The Manchester United fans, for the moment, refused to turn on their manager. The shout went out: “Every single one of us stand behind David Moyes!” Perhaps more in defiance than anything else.
Samuel Eto’o had just given Chelsea the lead; Stamford Bridge erupted, several large Chelsea flags were unfurled. As were, less conspicuously, a few smaller ones; a Lebanese flag, an Omani one, and one from the UAE.
In the United section, another UAE-based United supporter held his head in his hands.
For some fans, the weekly dose of English Premier League football on television, and it is a heavy one, is just not enough.
“I’ve been travelling to games for over 25 years now,” Waiel Al Qaimi, an Abu-Dhabi-based Manchester United fan, said before kick-off. “I’ve seen us win the league, and been to Champions League finals. I’ve also been lucky enough to meet Matt Busby, Alex Ferguson, Paul Scholes and many others.”
These days, the managing partner at Detecon International in Abu Dhabi often plans business trips to coincide with United’s fixtures.
It is a costly pursuit. For this match, Al Qaimi spent £300 (Dh1,800) for his away-end ticket.
As ever, those away fans were the ones making most of the noise at Stamford Bridge. But on the pitch United, despite an encouraging start, were yet again a collection of players who bore little resemblance to the team who delivered Ferguson’s last title, in May.
“I still have faith in Moyes, and I respect the fact he’s put out an attacking team today,” the 44-year-old Canadian-Iraqi added.
The line-up failed to deliver; United lost 3-1.
“This season I sometimes feel the team has shown far less passion than the fans,” Al Qaimi says at full time, visibly angry. “It’s hard to spend all that money and time, come all the way over here and watch such a poor performance.”
The Chelsea fans, from West London, Muscat or Dubai, had a far happier weekend, as did their city rivals Arsenal, who continue to top the Premier League.
A day earlier, at the Emirates Stadium, Arsene Wenger’s side had strolled to a comfortable 2-0 win over Fulham in front of an even more international crowd than the one at Stamford Bridge. Certainly, the club’s hospitality facilities, available to fans from all over the world, would have been unthinkable in the pre-Premier League era.
Arsenal’s dominance, and Fulham’s lack of ambition, ensured a relatively quiet atmosphere, prompting one French journalist to recall the days of the “library”, the name opposition fans bestowed on Arsenal’s old ground, Highbury, in its quieter moments.
Outside the ground, new visitors are reminded of the club’s history: statues of the legendary manager Herbert Chapman, the captain Tony Adams and the French superstar Thierry Henry were unveiled in December 2011 as part of Arsenal’s 125th anniversary celebrations. Mobile phones clicking, the visitors paid their respects.
London’s cosmopolitan clubs are an obvious attraction for visiting fans, but football “tourism” can be seen throughout England. The source of visitors may surprise, too.
Results from a VisitBritain survey revealed that approximately 750,000 visitors to the UK went to a football match during 2010.
Among those, visitors from Norway were most likely to attend a football match: one in every 13 do so. Second were those from the UAE (one in 20), a number including Emiratis as well as other nationalities and expatriates returning home. In terms of volume, numbers from 2011 showed just under 10,000 visitors from the UAE attended a Premier League match while on a visit to the UK that year.
One football ground increasingly likely to see visitors from the UAE is the Etihad, home of Manchester City, the club owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed.
The 2011/12 champions have been running match-day trips from Abu Dhabi for the past three seasons.
In that time, the number of fans who have signed up to Sky Blue – the official UAE fan club run by the club and Etihad Airways – has grown to more than 18,000.
The free-scoring team’s excellent form this season under the new coach Manuel Pellegrini, not to mention their looming Uefa Champions League tie with Barcelona, will ensure those numbers will continue to head north.
For the red half of Manchester, the immediate future is less rosy, but that’s unlikely to affect their attendance. Wherever they live.
“I’ll be back for United’s trip to Crystal Palace next month,” Al Qaimi says. That sort of loyalty is priceless.
Ali Khaled was a guest of VisitBritain while in London
akhaled@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
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On sale: Now
Brief scores:
Manchester City 3
Aguero 1', 44', 61'
Arsenal 1
Koscielny 11'
Man of the match: Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
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What is a robo-adviser?
Robo-advisers use an online sign-up process to gauge an investor’s risk tolerance by feeding information such as their age, income, saving goals and investment history into an algorithm, which then assigns them an investment portfolio, ranging from more conservative to higher risk ones.
These portfolios are made up of exchange traded funds (ETFs) with exposure to indices such as US and global equities, fixed-income products like bonds, though exposure to real estate, commodity ETFs or gold is also possible.
Investing in ETFs allows robo-advisers to offer fees far lower than traditional investments, such as actively managed mutual funds bought through a bank or broker. Investors can buy ETFs directly via a brokerage, but with robo-advisers they benefit from investment portfolios matched to their risk tolerance as well as being user friendly.
Many robo-advisers charge what are called wrap fees, meaning there are no additional fees such as subscription or withdrawal fees, success fees or fees for rebalancing.
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Empty Words
By Mario Levrero
(Coffee House Press)
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The specs
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
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Publisher: Namco Bandai
Price: Dh199
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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