JOHANNESBURG // Tottenham Hotspur striker Emmanuel Adebayor put recent troubles behind him on Sunday to score a dramatic winner for Togo as Matchday 1 of 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying concluded.
The gangling 31-year-old forward struck three minutes from time to earn Togo a come-from-behind 2-1 Group A victory over fellow west Africans Liberia in Lome.
William Jebor had put the Liberia ahead late in the opening half and Sadat Ouro-Akoriko equalised midway through the second half.
Adebayor initially refused to team up with Togo, prompting his axing from the squad by Belgian coach Tom Saintfiet.
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But after watching Togo lose a friendly in Ghana six days ago, the 2008 African Footballer of the Year had a change of heart and once again proved a match-winner for his country.
The greatest Togolese footballer of the modern era told social media last month about a family feud over money that left him severely depressed.
Togo share first place with Tunisia, whose 8-1 drubbing of Djibouti in Rades on Friday was the biggest victory of the 25 qualifiers.
Vincent Aboubakar from Portuguese outfit Porto was another late match-winner, scoring in the final minute as Cameroon defeated Group M outsiders Mauritania 1-0 in Yaounde.
Cameroon dominated throughout, but some strange refereeing decisions and brave defending by the visitors kept the game scoreless.
Four-time African champions Cameroon lead by two points from South Africa and Gambia, who drew 0-0 on Saturday in Durban.
Ghana scored seven goals against hapless Mauritius on a poor Accra playing surface with Jordan Ayew and Asamoah Gyan bagging two goals apiece in a 7-1 Group H romp that was not unexpected.
Tunisia scoring eight goals, Ghana and Cape Verde seven each and Angola and Algeria four each came as no surprise because the opening fixtures included top seeds hosting bottom seeds in each mini-league.
The absence of injured playmaker Andre Ayew was barely felt as Ghana built a 5-1 half-time advantage with goalkeeper Kevin Jean-Louis helpless to prevent most of the goals.
Christian Atsu, voted the Most Valuable Player of the 2015 Cup of Nations in which Ghana finished runners-up behind the Ivory Coast, opened the scoring on 10 minutes.
Leicester City defender Jeffrey Schlupp and David Accam were the other Ghana scorers and Andy Sophie netted for Mauritius when his side were trailing by four goals.
The other match in the group did not go as expected with favoured hosts Mozambique losing 1-0 to Rwanda, whose goal from giant striker Ernest Sugira came just three minutes into the first half.
Record seven-time champions Egypt netted three times within 10 minutes to defeat Tanzania 3-0 in Borg El-Arab west of Alexandria and replace Nigeria as Group G leaders on goal difference.
Ramy Rabiea, Bassem Morsi and Mohamed Salah, the Chelsea striker on loan to Fiorentina, scored for a Pharaohs team desperate to avoid missing a fourth consecutive Cup of Nations finals.
Egypt failed to qualify for the 2012, 2013 and 2015 tournaments and Argentine coach Hector Cuper knows that if he does not stop the rot, unemployment is virtually guaranteed.
Nigeria, who also failed to qualify for the tournament in Equatorial Guinea this year after winning the previous edition, won 2-0 against visiting Chad in Kaduna on Saturday.
Kenya, long-time absentees from the biennial African football showpiece, held 2015 quarter-finalists Congo Brazzaville 1-1 in Owando.
Paul Were scored on 10 minutes for the visitors and Prince Oniangue converted a penalty awarded for handball before half time.
Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Niger and Sudan won narrowly at home and Equatorial Guinea were held by Benin in other matches.
Ivory Coast, who had a bye in three-team Group I, drew 0-0 away to 2017 hosts and automatic qualifiers Gabon in a friendly.
Matchday 2 fixtures are scheduled for the first weekend of September.
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BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
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The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
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Match info
UAE v Bolivia, Friday, 6.25pm, Maktoum bin Rashid Stadium, Dubai
SERIE A FIXTURES
Saturday Spezia v Lazio (6pm), Juventus v Torino (9pm), Inter Milan v Bologna (7.45pm)
Sunday Verona v Cagliari (3.30pm), Parma v Benevento, AS Roma v Sassuolo, Udinese v Atalanta (all 6pm), Crotone v Napoli (9pm), Sampdoria v AC Milan (11.45pm)
Monday Fiorentina v Genoa (11.45pm)
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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.”
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
