Transfers between football clubs have become the subject of increasingly frenzied scrutiny and speculation in recent years.
But they have been around for well over a century and the first player to cost in excess of £100 (Dh488) was the Scottish striker Willie Groves who moved from West Bromwich Albion to Aston Villa in 1893.
At the start of the 20th century the United Kingdom was the only place where clubs were willing to pay significant amounts of money to purchase a player. In 1928 Arsenal smashed the world transfer record, buying the English inside forward David Jack from Bolton Wanderers for a sum slightly in excess of £10,000.
Four years later this fee was eclipsed by the Argentinian team River Plate who paid £23,000 to acquire the Argentinian striker Bernabé Ferreyra from local rivals Tigre. This record would stand for another 17 years, a period during which Europe’s major leagues were interrupted by the Second World War.
After that the transfer record was broken with increasing regularity. The inside forward Johnny Morris became the first player to cost more than Ferreyra when he moved from Manchester United to Derby County for £24,000 in 1949.
This record would be broken again in 1949, 1950 and 1951 with all of these trades involving two English clubs. The following year signalled the start of a distinct power shift in the football world with Napoli paying £52,000 to acquire the Swedish striker Hasse Jeppson from fellow Serie A side Atlanta.
It was the first time an Italian club had broken the world transfer record but it would not be the last. In fact, a new record would be set six times over the course of the next 18 years and on every occasion it was a Serie A side doing the buying.
In 1973 a new record was set when the Spanish side Barcelona paid Ajax £922,000 to acquire a flamboyant Dutch forward by the name of Johan Cruyff, who became something of a superstar after his “wonder turn” against his marker during a Holland versus Sweden group stage game in the 1974 World Cup.
Barcelona broke the world transfer record for a second time in 1982 and no one could question the calibre of the Argentinian midfielder they paid River Plate £3 million for. It was Diego Maradona and two years later he was on the move again, costing Napoli a world record £5m, which would also prove to be money very well spent. That was the start of a 12-year period during which the record would remain in Italy while being broken six times.
Ruud Gullit, Roberto Baggio, Jean-Pierre Papin, Gianluca Vialli and Gianluigi Lentini all wore the mantle of world’s most expensive player with the latter costing AC Milan £30m in 1992.
Over the course of the next nine years new transfer records would be set by Newcastle United, Inter Milan (twice), Real Betis and Lazio. 2000 signalled the start of Real Madrid’s “galactico” era with the club paying world record breaking fees to acquire a superstar player on no fewer than five occasions.
In 1992 the French striker Jean Pierre Papin became the first player to break the £10m mark when he moved from Marseille to AC Milan. The same Italian club were involved in another landmark deal 17 years later when they sold the Brazilian forward Kaka to Real Madrid for £56m.
The deals for Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale, in 2009 and 2013, respectively, were significantly bigger with Real Madrid paying in excess of £80m for each player. The record was smashed again last month when Manchester United purchased Paul Pogba from Juventus for £89m.
No record has stood for longer than the 17 years during which Bernabé Ferreyra remained the most expensive player in the game. The next historic barrier to be broken will be the £100m mark and it would be no surprise if a transfer of this magnitude took place in 2017.
The balance of power in the game has shifted to such an extent that EPL relegated Aston Villa, the side that set a new world transfer record way back in 1893, were sold to a Chinese businessman for £76m in May.
It is unlikely Willie Groves could have imagined a time when it could be cheaper to buy an entire football club than to acquire the services of one star player.
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What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
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The specs
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Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
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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.”
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
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Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
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Install an air filter in your home.
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The biog
First Job: Abu Dhabi Department of Petroleum in 1974
Current role: Chairperson of Al Maskari Holding since 2008
Career high: Regularly cited on Forbes list of 100 most powerful Arab Businesswomen
Achievement: Helped establish Al Maskari Medical Centre in 1969 in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region
Future plan: Will now concentrate on her charitable work
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MATCH INFO
What: Brazil v South Korea
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