump will get “very limited use” of the ballroom before his term ends.
Trump went ahead with the project before seeking input from the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts, which he reconstituted with allies and supporters.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private nonprofit organization, sued after Trump demolished the East Wing last fall to build the ballroom addition — a space nearly twice as big as the mansion itself.
Trump says it will be paid for with donations from wealthy people and corporations, including him, though public dollars are paying for underground bunkers and security upgrades.
The trust sought a temporary halt to construction until Trump presented the project to both commissions and Congress for approval. Leon agreed but said that his order would take effect in two weeks and that construction related to security would be allowed.
President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Work continues on the construction of the ballroom at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
President Donald Trump holds a rendering of the proposed new East Wing of the White House as he speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One en route from West Palm Beach, Fla., to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Work continues on the construction of the ballroom at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
President Donald Trump holds a rendering of the proposed new East Wing of the White House as he speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One en route from West Palm Beach, Fla., to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
