DUBAI // Qualifying for the 2015 Asian Cup in Australia and the 2018 World Cup in Russia are top of Mahdi Ali's agenda, but the UAE national football team coach says the UAE will not go to the Gulf Cup in Bahrain just for a "walk" but to regain the title they won on home soil in 2007.
The Gulf Cup begins on January 5, with the UAE starting their Group A engagements against Qatar on the opening day. They will meet Bahrain on January 8 before taking on Oman three days later in their final match of the first round.
The champions Kuwait are in Group B with Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the second stage.
Mahdi Ali, who has announced a list of 23 players for a training camp in Qatar, is convinced his team can make the knockout stages from their group and go all the way to the final on January 18. He noted that the Football Association "has set targets for the future, the first of which is to qualify for the 2015 Asian Cup in Australia and then reach the 2018 World Cup," Mahdi Ali told the FA website.
"This does not mean we will be going to Bahrain for a walk because any team taking part in such a tournament is hoping for a win and a good performance. So the Gulf Cup is a station for us to reach our higher goals.
"Of course, it is very difficult to make predictions in the Gulf Cup because every team, with the exception of Yemen, is at the same level. That makes the Gulf Cup such a special event."
The team will assemble after the end of the President's Cup round-of-16 matches and leave on Saturday for Qatar, where they play two friendly matches – against Yemen on December 26 and Tajikistan three days later.
Mahdi Ali would have liked at least one more friendly match, and the man who guided UAE to their first appearance at an Olympic Games earlier this year, is not happy with the time he is getting to prepare the team for the Gulf Cup.
"If we get enough time to prepare, this team is well equipped to perform the way we expect them to," he said. "I wish I had a longer period to prepare the team and play a greater number of friendly matches since many of our players are not involved regularly with their club teams. It takes time to get them in shape, to prepare them. It's a time-consuming process.
"But instead of three friendly matches, we will be playing two as our preparation period has been slashed by five days due to the scheduling of local competitions."
Meanwhile, the UAE rose 13 spots to No 96 in the Fifa world rankings, released today, buoyed by a 2-1 victory last month over the Uefa side Estonia, the senior team's highest position since September 2010, when they were No 90. Thus, the UAE finish 2012 ranked 42 slots above the January place of No 138, worst in UAE history.
Beyond defeating Estonia, who were ranked No 83 when they played the Emiratis, the UAE’s Fifa ranking also was aided by the depreciation of the impact of defeats to South Korea and Kuwait in World Cup qualifiers in November 2011.
The Fifa formula includes all international matches over a period of four years, with the older results having less of an impact than the more recent.
The UAE are now No 10 among Asian Football Confederation nations, one position behind Oman and two ahead of Qatar. Coincidentally, those two nations are in the UAE’s group at the Gulf Cup next month.
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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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Sri Lanka Tharanga (c), Mathews, Dickwella (wk), Gunathilaka, Mendis, Kapugedera, Siriwardana, Pushpakumara, Dananjaya, Sandakan, Perera, Hasaranga, Malinga, Chameera, Fernando.
India Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rohit, Rahul, Pandey, Rahane, Jadhav, Dhoni (wk), Pandya, Axar, Kuldeep, Chahal, Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar, Thakur.
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