The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, officially the worst team in international football, begin their first ever World Cup qualifying campaign Thursday on the balmy shores of the Indian Ocean.
Three years before football’s elite do battle at the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia, Bhutan and their hosts Sri Lanka are among the 12 lowest-ranked teams in the Asian confederation who will kick off the worldwide qualification marathon.
No team from the Indian sub-continent has ever qualified for the finals, a record that seems unlikely to change any time soon despite a growing interest in football in the cricket-mad region.
India and neighbouring Pakistan are joint 171st in the latest Fifa rankings while Sri Lanka are 173rd.
But the dubious honour of propping up the 209-nation league table falls to Bhutan, a remote and mountainous region that has been nicknamed both the “Land of the Thunder Dragon” and the world’s “Last Shangri-La”.
Trying to adapt to conditions in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s palm-fringed coastal capital, will add to the challenges for players more accustomed to a backdrop of snow-tinged peaks.
Thursday’s match kicks off at 3pm (1.30pm UAE) at the Sugathadasa Stadium where temperatures should be around 30-35 Celsius (88-95 Farenheit). While Bhutan’s football federation have begun paying a select group a monthly fee of 10,000 ngultrum (around $160 or Dh590), most players have other jobs or are studying.
One of the few professionals is striker Chencho Gyeltshen who plays for Thai side Buriram United.
Despite their lack of experience, 24-year-old skipper Karma Shedrup Tshering is confident his young team will be able to put up a good show on Thursday against the higher ranked Sri Lankans.
“The world ranking does not matter,” he told AFP in Colombo.
“It is just a number. It is not a reflection of our performance, but the frequency of matches that we have played.”
Coach Chokey Nima said the team, whose players range in age from 16 to 28, spent a week training in Thailand to acclimatise.
“Usually you need about two weeks, but we tried to use the one week we had in Thailand in an efficient way to adapt to conditions here,” he said in Colombo.
Bhutan has been a member of Fifa only since 2000, registering just three victories since entering the international fold.
The last meeting between the two sides was at the 2013 South Asian Football Federation tournament in Nepal, when Sri Lanka won 5-2.
Bhutan also suffered a 3-0 defeat to Afghanistan and were thrashed 8-2 by Maldives during the same tournament.
Former Sri Lanka captain Ashok Nawgalage said the hosts should swat aside the basement boys given the disparity in rankings, and even questioned whether there was any point in the match.
“There is no point in punching someone who is 36 positions below us,” Nawgalage told AFP. “Playing Bhutan is not very useful, even in terms of acquiring experience.”
But if adapting to conditions in Colombo will be a challenge for Bhutan, their hosts will face a similar culture shock when they travel to Bhutan’s capital Thimphu for a return match on March 17.
The match will be at the Changlimithang National Stadium, one of the most picturesque arenas in international football and which also hosts archery tournaments – the kingdom’s national sport.
However, Sri Lanka skipper Chaturanga Sanjeeva said he had no worries about playing in Bhutan and hoped they will be able to win Thursday’s match.
“This is a very important match for us to go forward in the game,” Sanjeeva said. “We are going all out.”
Bhutan was the last country in the world to get television and its debut in the most popular sporting contest is another sign of the end of its traditional isolationism.
Even if Bhutan are one of the first casualties on the Road to Russia, the team are determined to do their country proud.
“I cannot guarantee 100 per cent a win. But we’ll fight till the last minute,” winger Kuenga Gyeltshen told Bhutan’s Kuensel news website.
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Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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Namoos - a word of congratulations reserved for falconry competitions, camel races and camel pageants. It best translates as 'the pride of victory' - and for competitors, it is priceless
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Majahim - chocolate-brown camels that can grow to weigh two tonnes. They were only valued for milk until camel pageantry took off in the 1990s
Millions Street - the thoroughfare where camels are led and where white 4x4s throng throughout the festival
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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.”
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- 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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