Antwerp, Belgium’s second-largest city of 1.2 million, should be able to support a major football club. Europe’s second-largest port with a diverse population, and hub of the world’s diamond trade, Antwerp staged the 1920 Olympic Games and boasts one of the world’s finest rail stations.
For a long time, the city’s main football club, Royal Antwerp, justified their status. Known as “the Great Old” since they were Belgium’s oldest football club after being founded by an English student as Antwerp Cricket Club in 1880 and given an English name, they were four-time Belgian champions between 1929 and 1957. As recently as 1993, they reached the European Cup Winners’ Cup final at Wembley.
But while Anderlecht, Club Brugge, Standard Liege and Mechelen dominated domestically and punched above their weight in Europe, Royal Antwerp had little money and floundered in Flanders. They were even being eclipsed by smaller neighbours Beerschot, who brought through mostly local boys including Mousa Dembele, Toby Alderweireld, Radja Nainggolan, Thomas Vermaelen, Victor Wanyama and Jan Vertonghen.
Antwerp were missing the talent on their own doorstep, yet a link-up with Manchester United, which began in 1998 and lasted until 2013, saw young United players sent to Belgium to gain football experience and general independence.
Jonny Evans, John O’Shea, Luke Chadwick, Fraizer Campbell, Tom Heaton, Danny Simpson, Ryan Shawcross and Darron Gibson were among many young United players who moved to Belgium.
Sir Alex Ferguson was fully invested in the partnership with United sending coaches to help and even coach the side. Antwerp profited from having young talents in their team, as did the United youngsters from experience in the Belgian first division and a different culture.
If United liked a non-EU player, then he could be placed with Antwerp. The partnership was chosen partly because of Belgium’s liberal immigration rules for non-EU workers, yet it ended up being more about United sending players from Manchester.
The players found a decaying Bosuil stadium straight out of the 1950s.
“There lurks an eerie, dusty gloom,” wrote Simon Inglis in 1990’s Football Grounds of Europe. “Those terraces still in use are composed of gravel with concrete footings… while cracked slabs on upper, fenced-off sections reveal gaps showing through to concrete ramparts far below. It adds to a grim nightmare of neglect and shoddy construction – possibly the worst at any senior stadium in Western Europe.”
The hardcore fans, who numbered around 8,000 in a stadium that had regularly hosted Belgium internationals but hadn’t held one since 1988, were extremely loud and passionate. They were also watching second-division football. The United players helped gain one promotion, though the deal worked out better for some rather than others.
“I went on loan to Antwerp, when five of the United lads were there,” said current Salford City manager Neil Wood. “Dong [Fangzhuo] had been there but was leaving and [coach] Warren Joyce asked me to go there and play as a 10 behind Fraizer Campbell. I liked that idea of getting in the pockets and setting him up.
“Someone like him was so fast and sharp that he’d make your balls look great. I went to Belgium and played in a friendly after two days. I was doing well in the first 20 minutes; I looked half decent… when a guy snapped my leg, my cruciate. So that was the end of that. I was out for six months."
Kirk Hilton, who now runs a football school in the UAE, recalled his time there: “I needed to be playing a level above Under-19s and I was asked if I was interested in going to Antwerp,” he said. “I knew that Ronnie Wallwork and Danny Higginbotham had done well there so I was up for moving.
“It was the right choice and I played first-team football in front of good crowds. Games had a competitive edge; it was a good experience living in a different country and I played the best football of my career. I played with Luke Chadwick and we were promoted to the Belgian first division. Antwerp asked me back for a second year and I was up for that, playing against teams like Anderlecht. I always felt looked after there."
Gibson also had a largely positive experience. “To play first-team football was obviously the reason to go over and it was great to be part of the team and play week-in, week-out in competitive action in front of crowds," the former Ireland international said. "The standard of football was quite good, too, and the lads were playing for their wages each week, so it was competitive. We did well, we made it to the play-offs that year, but we didn’t make it up.
“Some of it [life in Belgium] was enjoyable, some of it wasn’t. I didn’t speak the language and we didn’t know people. I went over with Fraizer Campbell and Ryan Shawcross and we would get bored, so we just stuck together and concentrated on playing football.”
Yet between 2005 and 2017, Royal Antwerp were a second division team. When The National went there in 2012, it found that little had changed from a previous visit in 1998. The people at the club were friendly, the fans enthusiastic, but what can a football team do without money? Average crowds were down to 5,000.
It all started to change in 2017. Real estate magnate Paul Gheysens took charge and began investing – €200 million so far – figures other Belgian clubs struggle to compete with. Antwerp ran at a loss, of €28 million in season 2021/22. “The Great Old” finished 8th, 6th, 4th, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 3rd to re-establish themselves as one of Belgium’s main powers and European regulars again for the first time since a 10-2 aggregate defeat to Newcastle United in 1994.
With investment came signings, but it wasn’t just about money. Nainggolan, long in Rome and Milan, joined his hometown club for the 2021/22 season. He left after being suspended for driving with an expired license and smoking an electronic cigarette - on the bench before a game.
