At 36 years and 53 days, first Giroud became the oldest French player to play in the FIFA World Cup and made it a memorable one by joining legendary Thierry Henry as the country’s joint record scorer with 51 goals.

France though had to come back from a goal down to register the win in their opening game, after Craig Goodwin gave Australian an early lead in the ninth minute. Giroud found the net before and after the break, either side of a Kylian Mbappe goal after Adrien Rabiot had levelled following Goodwin’s shock early opener.

Les Bleus are the first defending champions to win their opening match since Brazil in 2006, which has already put them in good position to advance from the group phase, something Italy in 2010, Spain in 2014 and Germany in 2018 failed to do.

France, who lost defender Lucas Hernandez to a knee injury, have three points and lead Tunisia and Denmark by two after they played out a 0-0 draw on Tuesday.
It was not quite the start France were expecting at the Al Janoub stadium.

Goodwin smacked the ball into the roof of the net from Mathew Leckie’s cross from the right, leaving Lucas Hernandez holding his right knee after being beaten to the ball after nine minutes.

Hernandez’s brother Theo came on as a substitute and France continued to struggle to create space, with only Mbappe threatening on his left flank.
Australia were much more direct, making the most of Les Bleus’s non-existent midfield.

It was, however, Rabiot who levelled in the 27th, leaving his marker behind to head home from Hernandez’s cross.
With Mbappe moving more centrally, the Australian defence had one more problem to deal with and that was clear when the Paris St Germain forward’s back heel inside the area was collected by Rabiot, who slid the ball across for Giroud to tap in.

They played more freely from then on, with Antoine Griezmann’s low shot going just wide and Mbappe skying his attempt over the bar as he raced to meet Griezmann’s cross from the right.

Australia kept France on their toes and came close shortly before halftime when Jackson Irvine’s header grazed Hugo Lloris’s right-hand post after a rebound.

Mbappe caused more chaos early in the second half but could not quite find the breakthrough, until he silenced the Australian fans, who in the first half were shouting ‘Who are you?’ at him, with a glancing header in the 68th minute.

Three minutes later, Giroud headed home from Mbappe’s cross before falling on his back in apparent disbelief and being surrounded by his teammates in a goal celebration that lasted longer than usual, giving an exhilarating feel to France’s win.

It took Giroud, who owed his place in the starting lineup to Benzema’s absence, 115 international appearances to score his 51 goals, while Henry needed 123 from 1997-2010.

There were more chances for France through Hernandez and Ibrahima Konate but the result was satisfying enough, bearing in mind that in 2002 the defence of their title started with a 0-1 loss to Senegal and was followed by a first-round exit.

Didier Deschamps’s France side next face Denmark on Saturday, and Australia will play Tunisia on the same day.

The stalemate left Lionel Messi’s Argentina bottom of Group C after one round of games after they were stunned 2-1 earlier in the day by Saudi Arabia.

US officials had said last year that FIFA, world football’s governing body, would receive $201 million confiscated from corrupt administrators.

Last August saw $32.3 million remitted, and on Thursday the DOJ announced “a further distribution of approximately $92 million in compensation for losses suffered by FIFA, the world organizing body of soccer; CONCACAF, the confederation responsible for soccer governance in North and Central America, among other jurisdictions; CONMEBOL, the confederation responsible for soccer governance in South America; and various constituent national soccer federations.”

The funds “were forfeited to the United States in the Eastern District of New York as part of the government’s long-running investigation and prosecution of corruption in international soccer.”

“It is gratifying to know assets seized from the criminals involved will be distributed to groups in need of the money, one specifically focused on educating and safeguarding football for women and girls,” Assistant Director in Charge Michael J. Driscoll of the FBI’s New York Field Office said.

“The silver lining is that some good will come from the rampant greed uncovered in this investigation.”

Most of the cash comes from US legal actions in the wake of the “FIFAgate” scandal, which erupted in May 2015 with the dramatic arrest of seven world football executives in Zurich and led a few months later to the departure of Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president since 1998.

FIFA has since set up a “World Football Remission Fund” under the supervision of the FIFA foundation to use the money to help finance projects with positive community impact.

The cases prosecuted in the US centered on bribes and racketeering organized by football officials in South and Central America in exchange for the awarding of TV broadcasting rights for competitions, including the Copa America.

They resulted in the sentencing of Paraguayan Juan Angel Napout, a former president of CONMEBOL, to nine years in prison and Brazilian Jose Maria Marin, former head of the Brazilian Football Federation, to four years in prison.

Liton remained unbeaten on 127 (201) with Mushfiq 100 (218) as Bangladesh reached 248-5 after 76 overs. It was consecutive century for Mushfiqur. Earlier, he hit a ton in the first Test of the series at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chattogram.

The pair added 227 in their unbroken stand after Sri Lanka’s pace bowlers Kasun Rajitha and Asitha Fernando shared five wickets between them to reduce Bangladesh to 24-5 in a chaotic first hour of play.

