A brilliant hattrick from Samuel Boateng helped Mohammedan come from behind twice to beat Bangladesh Police 3-2 in a Group B encounter on the opening day of the Federation Cup at the Shaheed Dhirendranath Datta Stadium in Cumilla on Tuesday.

In a repeat encounter of last season’s Challenge Cup fixture, Federation Cup winners Bashundhara Kings thrashed Bangladesh Premier League champions Mohammedan by 4-1 in the curtain-raiser of the new football season at the Shaheed Dhirendranath Dutta Stadium in Cumilla yesterday..

The venue and a few fresh faces are the only changes from last season, when Kings came from behind to beat Mohammedan 3-1 in a match that was halted for 10 minutes after flares were thrown onto the Bashundhara Kings Arena pitch.

The Bangladesh women's squad is mainly made up of U-17 players who recently competed in the SAFF U-17 Women's Championship, while the Chinese team features footballers from two universities, dominated by Yunnan Minzu University.

The squad has been carefully formed, with players drawn from different football academies including BKSP and Shams Ul Huda Academy.

Among the top guns, Portugal moved up to fifth, pushing Brazil down a spot, while Italy re-entered the top ten.

Cash-strapped and facing leadership uncertainty ahead of club elections, Mohammedan's struggle to provide basic facilities exposes a wider truth about the country's top-tier football: big ambitions, fragile structures.

Women's football in the Chattogram Hill Tracts has not been built overnight. It has been shaped by the persistence of people like Suehlamong, who believed in the game's potential to change lives.

A four-goal spree in 12 second-half minutes saw the men in red and green beat Singapore.

Their second FIFA friendly, slated for today in Kathmandu, was cancelled as protests against corruption and a government-imposed social media ban swept Kathmandu.

Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) general secretary Emran Hossain confirmed to The Daily Star that the friendly had indeed been called off.

The Spaniard insisted the current group is already highly competitive but admitted that absentees remain a factor.

The result sets up another meeting between the two teams on September 9 at the same venue, as Bangladesh continue to fine-tune their preparations for October’s Asian Cup Qualifiers against Hong Kong.

From Teknaf to Tetulia, the challenge for Bangladesh will be accurate registration and timely updates.

Star midfielder Hamza Choudhury, who picked up a niggle in Leicester City's recent match, will miss the September 6 and 9 fixtures.

Eleven group winners and the four best runners-up will advance to the 16-team finals in Saudi Arabia in 2026.

The BFF had previously demoted clubs such as Arambagh, Uttar Baridhara and Karwan Bazar Pragati Sangha for similar offences. The question now is whether it will act decisively against Fakirerpool.

The South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) confirmed that the official YouTube channel of Sportzworkz, the tournament’s streaming partner, had been hacked and was unavailable ahead of today’s match.

Both the senior and U-20 teams will begin a joint camp in mid-September under the supervision of head coach Peter Butler, who is expected to arrive in Dhaka around the same time following a much-deserved vacation.

Held under the banner of the government's Festival of Youth, concerns remain over the availability of some district stadiums being used as temporary army camps.