{"id":511154,"date":"2026-01-12T15:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/511154\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T15:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:54:10","slug":"explained-rule-change-enabling-antoine-semenyo-to-play-semifinal-and-what-newcastle-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/511154\/","title":{"rendered":"Explained: Rule-change enabling Antoine Semenyo to play semifinal &#8211; and what Newcastle think"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jan 12, 2026, 06:38 AM ET<\/p>\n<p>Eddie Howe has rued the rule change which means \u00a362.5 million ($84m) <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"94fd5d7e-35b1-9d52-c9f2-4a37259bea36\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=382\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Manchester City<\/a> signing <a data-player-guid=\"ed520531-3344-157f-7be2-dec0351d41db\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/273292\/antoine-semenyo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Antoine Semenyo<\/a> can line up against Newcastle in the <a data-league-guid=\"7d7df547-a8c6-37a7-947d-7b661c801ff5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/league\/_\/name\/ENG.LEAGUE_CUP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Carabao Cup<\/a> semifinal.<\/p>\n<p>The 26-year-old <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"ff586f4a-c356-4a04-88a8-450cc2a5ad27\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=4469\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ghana<\/a> international, who joined City from Bournemouth last week, is available to face the Magpies in Tuesday night&#8217;s first leg at St James&#8217; Park despite having already played as a substitute in the Cherries&#8217; 2-0 second round defeat by <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"0446e7fd-7655-f17a-d282-8c401b808d1f\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=337\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brentford<\/a> in August.<\/p>\n<p>Semenyo, who scored on his debut in Saturday&#8217;s 10-1 FA Cup demolition of Exeter, is able to do so under the newly-introduced EFL rule 6.4, which allows a player to represent up to two clubs in the competition in a season.<\/p>\n<p>Asked for his opinion of the change, Magpies head coach Howe said with a wry smile: &#8220;Yeah, it was nice to find out that rule had changed after finding out they&#8217;d signed him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have to say that&#8217;s one rule change I probably wouldn&#8217;t be supportive of at this current moment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But Antoine&#8217;s had an incredible season. I&#8217;m a big admirer of his and he scored on his debut, so fair play to him. I think Man City have signed a very, very good player.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/>Antoine Semenyo is eligible for the Carabao Cup semifinal.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n<p>Whatever side Guardiola fields on Tyneside, Howe knows the challenge of retaining the trophy Newcastle won last season against <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"a47fbcec-c948-cf4c-9e41-3dfa37588c9c\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=364\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Liverpool<\/a> to end their 70-year wait for domestic silverware is as stern as it could be.<\/p>\n<p>However, he insists he cannot allow himself to feel inferior as he goes up against the Spaniard and his star-studded squad.<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola&#8217;s glittering managerial career began at <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"58f7c4a9-c991-4ed4-fe5c-1f833cba75b8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=83\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Barcelona<\/a> and continued at <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"25b5e432-d3d2-939f-f73b-6e531a6fbd91\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=132\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bayern Munich<\/a> before his arrival at the Etihad Stadium, while Howe, who will be without full-back <a data-player-guid=\"3e36f914-57dd-30c6-9c8c-449e1aedfa66\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/299641\/tino-livramento\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tino Livramento<\/a> as he undergoes a scan on his damaged hamstring, cut his teeth in League Two with Bournemouth, eventually leading the club to the <a data-league-guid=\"6949f3af-300c-35f1-beab-b95669eedd38\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/league\/_\/name\/ENG.1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Premier League<\/a> as he learned his trade the hard way.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if he ever allowed himself to reflect upon that journey, Howe, who has got the better of Guardiola and Jose Mourinho already this season, said: &#8220;Very rarely, if I&#8217;m honest.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Occasionally someone might send me something that reminds me. It feels like a long time ago, to be honest, where we started.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But I&#8217;ve said so many times, I wouldn&#8217;t change that at all. The grounding we had, the education we had in the lower leagues was incredible, really, and going through the leagues has given us a unique insight into the football pyramid.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/football\/story\/_\/id\/47587545\/transfer-rumors-news-marc-guehi-prefers-bayern-move-man-city\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8211; Transfer rumors, news: Gu\u00e9hi prefers Bayern move over Man City<br \/>&#8211;<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/football\/story\/_\/id\/47480954\/premier-league-january-2026-transfers-all-confirmed-ins-outs-deals-every-club\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Premier League January transfers: All confirmed ins, outs for every club<br \/>&#8211;<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/football\/story\/_\/id\/47009679\/which-players-return-premier-league-your-club\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> AFCON 2025: Which players could return to Premier League for\/against your club?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We really learned the hard way in terms of successes and failures and eventually, through I think hard work and dedication, we&#8217;ve ended up where we are now.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But then you can&#8217;t look at yourself as inferior, you can&#8217;t think of your journey, you just have to think of the here and now and you have to think of trying to win.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s all we are trying to do on a daily basis, trying to come out on the right side of things. But our education, I think, has been invaluable to us.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan 12, 2026, 06:38 AM ET Eddie Howe has rued the rule change which means \u00a362.5 million ($84m)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":511155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-511154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115882941642933255","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}