Camp Nou, the biggest football club stadium in the world regularly used by one team, holds 99,354 and with all Covid restrictions dropped, the full capacity was permitted for Barcelona's game against Alaves last Saturday.
Yet almost two thirds of the giant stadium was empty and a crowd of just 37,278 watched Barca struggle to overcome lowly Alaves, shining another spotlight on the club and their problems in a week when they sacked coach Ronald Koeman.
It was their lowest attendance for a weekend game for more than 20 years, and there are multiple reasons why numbers have fallen so much.
Judged by average home gates, the Catalans have been one of the best three supported teams in the world for much of this century, along with Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund. Barca’s average crowd was more than 70,000 for 13 consecutive seasons from 2004 to 2017. As recently as 2018-19, the last full season before Covid, their average home league attendance was 76,051.
The picture looks very different this season, and even the clasico didn’t sell out last week although the 86,000 was more than twice that of Saturday’s disappointing draw against the Basques.
A holiday weekend didn’t help, nor does a poorer team without star attraction Lionel Messi. The loss of the Argentine means there are far fewer football tourists at games.
“Losing Messi combining with Covid is a total disaster,” explained Charles Hamilton who runs a company specialising in hospitality at major clubs around Europe. “The party is over for now, but let’s see what this season brings. We sold out of our entire allocation of PSG tickets within five days of Messi moving there.”
Messi’s departure wasn’t the only factor. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was once a huge pull for Swedes, Ronaldinho for all fans. Barcelona improved their marketing to cater to burgeoning tourist numbers visiting the Mediterranean city in the mid-noughties onwards and rode a wave which didn’t crash.
The club’s stadium tour was the most popular paid for attraction in Catalonia, merchandise sales surged too. If they wanted to see a game, they paid top money for it. Ticket prices for non-season ticket holders rose and rose. Even now, 18 of the 22 price brackets for Barca’s next two home games are priced between €69–€199. A good standard seat along the side of the pitch is €150. It’s expensive, even for a fan who lives in the city and doesn’t have a season ticket – though Barca offered half price tickets for the recent Valencia and Dynamo Kiev games to tempt fans back. It hasn’t worked.
For so long, the season ticket holders provided the bedrock of support. They still do and the atmosphere has been noisy inside the stadium this season, but more than 26,238 season ticket holders took a one-off option to opt out for this campaign, leaving 57,000 who paid.
“I did not renew,” says Marc Rosell Ricart, whose family have held four season tickets since 1952 when the club played at their old Les Corts stadium. It was not because of the standard of football. “The deadline was in July at a time when no fans were allowed into stadiums. There was uncertainty about what would happen next. The club allowed us the option to not renew for one year and I took it.”
Covid uncertainty is clearly a factor – many of those who attend games are older. Demand has dropped off a cliff. For the first game which fans were allowed back in August 29,000, tickets were made available to season ticket holders. Only 15,000 applied and only 20,384 attended the game against current league leaders Real Sociedad. August traditionally sees lower crowds since so many fans are out of the city in the holiday month, but never this low.
Maybe they’ll come back
“The club emailed us last week to offer us the opportunity to buy our season ticket for this year at the full price. I would have paid it for three-quarters of the price since there’s only three-quarters of the season left,” added Marc. “I still might do it. The price for my season ticket is a good one. And we were attending games before the Messi era when crowds of between 45-60,000 were not unusual. But if Xavi comes back as coach, excitement will rise and crowds will return.” Five thousand of the 26,238 who paused their season tickets have bought them again in recent weeks.
It’s a mixed picture across Spain. Atletico Madrid had a crowd of 56,838 on Sunday, Real Sociedad sold out all 40,000 seat for the Basque derby. Real Madrid are still undergoing an extensive redevelopment of their Bernabeu stadium and have a limited capacity. Real Betis have the same number of season tickets now as pre-covid and boast 45,000 crowds. That will please La Liga, who fined clubs for having empty seats on view to TV cameras before Covid since they wanted to promote a better image to the world.