The hosts made a nightmare start to the game as Rajitha bowled opener Mahmudul Hasan for a duck with the second ball of the morning.

Fellow opener Tamim Iqbal, who scored a century in the drawn first Test in Chattogram, also fell for a duck as he sent a leading edge off Fernando in the next over to be caught brilliantly by Jayawickrama at backward point.

Skipper Mominul Haque tried to settle the nerves with two fours, including one off the first ball he faced, but soon edged Fernando to wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella when on nine.

Rajitha then found a big gap between the bat and pad of Najmul Hossain, sending his middle-stump cart-wheeling with an inswinger as the left-hander was dismissed for eight.

Rajitha delivered a body blow next ball to trap Shakib Al Hasan leg-before for a first-ball duck, leaving the Bangladesh batting line-up in tatters at 24-5.

Liton and Mushfiq hit 10 boundaries each so far to lead Bangladesh’s recovery.

Sri Lanka had rewarded Rajitha with a place in the eleven after he impressed in Chittagong by taking 4-60 playing the match as a concussion substitute for Vishwa Fernando.

He was one of their two changes, with Jayawickrama replacing Lasith Embuldeniya.

Bangladesh made two changes from the first Test as Mosaddek Hossain and Ebadot Hossain replaced the injured Nayeem Hasan and Shoriful Islam.

The Tigers are in huge pressure as they have already lost early five key wickets— Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Tamim Iqbal, Mominul Haque, Shakib Al Hasan and Najmul Hossain Shanto.

Score: Bangladesh 78/5 (26 overs)

Earlier, Bangladesh won the toss and decided to bat first against Sri Lanka in the second and final game of the two-match Test series.

The match began at 10:00 am.

Bangladesh (Playing XI): Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Tamim Iqbal, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mominul Haque (c), Mushfiqur Rahim, Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Mosaddek Hossain, Taijul Islam, Khaled Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain

Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Oshada Fernando, Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dinesh Chandimal, Niroshan Dickwella, Ramesh Mendis, Praveen Jayawickrama, Kasun Rajitha, Asitha Fernando

The first match between the two sides in Chattogram ended in a draw after Bangladesh raised a hope of winning the game.

The election commission announced its date along with election schedule after obtaining the list of councilors on Tuesday night.

Twenty three directors will be elected through votes from these 171 councillors while the National Sports Council, the sports regulatory body in Bangladesh, will select the remaining two directors.

It will be the seventh BCB elections as earlier election been held in 1998, 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2013, 2017 while before the 2013 polls BCB president was selected by Bangladesh government.

There is an obligation to hold elections within 45 working days of the expiry of the term, according to the constitution of the BCB.

However, the BCB is interested to hold the election within the scheduled time. The board wants to hand over the responsibility to the new committee before the T20 World Cup. For this, the board sets its plan to complete the election in the first week of October.

The last board meeting of Nazmul Hasan Papon’s current term will be held today, Tuesday (September 21) at the BCB under his leadership. The board meeting will start at 2:00 pm. The election process will formally begin immediately after today’s board meeting.

BCB chief executive officer (CEO) Nizamuddin Chowdhury Sujan said the election commission will sit after the board meeting. A five-member election commission has been formed for holding the election, he said.

It will be a homecoming at Old Trafford for the 36-year-old, who scored 118 goals in 292 games for Manchester United between 2003 and 2009. The financial details of the transfer were not disclosed but British and Italian media reported United signed Ronaldo for 25 million euros.

Manchester United said in a statement: “Manchester United is delighted to confirm that the club has reached agreement with Juventus for the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo, subject to agreement of personal terms, visa and medical. Everyone at the club looks forward to welcoming Cristiano back to Manchester.”

The Portuguese superstar was heavily linked to a move to United’s arch-rivals Manchester City up until Friday morning, but United swooped in to bring back the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.

Ronaldo, who had joined Juventus in 2018, was under contract at Juventus until 2022 but was understood to be open to leaving the Serie A club before the current transfer window finishes. The Portuguese superstar was a surprise omission from the starting line-up in Juve’s Serie A opening game against Udinese and raised eyebrows when he left Wednesday’s training session with an arm injury. He scored 101 times in 134 games across competitions for the Italian club.

Prior to his time at Juventus, Ronaldo enjoyed a trophy-laden spell at La Liga giant Real Madrid, where he won four Champions League titles and two La Liga trophies in nine years.

He died in the Compton Hospice in Wolverhampton at midday on Wednesday, surrounded by his family, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) said.

Known by the nickname Lord Ted for his aloof self-confidence, the ferocious strokemaker captained the Sussex and England cricket teams in the 1960s.

“Ted was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and one of England’s greatest ever cricketers,” the MCC said.

“He was captain in 30 of his 62 Test matches and played the game with the same sense of adventure and fun that captures much of the story of his remarkable life.”

Born in Milan, Italy, where his father was a businessman, Dexter and his family came to England aged about three as the Second World War was about to break out.

He later studied at Cambridge and earned his Blues in cricket, as well as developing a lifelong passion for golf and also enjoying rugby.