AL AIN // In desperate need of victory, Al Ain came up with the goods to jolt their Asian Champions League into life.
The UAE champions, expected to challenge on the continent too, had stumbled through their opening two Group D fixtures, recording successive defeats to sit rooted to the bottom.
So three points were required Wednesday night against Jeddah’s Al Ahli at a raucous Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, a win-or-bust match against Saudi Arabia’s league leaders.
Read more from John McAuley:
Douglas can score for Al Ain, but Gyan-shaped shadow will lift only by doing so in Asia
Al Nasr redouble Champions League ambitions after ‘three important points’
Al Ain got there in the end, belatedly, thankfully. An all-important triumph was secured with some typical magic from their most prized asset. Captain for the night, Omar Abdulrahman lead by example, as so often he does, expertly curling home a free-kick midway through the second half.
Al Ain’s diamond had mined a precious goal. With it, their Champions League quest finally had its spark.
“My players showed character today, a strong mentality, and gave everything from their side, so congratulations to them,” said Al Ain coach Zlatko Dalic, visibly delighted at the accruement of a much-needed victory. “Hopefully, the bad time is behind us, because we had two or three weeks that were very bad, where we lost three games. But now my team come back, is back in the race.
“Simple: we were the better team again. We deserve the three points.”
Al Ain had been the dominant team for the majority, repeatedly testing Ahli goalkeeper Yasser Al Mosailem from range, but could not find the breakthrough. Felipe Bastos tried his luck from dead balls and in open play, Douglas led the line but struggled to create anything. Mohammed Ahmed has a goal chalked offside, perhaps wrongly.
When Al Mosailem was beaten, the crossbar came to his aid, repelling Abdulrahman’s first-half free-kick that arched over the Ahli wall and thumped back off the woodwork.
Yet the Al Ain playmaker was most likely simply getting a sighter, eventually finding the net on 71 minutes as his effort cannoned against the post, this time flying behind Al Mosailem and nestling in the opposite corner. The stadium erupted, much like their No 10, who set off for the delighted home bench and was soon buried among his teammates.
It was timely, too, since Ahli had begun to exert pressure, themselves striking the crossbar not long before. But then Abdulrahman, affectionately known as ‘Amoory’ around Al Ain and farther afield, stepped up to the plate. Star players tend to do it when needed most.
“Omar always improves our team, Omar always gives something more,” Dalic said. “We have a very good team, with very good players, but Omar is special. You can always expect a good pass from him, a good free-kick. When we need him, he does something.
“Because he’s Omar, he’s ‘Amoory’. Simply the best.”
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
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Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others
Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.
As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.
Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.
“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”
Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.
“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”
Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
German intelligence warnings
- 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
- 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
- 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
SHAITTAN
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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
