Olivier Giroud has pledged that if France win UEFA EURO 2016 he will dye his perfectly manicured beard in the colours of the national flag.

The forward revealed in an interview with French newspaper Le Dauphiné that he has a bet going with Philippe Boixel, an osteopath now at Arsenal who served France for many years. "I have to keep my beard until the EURO so that if we win I can dye it red, white and blue," said Giroud.

Hair dye and wagers are a bit of a theme for football. Apparently straight-laced Latvia coach Aleksandrs Starkovs stunned a nation when he coloured his hair after his team upset all expectations to oust Turkey in the UEFA EURO 2004 play-offs.

Meanwhile, the picture of 11 Romania players lined up for their match against Tunisia all wearing newly-peroxided hair was one of the 1998 FIFA World Cup's defining images.

And Giroud himself has seen it at first hand. He was in the Montpellier side that won Ligue 1 in 2012, a shock triumph of almost Leicester proportions. Club president Louis Nicollin duly honoured his pledge to style his hair into a mohican, then went a step further by dying it in Montpellier colours.