The countdown has started to the biggest game in the history of Hoffenheim, and the biggest fixture of the Bundesliga season so far. The league leaders, in their maiden year in the top flight, travel to the most decorated team in German football on Friday. Hoffenheim lead the way by three points from Bayern Munich and a win would guarantee them top spot going into the winter break, regardless of how they fare in their final game of the year.
"It is astonishing that it has come to this, but I am really looking forward to it," the Bayern general manager Uli Hoeness said following his side's 2-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday. "A performance like the second half against Leverkusen will be enough against Hoffenheim." But the coach Jurgen Klinsmann has tried to take tension out of the game by playing down its importance. "It would be nice for us to see things from the top, but if that does not happen, then it's not so bad," he said.
Bayern would need to beat Hoffenheim by more than three goals to move to the summit next weekend. Hoeness, meanwhile, said the striker Lukas Podolski could be on his way out of the club - but not until the end of the season. Podolski has been unable to get regular first-team football this season. And Hoeness said: "If we can find a replacement, we will be able to grant his wish of going to Cologne."
The under-fire Schalke coach Fred Rutten said these are "hard times" for the club after they lost their third Bundesliga game in four by going down 2-0 to Stuttgart. * PA Sport
Gender pay parity on track in the UAE
The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.
"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."
Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.
"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.
As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general.
The specs
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The specs
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Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Power: 575bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: Dh554,000
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Structural weaknesses facing Israel economy
1. Labour productivity is lower than the average of the developed economies, particularly in the non-tradable industries.
2. The low level of basic skills among workers and the high level of inequality between those with various skills.
3. Low employment rates, particularly among Arab women and Ultra-Othodox Jewish men.
4. A lack of basic knowledge required for integration into the labour force, due to the lack of core curriculum studies in schools for Ultra-Othodox Jews.
5. A need to upgrade and expand physical infrastructure, particularly mass transit infrastructure.
6. The poverty rate at more than double the OECD average.
7. Population growth of about 2 per cent per year, compared to 0.6 per cent OECD average posing challenge for fiscal policy and underpinning pressure on education, health care, welfare housing and physical infrastructure, which will increase in the coming years.