Sports director Marc Overmars brought his compatriot Mark van Bommel in as manager in 2022. Alderweireld returned to play for his hometown club and remains club captain. He would win their first title in 66 years, scoring in the 94th minute in an away game at Genk and sprinting to away fans as Antwerp beat both Genk and Brussels-based Union Saint-Gilloise to the title. Antwerp also won the Belgian Cup to make it a double.
Vincent Janssen, another veteran, was a key player up front. Arthur Vermeeran, 18, is already a star midfielder. Goalkeeper Jean Butez kept 20 clean sheets last season. Ecuadorean midfielder Willian Pacho did so well that he earned a €16 million move to Eintracht Frankfurt.
The old stadium has been rebuilt on two sides and expanded with towering stands full of red seats; crowds average 13,862, yet the capacity is restricted. The venue will eventually hold 30,000.
In August, Royal Antwerp qualified for the group stage of the Champions League for the first time having defeated Greek champions AEK Athens home and away. They have been grouped with Barcelona, Porto and Shakhtar Donetsk and begin with a game in Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium on Tuesday.
It’s a long way from even a decade ago. Paul Bistiaux, a lifelong fan and lawyer who saw his first game aged six and became the club’s general secretary between 1992 and 2015, remembers the darker times.
“The first 12 years were OK,” he told The National. “I mean, I went to Wembley to see us in a European final. The last 10 years have been a constant battle for survival with hardly any fun. The miracle to me was that we survived the most difficult period of the club’s history. At some points, we were bottom of the second division. Angry fans in the middle of winter, the lot. I felt all alone. Success has many fathers; I was the one who faced the questions from the media.
"Quite simply, the club didn’t adapt to the way football was evolving like other Belgian clubs did and there was a lot of bad blood. What we were seeing was in no way comparable with what we have today. We’ve gone from football in the Middle Ages to the 21st century. I’m no longer working at Royal Antwerp but it’s still my club and I’m happy for them.”
Bistiaux was responsible for the link-up with United.
“I look back with pride and joy,” he said. “We had great young players and, on a personal level, I became closer to my second club, Manchester United. I always felt so well received at United and Sir Alex Ferguson would come to Antwerp.”
And there’s still a small Manchester United link. Antwerp-born defender Ritchie de Laet, 34, played six games for United around 2010. He’s played in every Royal Antwerp game this season and is set to make his Champions League debut on Tuesday night in Barcelona.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company profile
Company: Eighty6
Date started: October 2021
Founders: Abdul Kader Saadi and Anwar Nusseibeh
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Hospitality
Size: 25 employees
Funding stage: Pre-series A
Investment: $1 million
Investors: Seed funding, angel investors
About Housecall
Date started: July 2020
Founders: Omar and Humaid Alzaabi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech
# of staff: 10
Funding to date: Self-funded
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
UAE central contracts
Full time contracts
Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Usman, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid
Part time contracts
Aryan Lakra, Ansh Tandon, Karthik Meiyappan, Rahul Bhatia, Alishan Sharafu, CP Rizwaan, Basil Hameed, Matiullah, Fahad Nawaz, Sanchit Sharma
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
Company%20profile
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Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
The bio
Favourite vegetable: Broccoli
Favourite food: Seafood
Favourite thing to cook: Duck l'orange
Favourite book: Give and Take by Adam Grant, one of his professors at University of Pennsylvania
Favourite place to travel: Home in Kuwait.
Favourite place in the UAE: Al Qudra lakes
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The Orwell Prize for Political Writing
Twelve books were longlisted for The Orwell Prize for Political Writing. The non-fiction works cover various themes from education, gender bias, and the environment to surveillance and political power. Some of the books that made it to the non-fiction longlist include:
- Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War by Tim Bouverie
- Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy
- Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
- Follow Me, Akhi: The Online World of British Muslims by Hussein Kesvani
- Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS by Azadeh Moaveni
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
AI traffic lights to ease congestion at seven points to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street
The seven points are:
Shakhbout bin Sultan Street
Dhafeer Street
Hadbat Al Ghubainah Street (outbound)
Salama bint Butti Street
Al Dhafra Street
Rabdan Street
Umm Yifina Street exit (inbound)
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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.”
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
What is dialysis?
Dialysis is a way of cleaning your blood when your kidneys fail and can no longer do the job.
It gets rid of your body's wastes, extra salt and water, and helps to control your blood pressure. The main cause of kidney failure is diabetes and hypertension.
There are two kinds of dialysis — haemodialysis and peritoneal.
In haemodialysis, blood is pumped out of your body to an artificial kidney machine that filter your blood and returns it to your body by tubes.
In peritoneal dialysis, the inside lining of your own belly acts as a natural filter. Wastes are taken out by means of a cleansing fluid which is washed in and out of your belly in cycles.
It isn’t an option for everyone but if eligible, can be done at home by the patient or caregiver. This, as opposed to home haemodialysis, is covered by insurance in the UAE.
HOW TO WATCH
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THE SPECS
BMW X7 xDrive 50i
Engine: 4.4-litre V8
Transmission: Eight-speed Steptronic transmission
Power: 462hp
Torque: 650Nm
Price: Dh600,000
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, Group B
Barcelona v Inter Milan
Camp Nou, Barcelona
Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Stamp%20duty%20timeline
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