Bordeaux midfielder Clement Chantome, right, challenges Reims midfielder Antoine Devaux. Jean Pierre Muller / AFP
Bordeaux midfielder Clement Chantome, right, challenges Reims midfielder Antoine Devaux. Jean Pierre Muller / AFP

Ligue 1 round-up: Bordeaux lose, Lyon draw opening games, Marcelo Bielsa fallout goes on



Bordeaux and Saint-Etienne both suffered Ligue 1 opening day defeats on Sunday as French football was still suffering the shock waves of Marcelo Bielsa’s resignation as Marseille coach.

In the weekend’s final match, last season’s runners-up Lyon were held to a 0-0 draw by Brittany side Lorient at their Stade Gerland.

At the Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Willy Sagnol’s men were 10 minutes from victory before Nicolas De Preville cancelled out Wahbi Khazri’s 41st minute opener and Theoson Jordan Siebatcheu grabbed a dramatic 88th minute winner for Reims.

“It was above all two terrible defensive errors that cost us the points today,” Sagnol said.

“I saw a team who were flat, who didn’t want to get forward and who didn’t have the desire, after the first goal for us which was a bit lucky, to kill off the match,” added the former French international defender.

“It’s sad because it was the first match of the season at home and we start with a defeat but we’re just going to have to work hard this week and get ready for Saint-Etienne with what I hope will be more desire from the players to try to get a result at their stadium which is never easy.”

At Toulouse, Loic Perrin gave Saint-Etienne a 17th minute lead before the home side turned matters around.

Martin Braithwaite levelled the match 10 minutes after Perrin’s opener before star striker Wissam Ben Yedder put away the winner, eight minutes into the second half.

Toulouse finished the match with 10 men when Aleksandar Pesic was shown a straight red card with four minutes left.

In the weekend’s final match, Lyon ran into an inspired goalkeeper in the form of Lorient’s Parisian Benjamin Lecomte who defied Hubert Fournier’s side time and time again.

On another down note for Lyon, star striker Alexandre Lacazette was substituted in the second half with what appeared to be a back problem.

Meanwhile, Bielsa’s shock exit at Marseille after Saturday’s opening 1-0 defeat at home to Caen sparked a bitter war of words between the Argentine and his former employers.

Former European champions Marseille accused the Argentine of trying to hold them hostage over his new contract.

A strongly-worded club statement claimed: “Marseille possess a sufficiently rich history to refuse to surrender to the rule of one man”.

The French giants insisted they wouldn’t be “held prisoner by a man who places his personal interests high above those of the club”.

The attack on the man known as ‘El Loco’ (the mad man) came less than 24 hours after he had delivered what captain Steve Mandanda described as his “hammer blow”.

Bielsa blamed last minute changes to his contract for the decision which left Marseille president Vincent Labrune dumbfounded.

“I am, like all the supporters, dazed by Marcelo Bielsa’s shock decision,” Labrune said in a statement.

“However, we take note of this decision which places the club in a difficult place having started the new season with a home defeat.”

He confirmed that one of Bielsa’s assistants, Franck Passi, would step up as caretaker coach.

Bielsa, who had been in charge since May 2014, wrote in his resignation letter: “I am sad and frustrated.

“I cannot accept the situation of instability at the club.

“We had reached an agreement on a contract extension for 2016-2017, which was missing just a signature.”

Bielsa said he had met Wednesday with the club’s chief executive Philippe Perez and Igor Levin, Louis-Dreyfus’s lawyer.

“They wanted to change the contract,” he said.

“I took this final decision as working together requires a minimum of trust, which we do not have.”

Bielsa, who guided Chile to the last 16 at the 2010 World Cup, was at pains to point out his abrupt exit had nothing to do with money, revealing he had turned down a new deal multiplying his salary threefold.

Champions Paris Saint-Germain opened the Ligue 1 season on Friday with a hard-fought 1-0 win at Lille.

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The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

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The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

FINAL SCORES

Fujairah 130 for 8 in 20 overs

(Sandy Sandeep 29, Hamdan Tahir 26 no, Umair Ali 2-15)

Sharjah 131 for 8 in 19.3 overs

(Kashif Daud 51, Umair Ali 20, Rohan Mustafa 2-17, Sabir Rao 2-26)

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  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
How the UAE gratuity payment is calculated now

Employees leaving an organisation are entitled to an end-of-service gratuity after completing at least one year of service.

The tenure is calculated on the number of days worked and does not include lengthy leave periods, such as a sabbatical. If you have worked for a company between one and five years, you are paid 21 days of pay based on your final basic salary. After five years, however, you are entitled to 30 days of pay. The total lump sum you receive is based on the duration of your employment.

1. For those who have worked between one and five years, on a basic salary of Dh10,000 (calculation based on 30 days):

a. Dh10,000 ÷ 30 = Dh333.33. Your daily wage is Dh333.33

b. Dh333.33 x 21 = Dh7,000. So 21 days salary equates to Dh7,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service. Multiply this figure for every year of service up to five years.

2. For those who have worked more than five years

c. 333.33 x 30 = Dh10,000. So 30 days’ salary is Dh10,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service.

Note: The maximum figure cannot exceed two years total salary figure.

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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
GYAN’S ASIAN OUTPUT

2011-2015: Al Ain – 123 apps, 128 goals

2015-2017: Shanghai SIPG – 20 apps, 7 goals

2016-2017: Al Ahli (loan) – 25 apps, 11 goals

Test

Director: S Sashikanth

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Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE

There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.

It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.

What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.

When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.

It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.

This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.

It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.

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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013 

MATCH INFO

Rugby World Cup (all times UAE)

Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm

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THE SPECS

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THE BIO:

Favourite holiday destination: Thailand. I go every year and I’m obsessed with the fitness camps there.

Favourite book: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It’s an amazing story about barefoot running.

Favourite film: A League of their Own. I used to love watching it in my granny’s house when I was seven.

Personal motto: Believe it and you can achieve it.

The specs

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Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)

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While you're here
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South Africa squad

Faf du Plessis (captain), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Theunis de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen (wicketkeeper), Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada.