Delayed UAE season on hold as pressure mounts on Kuwait to stick with original Gulf Cup dates

The start of the domestic football season in the UAE and neighbouring countries is on hold as uncertainty over the postponement, or not, of the 23rd Gulf Cup of Nations continues.

The eight-nation tournament was first scheduled for this winter in Kuwait, from December 23 to January 5, but last week the host country’s football association, at a meeting of the region’s football chiefs, requested the tournament be postponed by a year as the stadiums would not be ready in time.

The GCC football chiefs accepted the proposal, but the decision has not been well received inside Kuwait and, according to media reports, the under-fire Kuwait football association is in talks with its regional colleagues in a bid to reverse the decision.

Confirmation of the talks have come from a Saudi football association official, who claimed the federation had received a call from Kuwait seeking a reversal of the decision and that “Saudi Arabia will make a decision in this regard soon”.

The bid to seek a reversal of the August 3 decision to postpone the Gulf Cup comes amid mounting pressure on the Kuwaiti football chief Sheikh Talal Al Fahad, with the country’s General Authority for Youth and Sports insisting the stadiums in Kuwait were ready to host the tournament as scheduled.

The UAE’s Pro League Committee had decided to delay the start of the league season by a month following the decision to postpone the Gulf Cup, but that decision might be forced into abeyance until a final decision is made.

The season originally was to start on Saturday with the Super Cup clash between Arabian Gulf League champions Al Ain and the President’s Cup winners Al Nasr, with the league scheduled to kick off five days later.

Follow us on Twitter at NatSportUAE

Sanju

Produced: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma, Manish’s Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani

Rating: 3.5 stars

While you're here

Andrzej Duda: Central Europe aspires to being a centre of civilisation

Damien McElroy: Why a post-Brexit EU will be tougher to deal with

Jamie Prentis: Europeans for self-reliance in shift away from US influence

Jean-Loup Samaan: France's defence strategy prepares for a messier world

More from Neighbourhood Watch:

Wooded greenery and community feel keeps residents loyal to The Gardens

A taste of tradition at RAK's old souq

Mushrif is a small town with big designs

Company profile

Company: Zywa
Started: 2021
Founders: Nuha Hashem and Alok Kumar
Based: UAE
Industry: FinTech
Funding size: $3m
Company valuation: $30m

ROUTE TO TITLE

Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
Round 3: Beat Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2
Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
Quarter-final: Beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2
Semi-final: Beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4
Final: Beat Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2

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.”