Crowds in Spain have traditionally been lowered because there’s a limited culture of travelling to away games, matches are often rescheduled without the match-going fan in mind and ticket prices for non-season ticket holders can be exorbitant. Barcelona’s €119 price for visiting Manchester United fans in 2019 – for the worst seats in the stadium - is the highest in United’s entire history. The second, third, fourth and fifth highest ticket prices were all for United’s games in Spain, too.
In England, ticket prices at many clubs haven’t increased for a decade while prices for away fans dropped and are pegged at £30 in the Premier League. No wonder then that football attendances in England are enjoying a surge - one which Spain is not capitalising on.
There’s a post covid reaction with people wanting to get out and attend live sports, but gates across different leagues have been rising for three decades. The Premier League is likely to go through an average of 40,000 for the first time ever this season. It’s currently 40,428. If that figure stays it will surpass even those monster averages of the post-World War Two years, while even in non-league many clubs are delighted with their rising crowds.
In Barcelona, the fans were there for the sustained good times from 2004-2019, but how many will stick around and go to the stadium now the going is tough?
Barca salaries without Messi
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
HIJRA
Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
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.”
What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
- Grade 9 = above an A*
- Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
- Grade 7 = grade A
- Grade 6 = just above a grade B
- Grade 5 = between grades B and C
- Grade 4 = grade C
- Grade 3 = between grades D and E
- Grade 2 = between grades E and F
- Grade 1 = between grades F and G
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
match info
Maratha Arabians 138-2
C Lynn 91*, A Lyth 20, B Laughlin 1-15
Team Abu Dhabi 114-3
L Wright 40*, L Malinga 0-13, M McClenaghan 1-17
Maratha Arabians won by 24 runs
PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
German intelligence warnings
- 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
- 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
- 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
Herc's Adventures
Developer: Big Ape Productions
Publisher: LucasArts
Console: PlayStation 1 & 5, Sega Saturn
Rating: 4/5
RoboCop%3A%20Rogue%20City
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Roll%20of%20Honour%2C%20men%E2%80%99s%20domestic%20rugby%20season
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EWest%20Asia%20Premiership%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EChampions%3A%20Dubai%20Tigers%0D%3Cbr%3ERunners%20up%3A%20Bahrain%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EUAE%20Premiership%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EChampions%3A%20Jebel%20Ali%20Dragons%0D%3Cbr%3ERunners%20up%3A%20Dubai%20Hurricanes%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EUAE%20Division%201%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EChampions%3A%20Dubai%20Sharks%0D%3Cbr%3ERunners%20up%3A%20Abu%20Dhabi%20Harlequins%20II%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EUAE%20Division%202%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EChampions%3A%20Dubai%20Tigers%20III%0D%3Cbr%3ERunners%20up%3A%20Dubai%20Sharks%20II%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDubai%20Sevens%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EChampions%3A%20Dubai%20Tigers%0D%3Cbr%3ERunners%20up%3A%20Dubai%20Hurricanes%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What vitamins do we know are beneficial for living in the UAE
Vitamin D: Highly relevant in the UAE due to limited sun exposure; supports bone health, immunity and mood.
Vitamin B12: Important for nerve health and energy production, especially for vegetarians, vegans and individuals with absorption issues.
Iron: Useful only when deficiency or anaemia is confirmed; helps reduce fatigue and support immunity.
Omega-3 (EPA/DHA): Supports heart health and reduces inflammation, especially for those who consume little fish.
'The worst thing you can eat'
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
HIV on the rise in the region
A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.
New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.
Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.
Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.
Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.
Rooney's club record
At Everton Appearances: 77; Goals: 17
At Manchester United Appearances: 559; Goals: 253
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Brief scores:
Day 1
Toss: South Africa, field first
Pakistan (1st innings) 177: Sarfraz 56, Masood 44; Olivier 4-48
South Africa (1st innings) 123-2: Markram 78; Masood 1-4
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
